Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has noted that the security crisis bedevilling the country is deepening and assuming a dangerous dimension.
In a statement issued by the secretary-general of the forum and made available to newsmen in Kaduna, on Monday, it lamented the rise in records of violence and bloodshed, criminal gangs, armed robbery, secessionist, insurgency and the so-called soldiers of the caliphate.
It noted with shock the recent attack on the Kuje Prison in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, leading to mass escape of hardened criminals, many of whom are Boko Haram insurgents.
The scenario, the statement maintained, “has triggered an unprecedented wave of apprehension and panic among the long-suffering people, particularly of the North.”
The statement asserted that coming around the time the advance convoys of President Muhammadu Buhari heading to Daura and long after the attack on the Abuja-Kaduna train in which many people were killed and a lot more kidnapped, the question on the lips of the public is: “how and where will these crises, which are unprecedented in severity, leave us?”
It lamented that the response of President Buhari to the Kuje Prison tragedy in particular was to offer the familiar cocktail of platitudes, of sermons, condemnations and yet more sermons.
“Although we count ourselves amongst his ardent supporters and have always wished him well, Nigeria’s rapid descent into strife, violence and lawlessness is getting to a point at which we can no longer afford to tell him only that which he wants to hear. We need to tell the president what he also needs to hear,” the statement stressed.
It added, “We demand that President Buhari brace up without further delay and rise to today’s occasion. The regime needs to reprioritise its programmes and free more resources needed to end the pervasive insecurity that is bringing the country to its knees.
“We have a duty to tell the president what he needs to hear, which is that the patience of Nigerians is not limitless.”