From top left, Kukah, Atiku, Bakare and Danjuma

As the killing fields get wider by the day, Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah, former Defence Minister, Lt. General Theophilus Danjuma, retd, and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar,  have advised President Bola Tinubu on how to solve the problem. Not left out either were the Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, Pastor Tunde Bakare, the Inter-Party Advisory Council, IPAC.

Archbishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Kukah, in his Easter message yesterday, called on the government to protect Nigerians from “marauders, murderers, savages and ravenous predators who threaten to overrun our nation.”

“Mr. President, hunger, sickness and desolation stalk the land. We still believe removing the subsidies was the right decision.

“We note that the country now has a huge volume of resources in its domestic reserves. For over 10 years now, farming has become one of the most hazardous occupations in our country.’’ Kukah further criticised the government’s moves to assuage Nigerians’ plight by means of palliative distribution, warning that such a move diminished the dignity of citizens.

“Today, we have watched as the cancer of insecurity and violence has metastasised. Now, this cancer threatens the very foundation of our common humanity,” Kukah asserted.

“Taken together, they have placed our country outside the purview of human civilisation. Across the country, every day, innocent citizens are kidnapped and held under the most inhuman conditions. A dark pall of death hangs languidly from north to south.

“It is impossible to find a home, a family, or a community that has not been caught in the cusp of this savagery. Now, Mr. President, Nigeria is reaching a breaking point.

“The nation is gradually becoming a huge national morgue. Mr. President, with a greater sense of urgency, hasten to bring us down from this cross of evil.

“Mr President, we all admit that you neither erected this cross nor did you affect our collective crucifixion.

“Notwithstanding, Nigerians have been dangling and bleeding on this cross of pain and mindless suffering for too long,’’ Kukah said.

According to Gen Danjuma: “The warning I gave some years ago is still as valid today as it was then. Nigerians must rise and defend themselves.

“We cannot continue to sit and watch while bandits, terrorists, and criminal gangs massacre our people unchecked,” he said.

“It is now very clear that the government alone cannot protect us. We must stand up and defend ourselves, our families, and our lands before these criminals overrun the entire country,” he added.

Also, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar issued a statement, saying, “The Tinubu administration has proven, time and again, to be utterly incapable, wholly incompetent, and completely devoid of any coherent ideas for tackling Nigeria’s deepening security crisis.

“This is not just my position — it is a growing consensus among political opposition leaders, respected security experts, and even members within the ruling party who, though too timid to speak publicly, confess this uncomfortable truth behind closed doors.

“The blood of innocent Nigerians continues to be spilt with appalling regularity — most recently in the Logo and Gbagir communities of Ukum LGA in Benue State.

“Yet, the Tinubu presidency remains disturbingly indifferent, displaying neither urgency nor the basic decency of public empathy.

“Leadership demands presence. In 2016, President Barack Obama cut short an important diplomatic visit to return home after five police officers were killed in a lone gunman attack.

“In 2019, President Cyril Ramaphosa abandoned a state visit to Egypt to return to South Africa amid an electricity crisis.

“Even U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, heavily criticised for fleeing to Mexico during a deadly winter storm in Texas, eventually returned and acknowledged his mistake.

In our history, President Goodluck Jonathan returned from Equatorial Guinea in 2014 following a deadly bomb blast in Abuja.

“That is the expected minimum in moments of national trauma. Yet President Tinubu, incapable of solving Nigeria’s worsening insecurity, chooses instead to gallivant across Europe, governing Nigeria in absentia as if from a holiday perch.

“If he cannot act, the least he can do is show up. If he cannot lead with empathy, he should at least attempt to perform it. Nigeria is bleeding. Nigerians are dying. The president is nowhere to be found.

“An inept administration may not suddenly discover competence. But we will not stop calling it out. If Tinubu cannot deliver safety and dignity to Nigerians, the very least he can do is pretend to care.”

Pastor Tunde Bakare, Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, CGCC, , during his the State of the Nation, on Sunday, said, ‘’Because citizens have lost faith in the capacity of the government to guarantee their security, communities are forming poorly trained, poorly equipped and unprofessional militias, with some taking the law into their hands, heightening the risk of an inter-ethnic crisis. This is a dangerous trajectory.”

“We must then reinstate national security federalism by activating constitutional procedures for multilevel policing, including local, state and zonal policing systems. Against this backdrop, we must redesign our security architecture by facilitating the formation of Zonal Security Councils, chaired by a governor from the respective zone, on a rotating basis.

‘’Such Zonal Security Councils, which will be formed by state and local policing systems within respective zones, must be managed by nonpartisan security experts, while the chairperson at each point in time will represent the zone at the National Security Council,’’ Bakare added.

The Inter-Party Advisory Council, IPAC,  also issued a statement a statement through which  Dr Yusuf Dantalle, National Chairman said, “IPAC enjoins Nigerians to use this joyous occasion, which symbolises the triumph of life over death, to rededicate their lives to God and embrace Christ’s virtues of love, compassion, tolerance, and sacrifice.

“Tragically, Nigerians no longer feel secure in their own country. The incessant killings by non-state actors must stop immediately.

“Enough of the bloodshed. Citizens expect the dividends of democracy, not carnage. Security agencies must rise to the challenge and decisively tackle terrorism, insurgency, banditry, militancy, and kidnapping for ransom.

“There can be no meaningful development without public safety and order. Restoring sanity to the polity requires political will and swift action. Together, we can build a better society, but we must act urgently to ensure peace, unity, and progress for our dear nation.”