Former Vice-President during President Olusegun Obasanjo’s
regime, Atiku Abubakar as called for support from the international community
to help fight Boko Haram.
The APC presidential hopeful made this call after events of
the last few days, which saw the insurgents kill hundreds of people of people
in Mubi, a town in Adamawa State.
While addressing an international press conference on Monday
over the capture of Mubi, Atiku said:
“That is the degree to which we have become as a country. I
say this with reluctance and with shame. The situation in which we find
ourselves today is grave,”
He lamented the fact that the Nigerian troops have not been
able to do anything about what is happening in the North at the moment.
“For whatever reason, our defence forces are unable to cope
and unable to defend. My sympathies go out to the soldiers who find themselves
in a situation that is not of their making. This is a crisis of leadership”
“We were told that the budget for security was going to be
enlarged so that the security agencies and military would be in a better
position to tackle the insurgency.
“How is it possible that a great nation like Nigeria should
find itself in a situation where a handful of terrorists are able to invade a
town as large as Mubi with a population of about 300,000?
“How were the insurgents able to so easily take a town of
this size, and the people find themselves defenceless and undefended? How is it
that the people have been made to suffer as they have?” Atiku queried.
“Many of our citizens are unable to come to terms with why a
so-called “Africa’s best army” has been unable to confront this horrendous
situation and are increasingly assuming that this whole thing is about
electoral politics.
“They suspect that the seeming inability of the government
to end the crisis is a ploy to weaken some parts of the country ahead of the
2015 elections. Can we, in all honesty, blame them for having those suspicions?
He therefore called for help from the international
community to deal with the situation:
“At a time when we are constantly bombarded with horror
stories of ugly events elsewhere in the world – here in West Africa, we are
faced with the Ebola epidemic and other trouble spots – I draw your attention
to a humanitarian crisis which is also a matter of international security.”
“This Boko Haram insurgency has been with us now for several
years but has, in these last few days, taken a step further towards being a
disaster of unimaginable proportions.
“Hundreds of thousands of people are at risk. Nigeria needs
the world’s support.
“The world must not abandon Nigerians in our time of need,”
Atiku said while calling on the international community to come to the aid of
Nigeria.”
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