Northern Elders Forum has urged the National Assembly to impeach President Muhammadu Buhari over his failure to tackle the perennial problem of insecurity confronting the country.
NEF spokesman, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, who made the position of Northern elders known on the matter, spoke on AIT’s ‘Kakaaki’ programme on Monday.
According to Baba-Ahmed, Nigerians cannot wait for two more years for Buhari to adequately address the problem of insecurity facing the country.
He challenged the National Assembly charged with the constitutional responsibility to remove Buhari to realise that Nigeria is in a dire state, and act immediately rather than just talking and making promises.
Baba-Ahmed said, “One option we have is that the legislators will look at the record of the administration, understand the areas where the President has failed, understand areas where there is clearly no evidence that they’re going to do anything about it and refer to the constitution that says the whole purpose of government is to secure citizens and pursue their welfare.
“If he (Buhari) fails to do that, for me, those are impeachable offences. In the last six months, two years, what has the President done different to secure the country? Absolutely nothing has been done and yet you see increasing failure of the state to protect citizens.”
The NEF spokesman said another option was for Nigerians to come together and take the decision on what becomes of President Buhari.
He said, “The third option is that those leaders who are failing will recognise the fact that they are the problem, and they will resign because they clearly have nothing to offer in terms of leadership.
“Or, as our democratic system provides, those with the responsibility to get them off, should impeach those who are failing. If the President can’t deliver, he should be impeached.
“We don’t have a National Assembly that appears to have the levels of patriotism and concern beyond partisan politics to realise that when this roof falls, it also falls on their heads.
“Partisanship is so pronounced that the people we elected and sent to Abuja think they serve the President rather than the Nigerian people.”
Baba-Ahmed also urged Buhari to urgently order the arrest of prominent persons allegedly sponsoring insecurity in the country.
According to him, “I wish he would arrest just two, three of these enemies of the state and deal with them. We are tired of hearing the president and his spokespeople saying there are enemies of the state. Enemies of the state is defined clearly under law.
“If there are people who are causing this insecurity, the government has evidence that they’re doing so, then in the name of God, let the President arrest these people, bring them up, show Nigerians what they’re doing, and then show evidence that the government is actually dealing with insecurity.”