By Dayo Omoogun
The main opposition party, People’s Democratic Party, has slammed the Buhari Presidency over the United States rescue mission which occurred
within Nigerian territory over the weekend saying it was reflective of the government’s incompetence.
In its statement signed by Kola Ologbondiyan, the party stated among others:
“The party describes the situation where the United State had to come on our soil to pull a rescue, as an international embarrassment and shows how low the Buhari Presidency had fallen in its failure to guarantee the safety of lives and property in our country.
“Moreover, the fact that under President Muhammadu Buhari, bandits and abductors from neighbouring countries now freely cross into our nation to use our soil as detention camps further show 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.
“Our party recalls that earlier in April, Nigeria was equally 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 the northern part of Borno state, while our leaders recede into the safety and comfort of Aso Presidential Villa.
“The fact that other countries with competent and determined leadership have successfully dislodged and vanquished bandits on our soil highlight the incompetence, lack of honesty and want of will power on the part of the Buhari administration to effectively secure our nation.
“The PDP added that 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 a 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.
In a swift response issued by its Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena, the ruling party, All Progressives Congress, was alarmed that PDP, “chooses to play politics with our national security in its tired, baseless and dull attacks of the President Muhammadu Buhari government.
“The PDP should explain to Nigerians how its immediate-past administration handled the 2014 abduction of 276 Chibok schoolgirls. To refresh the PDP’s memory, former British prime minister, David Cameron in his book, For the Record, said the Goodluck Jonathan PDP government was “sleeping on the wheel” when the schoolgirls were abducted.
“It is on record that that PDP government did nothing for two weeks after the Chibok schoolgirls’ abductions dismissing it as a grand political conspiracy while the schoolgirls were continually held and their families suffered in anguish.
“While the PDP still refuses to take responsibility for the tragedy up till now, the same PDP government rejected the British offer to help in the rescue of the Chibok schoolgirls.
“Combating terrorism and other emerging cross border crimes require international collaborations and assistance when necessary.
“As Commander-in-Chief of Nigeria’s Armed Forces, President Buhari swore a constitutional oath to protect lives and property of citizens. The president has consistently demonstrated that resolve throughout his administration. President Buhari’s reactions and actions after the similar and unfortunate Dapchi schoolgirls kidnapping is a pointer to how a responsive government should act.”
An American was reportedly kidnapped by bandits in neighbouring Niger republic and brought in to Nigeria over the weekend and as soon as the American Government got wind of it, it swung into action deploying its Navy Seals to secure his release.
The rescue was highly successful and hailed by President Donald Trump.
As the news broke, many Nigerians were concerned that Nigerian sovereignty had been violated but it was later discovered that the Nigerian authorities we’re privy to the mission and actually partnered with the United States government to execute it.