The Presidency yesterday formally reacted to last week’s report by London-based The Economist magazine which said the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration wasn’t doing enough to address several challenges confronting the country, especially the rising state of insecurity.
According to a statement from the presidency, the Buhari-led government had been busy addressing the four identified threats to the nation’s stability including terrorist attacks, kidnapping, herders-farmers clashes and activities of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in the South East zone.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, in a statement also emphasised that the resilience and fortitude of patriotic Nigerians would see the country through the current trying times.
“The Economist is also accurate to state that they have come to a head under President Buhari and the All Progressives Congress, (APC) administration. Yet they do so, because for so long, under previous administrations, whether military or democratic, tough decisions have been ducked, and challenges never fully met – with the effect of abetting these dangers and allowing them all to fester and grow.
“Today, all four threats are being fought concurrently and it is only this President’s administration which has finally had the will and determination to confront them.”
The statement further outlined efforts by the Buhari administration to solve the problems that remained unattended to by past military and civilian governments in the country.
The Presidency stressed that the present administration since it came into power in May, 2015, had remained resolute and would do everything possible to ensure that the identified threats become history by the time President Buhari finishes his tenure in May, 2023.
It added: “The Buhari administration has sought to push back terrorism which has been a threat for more than two decades since the first emergence of Boko Haram. It is only the Buhari administration that has now sought to intervene against the kidnapping and banditry that has been a simmering threat for far longer. It is only this President’s government which has taken on IPOB, the violent terrorist group which bombs police stations and offices of security agencies, while also threatening those who break their Monday-sit-ins whilst claiming the mantle of forebears who half a century ago fought a civil war.
“And it is only the Buhari leadership which has sought – ever, in over one hundred years – to identify the root causes of the herder-farmer clashes and find durable solutions.
“The forms may have altered, and the threats posed by each may have waxed and waned, but what has been constant is that administration after administration since independence – whether military or democratic – none sought to fully address these threats to Nigeria as President Buhari’s government does now.
“Today, the military is engaged in almost all the states of Nigeria because the President has insisted upon addressing these decade-after-decade-long issues during his time in office.”