TheCable

Banji Akintoye, the leader of Ilana Omo Oodua, says António Gutteres, the secretary-general of the United Nations (UN), needs to visit more Nigerian communities to get the true picture of the country’s security challenges.

Gutteres, who visited Borno state on Tuesday, met with President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja on Wednesday.

Speaking on his meeting with Guterres, Buhari had said his administration is making efforts to address insecurity.

But in a statement issued by Maxwell Adeleye, his spokesman, Akintoye said the UN secretary-general should get first-hand accounts from Nigerians across geopolitical zones on security challenges.

“Gutteres should make his fact-finding visit to Nigeria meaningful, impactful and worth the while by seeing facts on the ground and not fiction that the Buhari administration has packaged for the August visitor,” he said.

“The visitor is being shielded from the truth and from the reality on the ground.

“We cannot continue to be treated as slaves, as conquered people and as second-class citizens in our own country.

“Your excellency, permit me to say that the UN should act while there is still time for a peaceful resolution of the Nigerian quagmire.

“Visit the middle belt, visit the south-west; talk to Chief Olu Falae, a one-time secretary of the federal government, and listen to his harrowing multiple experiences.”