…plans mass action for May 26 in remembrance of victims
A group of 125 non-governmental organisations, Joint Action Civil Society Coalition, has revealed that over 2000 Nigerians were killed in the first quarter of 2021 due to the worsening insecurity across the country.
It, therefore, lambasted the President Muhammadu Buhari administration for failing to tackle the disturbing security challenges confronting the nation.
The coalition made its position known in a joint statement titled, “State of the Nation: A Call to President Muhammadu Buhari to stop the bleeding and take action to end the carnage,” in Abuja on Sunday.
The CSOs which signed the joint statement included the Civil Society Coalition on Sustainable Development, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, Community Women’s Rights Foundation and Yiaga Africa.
Others were Gender Development Initiative, Nigerian Feminists Forum, Women Youths and Children Advancement Programme and the Foundation for Environmental Rights, Advocacy & Development, among several others.
The coalition urged Nigerians to register their displeasure with the state of affairs across the country by participating in a series of mass actions scheduled to begin from May 26, 2021.
It also enjoined Nigerians to participate in solemn assemblies across the country to commemorate the 4th National Day of mourning and remembrance of victims of mass atrocities on May 28, 2021.
The coalition also asked all citizens to boycott all Democracy Day activities on May 29, 2021, to protest the sorry state of the nation’s democracy.
The statement partly read, “Following its sharp increase of 43 per cent in mass atrocities in 2020, Nigeria has continued to experience a decline in security across the nation.
“In the first quarter of 2021(January to March), we recorded an all-time quarterly high of almost 2000 fatalities from mass atrocities incidents across the country.
“This week, across the six geopolitical zones, there were escalated combustions of violence resulting in even more deaths.”
The CSOs recalled that they highlighted the various forms of insecurities claiming lives across the country in their last joint statement in February this year.
They listed some of them to include the unending war in the North-East, and attacks on peaceful protesters by security agents while terrorists carry out mass murder, rape, maiming and kidnapping of Nigerians, including women and children.
The coalition expressed concern over the ‘amnesty’ being granted to terrorists and the stipends being paid them by the government.
“This is tantamount to funding and supporting terrorists, encouraging murder and the decimation of Nigeria’s gallant troops and amounts to treason against the Nigerian State and people,” the coalition stated.
The statement also cited cases of killer herdsmen’s attacks on unarmed farming communities and reprisal attacks in the face of government inaction and failure to bring the terrorist herders and their sponsors to justice, as causes of loss of innocent lives.
The coalition also cited, “Large scale terrorist attacks in the North-West irresponsibly tagged by the government as ‘banditry’ in a bid to downplay their criminality.
“Industrial-scale kidnappings all across the country, extrajudicial killings by State Security agents in various forms, inter-ethnic violence; and menace of political cult gangs and ethnic militia,” among others.
The CSOs noted that in their February statement, “We had also demanded that where the President fails to fulfil his constitutional duties as stated above, that he steps aside, or, that the National Assembly initiates impeachment proceedings against him on grounds of gross misconduct as provided for in Section 143 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
They added, “We are appalled to note that despite our strongly-worded statement, President Buhari’s government has failed to heed our call to fulfil his role as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces and Nigeria’s democratically elected President.
“We are therefore left with no other option than to take action to drive home our call to the government.
“We are therefore calling on all Nigerians to register their displeasure with the state of affairs across the country by participating in a series of mass actions from Monday the 26th of May 2021.
“Nigerians should participate in solemn assemblies across the country to commemorate the 4th National Day of Mourning and Remembrance of Victims of Mass Atrocities on May 28th 2021 and boycott all Democracy Day activities on May 29, 2021, in protest of the deplorable state of our democracy.
“We again call on Muhammadu Buhari-led national government and the state governments to rise up to their constitutional duties as enshrined in S14(2)(b), to ensure the security and welfare of all Nigerians, and pull the nation back from the path of destruction.”