The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has demanded a nationwide address from President Muhammadu Buhari over the rift between his Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari and National Security Adviser, Major General Babagana Monguno (rtd).
According to the party, the president must end his “taciturnity” on the “command crisis rocking the Presidency, in which strange elements have been exposed as having taken over critical issues of governance, including security matters”.
PDP’s demand came in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan in Abuja on Tuesday.
The party said that Buhari must address Nigerians because Monguno’s revelation that Kyari was issuing unauthorised directives to the nation’s service chiefs “threatens our national stability and could heighten anxieties in the security hierarchy regarding whose orders to obey”.
PDP’s statement read in part, “Nigerians have become apprehensive that the Presidency had remained mute in the face of revelations of the National Security Adviser (NSA), Maj. Gen. Babagana Monguno, that Presidential responsibilities, including presiding over very sensitive security matters, have been taken over by the Chief of Staff, Mallam Abba Kyari, who now functions as a defacto President.
“In his petition, Gen. Monguno raised salient issues concerning the state of security as well as internal factors in the presidency frustrating the fight against insurgency and acts of violence ravaging our country.
“The party invites Nigerians to note that any President, who is on top of issues of governance, and who has not relinquished his duties, would have immediately addressed the nation on such an issue of urgent national importance.
“The PDP laments that President Buhari’s taciturn posturing in the face of a command crisis is worsening our already perilous security situation and further validates global apprehensions that Mr. President has become overwhelmed by the demands of his office and completely abdicated his duties to a cabal.
“It is indeed distressing to the nation that the situation threatens our national stability and could heighten anxieties in the security hierarchy regarding whose orders to obey.
“The PDP insists that Mr. President holds it as a duty to Nigerians to personally speak to the situation immediately as our nation is undergoing an insecurity situation that is unknown to our national history.”
PDP said that as a party that has the interest of Nigerians at heart, it has the responsibility to invite the president to address Nigerians on the matter.
“Our party therefore counsels the Buhari Presidency not to attempt to use the decoy of silence to sweep such issue of grave national concern under the carpet, as such could compound the security situation in the country,” the statement further read.