"Jonathan should vacate and give way to competent hand to govern the country" - Buhari

Former Head of State General
Muhammadu Buhari has
advised President Goodluck
Jonathan to resign from office
for his inability to tackle the
security challenges facing the
country.

"Jonathan should vacate and
give way to competent hand to
govern the country", he said.

Speaking to newsmen in his
residence in Daura town
yesterday, General Buhari said
the issue of security is a
fundamental duty of any
responsible government, but
Jonathan failed to protect the
lives and the properties of
Nigerians since he assumed
power.

"When the Niger Delta militants
started their activities in the
South-South, they were invited
by the late President Umaru
Yar'adua.

An aircraft was sent to them
and their leaders met with the
late President in Aso Rock and
discussed issues. They were
given money and a training
scheme was introduced for
their members. But when the
Boko Haram emerged in the
north members of the sect
were killed," General Buhari
lamented.

"And when the police failed to
address the insurgency,
soldiers were invited and they
captured the Boko Haram
leader, Muhammad Yusuf alive
and handed him over to police.
But Yusuf was eventually killed,
his in-law too was killed and
their houses were demolished",
he said.

He said the murder of the Boko
Haram leader however
provoked his followers and that
was what led the country to its
present situation. He suggested
that government should adopt
a new approach that will end
the insurgency without
affecting the lives and
properties of innocent people.

"In Bama and Baga towns,
military personnel were
reported to have been engaged
in extortion and sometimes
molesting of women. And
because a soldier was killed in
Baga the whole town was
sacked by military. This is not
the best way military should
have acted when they were
sent to restore law and order in
a town. How can a responsible
government allow its people to
be killed in this way," he asked.

He warned that the police, SSS,
army, navy and Air force should
know how to conduct
themselves and act
professionally.

"The soldiers are not expected
to go and sack a town because
one of them is killed. They are
expected to capture the culprits
for prosecution. After all the
soldiers are not meant to tackle
internal crisis but when it is
necessary they should act
professionally.

"Whoever is sent to protect
people should also protect their
integrity. When the former
England's Prime Minister,
Margret Thatcher decided to
hold its political meeting in
Brighton the security advised
her to cancel the meeting
because of the IRN rebellions,
but she insisted and held the
meeting. The hotel she was
accommodated was bombed and some of her political
associates were killed but
soldiers did not condone the
area and kill everybody there,
rather they conducted
themselves professionally,"
Buhari said.

General Buhari, who
condemned the imposition of
state of emergency in Borno,
Yobe and Adamawa states, said
state of emergency was not the
best way to address insurgency
in the three affected states and
the country in general.

"Government cannot kill all the
Boko Haram members.
Government should rather
arrest and prosecute the Boko
Haram members. They should
only be killed when they said clearly they wage war against
their country like what
happened during the civil war.
And even during civil war we
that fought in the war were
given a copy of code of conduct
book which guided us against
killing innocent people", he said