Buhari Not Interested In Tackling Nigeria Security Challenges – Bandits

A group of bandits says President Muhammadu Buhari has not shown that addressing the myriad of security woes that betide the country is a priority to him.

Nigeria, especially the north, has become an enclave of criminality and lawlessness with bandits wreaking havoc as they launch series of attacks and kidnappings.

Ahmad Gumi, a prominent Islamic cleric, had met with some of the bandits in the forests of Zamfara, appealing for peace.

But in an interview with Daily Trust, a masked bandit said Buhari should come out to personally and engage them in peace talk if he’s serious about riding the country of insecurity.

The bandits averred that there was nothing stopping Buhari from meeting with them if he could travel around the country when he was campaigning.

He said an agreement was earlier reached with his group, but they were soon abandoned in the forest.

“An agreement was reached, but you left that person in the forest with a gun and nothing to substitute. What do you expect? How do you want that person to survive? All the promises made to us none of it was fulfilled,” he said.

“The president should personally come and preside over the talks. When he was campaigning, he travelled all over, why would he not do it now? He does not take these peace talks seriously and everyday people are being killed.

“There is no day that someone is not killed between Zamfara, Niger, Kaduna, Sokoto and Katsina. There is no tribe that is spared, gunmen kill, soldiers kill, vigilantes kill. Whoever you see with a gun today in Nigeria, he uses it to kill people. You may not know but if I were to tell you the situation of things in this country, you will cry. Even the president will cry.

“We supported this administration and accepted dialogue because we thought Buhari will fix this country, but he won’t fix this country. From the time he praised Goodluck, Obasanjo, and Yar’Adua, these were not praiseworthy. It would have been better if he had praised Abacha, because, under Abacha, pastoralists were being educated.

“During Abacha, there was allocation in the budget for the nomadic communities. There was no such thing again since Obasanjo became president. They stopped looking after the Fulanis. Their forests and grazing areas were taken over.”

He said they took up arms because they, as herders, were not carried along by the government.

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