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Atiku Abubakar.

The Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar has criticised the unserious posture of President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the troubling issue of insecurity in the country, with an admonition that the president and his party should take responsibility for insecurity in Nigeria.

Atiku’s admonition came in a statement signed by his Media Adviser, Mr. Paul Ibe in which he deplored the resort to fictitious report by a non-existent non-governmental organisation to cause further division and promote instability in Nigeria.

Pointing out that the contrived report is the deepest low that the Buhari administration has sunk, Atiku said: “Anyone versed enough in the protocol of international NGOs will discern without much ado that the particular report by a faceless, insipid organization known as ‘Centre for Diplomacy and Democracy’ was contrived with express mobilization from officials of the Buhari administration in a shameless and disingenuous attempt to find a jejune explanation for the rising rate of insecurity in Nigeria.

“Our investigations have revealed that there is no such report as being touted and no such body called ‘Centre for Diplomacy and Democracy’. Americans will never write ‘Centre’. They will write ‘Center’ in conformity to the American English usage.”

 

Full text of the Atiku Press Release reads:

PRESS RELEASE

 

Buhari, APC should take responsibility for insecurity in Nigeria

 

Abuja, Nigeria, 07 May 2019: The contrived report by a fictitious non-governmental organization in the United States is the deepest low that Muhammadu Buhari administration has gone in causing further division and promoting instability in Nigeria.

Anyone versed enough in the protocol of international NGOs will discern without much ado that the particular report by a faceless, insipid organization known as ‘Centre for Diplomacy and Democracy’ was contrived with express mobilization from officials of the Buhari administration in a shameless and disingenuous attempt to find a jejune explanation for the rising rate of insecurity in Nigeria.

Our investigations has revealed that there is no such report as being touted and no such body called ‘Centre for Diplomacy and Democracy’. Americans will never write ‘Centre’. They will write ‘Center’ in conformity to the American English usage.

It is so distasteful that the Buhari administration, rather than have a self-introspection and admit to the world that its policies and actions are responsible for the divisions in the country, with manifestation of all manner of crimes such as banditry, kidnapping and wanton killings across the land, chooses to employ the service of a faceless NGO to blame the opposition for its own ineptitude.

We must remind President Buhari that the buck stops on his table and his infantile style of looking for whom to blame for his failures will not obliterate his abysmal record of performance in the past four years.

The Buhari administration and the ruling APC are renowned for propaganda stunt and double-speak. Sadly, it does not matter to them the disturbing number of criminalities happening on daily basis in Nigeria. In their warped thinking, the performance rate of security chiefs during times like this is determined on how much weight the Inspector General of Police has lost. The question to ask is: how would the APC have reproved a president who makes such careless remarks on national security at a time when insecurity in the country has assumed epidemic proportions?

President Buhari and the APC have shown without equivocation that the job at hand is overwhelming for them. And because they lack the basic clue of how to tame the bogey that they have created, they now scamper around like school kids who have caused an upset in a highly sensitive science laboratory.

Nigerians don’t pray for a president who passes the buck. All they want is a president who can hold the bull at the horn and get the job done. After all, President Buhari took an oath to defend lives and property of the citizens, which is the primary responsibility of every government.

Signed:

Paul Ibe

Media Adviser to Atiku Abubakar

Vice President of Nigeria, 1999-2007