Afenifere Tables Fresh Request  Before President Buhari

Afenifere,  a pan-Yoruba socio-po­litical organisation, has urged President Mu­hammadu Buhari to tackle the lapses in the security architecture of Nigeria like he did in the All Pro­gressives Congress (APC), his political party, last week.

Naija News reports that the call by Afenifere which came on Monday follows the decision of the APC National Executive Com­mittee (NEC) on the recommenda­tions to dissolve the APC National Working Commit­tee (NWC).

The APC NEC also replaced the APC NWC replaced it with a caretaker committee headed by Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State.

Afenifere while lamenting the state of rising insecurity, partic­ularly the killings, escalat­ing cases of kidnapping, banditry and acts of terror­ism by Boko Haram insur­gents, spokesman, Yinka Oduma­kin, said Nigeria might go under if drastic action was not taken by the president to stem the current tide of criminality.

While lamenting the con­tinued stay of the service chiefs, Afenifere questioned the President’s continued decision to allow them in office even when he had admitted that their performance in the last five years has been less than satisfactory.

“It is clear that we have lost the war against Boko Haram insurgents even though the Federal Govern­ment has made so much pro­paganda about their exploits against Boko Haram. On a daily basis, it is becoming clearer that Boko Haram is on top of us.

“We need to get back to the drawing board, to de­vise strategies to contain these criminals; otherwise, Nigeria may go under with these insurgents,” the group said.

On the reprimand of the service chiefs by the presi­dent, the pan-Yoruba socio-po­litical organisation urged the president to go beyond scold­ing the security chiefs and relieve them of their duties.

Afenifere said if President Buhari be­lieved the best of the service chiefs was not good enough, as he told them, he should sack them immediately instead of leaving them at their posts without any visi­ble results.

“That was a totally unex­pected decision. For those who have failed us in the last five years, who are not able to contain insurgency – and the only thing the pres­ident could do was to warn them that he was not satis­fied with their performance without kicking them out of office, appointing fresh hands, and boosting morale in the armed forces is unac­ceptable.

“There are young officers who have been demoralised because these service chiefs should have gone long ago and other people would have risen in their place.

“By leaving them when they are not performing, you are killing morale.

“Within your political party, how many months has the crisis taken, yet you dissolved the NWC, put a caretaker committee. Why can’t you rejig the security architecture like that?”