Human Rights Campaigner Blast Buhari over Security Issues

Professor Chidi Odinkalu, a human rights campaigner, has criticized President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration for the way it is addressing the nation’s security issues.

Former National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Chairman Odinkalu lamented the degree of insecurity in the nation, particularly the recent resurgence of terrorist acts.

He also criticized the President for traveling to Liberia after the Presidential Guards Brigade troops there were attacked.

“The tragedy of our current crisis is that President Buhari is neither present nor capable of providing leadership,” the lawyer said on Wednesday when he appeared as a guest on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily. “Even worse, he does not care, in my respectful view.

“You cannot have, with all profound respect, personnel of the Presidential Guards Brigade being killed in Abuja and the President (travelling) to Liberia to deliver a lecture on security, are you serious?”

According to Channels Television, on Monday night, armed assailants who were thought to be terrorists attacked members of the 7 Guards Brigade, which guards the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and the Presidential Villa.

Captain Godfrey Abakpa, the Guards Brigade’s spokesperson, claimed that the attack had been effectively repelled by the forces, however there were reports of some soldiers being killed.

Even while Odinkalu accepts the President’s many important functions, he thinks that with better coordination, the nation will be more safe.

“The job of the President is a lot of things in one job; the President is a party leader, the President is a head of government, the President – in the current administration – is also petroleum minister, the President is a diplomat as well, the President is also a Commander-in-Chief,” he said.

The president was encouraged by the former head of the NHRC to delegate some of the positions, including those of party leader and diplomat.

However, he emphasized that a commander-in-position chief’s should never be transferred, under any circumstances.

“There is only one element in the job of the President that can never be delegated as long as the President is terrestrial, that is a Commander-in-Chief,” said Odinkalu.

“If the President is in the hospital and under life support, he cannot delegate the job of the Commander-in-Chief, and when the Commander-in-Chief is as lazy and uncaring as the one that Nigeria has, the country is exactly where it deserves to be.”