TheCable

Muhammadu Buhari, a former head of state and presidential aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says Nigeria’s state of insecurity and bankruptcy is down to years of indiscipline and corruption by successive federal governments.

Speaking at a rally organised by his party in Abuja on Wednesday, Buhari blamed the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for being “corrupt, inefficient and undisciplined”.

“Our concern is the lack of performance of the federal government since 1999,” he said.

“This country has become insecure; this country is getting bankrupt and this is mainly because of corruption and incompetence. The APC is out to ensure that we stabilise the system of multi-party democracy by voting out the PDP in 2015.”

On his part, Rotimi Amaechi, governor of Rivers state and chairman of the occasion, lamented that the country was no longer running a democracy but a diarchy.

He alleged that the president was using the military to witch-hunt “citizens not the same wavelength with him”, and accused him of disobeying the directive of the court on restoration of Aminu Tambuwal’s security aides withdrawn after his defection to APC.

Also speaking, John Oyegun, national chairman of APC, accused PDP of exploiting the insurgency in the north-east for political gains.

Wondering why states under the control of the party were the worst-hit by the insurgency, he issued a warning to the government to restore normalcy to the troubled regions.

“We converge here to call the attention of the people of this country to the grave dangers through which our nation is being dragged by the PDP and President Jonathan,” he said.

“It is now clear even to the blind that the PDP government of Jonathan is exploiting lives and shedding the blood of our people in the entire north east, for purely political reasons.

“If that is not so, let somebody explain to me why Boko Haram can be allowed into Mubi without a shot being fired. Every house in that community is intact. When the insurgents got in, the security personnel were not there. We are not stupid.

“Our soldiers have proven themselves as military men of excellence all over the world. They have restored statehood to Sierra Leone and even shed their blood to save Liberia. So how come that in their own very nation, they are unable to fight a rag-tag army of insurgents?”

He added that it would have been quite different if it was guerilla warfare, but the military is in a better position to handle the battle since the insurgents move in an organised manner.

“They invade and capture, so how come our own armed forces that we are very proud of cannot deal with these insurgents? Is there any Nigerian who thinks that our armed forces have deteriorated to that extent?

“The Nigerian government has virtually become the armourers of the insurgents. Something peculiar is happening in the north-east of this country. Borno, Yobe and  Adamawa are massively controlled by the APC. How come they allowed the insurgents to take over these states? The answer is clearly known. This is pure politics.”