Opposition People’s Democratic Party on Sunday declared that the rescue operation by the United States forces that freed an American citizen hostage by bandits on Nigerian soil has further confirmed the competence of the Buhari administration.
PDP spoke through a statement on Sunday signed by its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, and said the Buhari Presidency can neither secure Nigeria’s territorial integrity nor arrest the wave of insecurity ravaging the country under its “inept watch”.
The party said that a situation where America had to come and rescue its citizen on Nigerian as an international embarrassment.
Such situation also showed how low the Buhari Presidency had fallen in its failure to guarantee the safety of lives and property in the country.
“Moreover, the fact that under President Muhammadu Buhari, bandits and abductors from neighboring countries now freely cross into our nation to use our soil as detention camps further shows the failure of his administration to secure our national borders and territorial integrity.
“It also shows that contrary to claims by the Buhari administration, parts of our country are still under the control of bandits and insurgents.
“It is indeed grossly disconcerting that under our Commander-in-Chief, a General who had consistently promised to lead from the front, it took a foreign country to come on our soil to rescue their citizen, while hordes of our citizens are reportedly being held, tortured and killed in various kidnappers’ and insurgents’ dens in various parts of our nation”.
American Forces on Saturday rescued an American citizen captured in Niger Republic a few days earlier and held hostage in Nigeria by his abductors.
PDP also noted that in April this year, Nigeria was similarly embarrassed by reports of how the Chadian President Idris Deby, personally led his troops to rout out insurgents and freed Nigerian territories and soldiers held captive by terrorists in northern part of Borno while Nigerian leaders continue to recede into the safety and comfort of Aso Presidential Villa.
The main opposition party further noted for other countries with competent and determined leadership to have successfully dislodged and vanquished bandits on Nigerian soil highlighted the incompetence, lack of honesty and want of will power on the part of the Buhari administration to effectively secure the nation.
“The exploits of these countries on our soil only go to show that the bandits, vandals, kidnappers, insurgents are not invincible but have been allowed to take hold of our nation due to the failures of the Buhari administration.
“Such failures had dragged our nation down to rank as the third country with the highest level of terrorism, after Iran and Afghanistan, according to 2019 Global Terrorism Index rating by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP).
“Our party believes that the latest experience will compel President Buhari to accede to widespread demand by Nigerians to rejig his security architecture as well as replace his Service Chiefs with more competent hands to effectively tackle insecurity challenge facing our country.
“Nevertheless, our party commends and immensely values the courage and sacrifices of our gallant troops who are daily risking their lives in the front to safeguard our nation against the insurgents despite the challenges they face,” the party added.
The PDP charged Nigerians to remain vigilant and continue to pray for the nation at this trying time.
