A Nigerian in the diaspora has penned an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari on the way forward in the fight against Boko Haram insurgency.
Read below…
Dear President Muhammadu Buhari,
I hope this letter finds you well. Let me first congratulate you on your effort to make Nigeria a great nation, the children unborn will forever remember an icon that came to save our country at a very difficult period in our nascent democracy.
Your efforts and endeavours to transform this country into a better and more industrious nation with robust economic growth are tremendous.
Several tangible projects have been initiated by your Government like the TSA (Treasure Single Account) and the construction of the standard gauge railway. These advancements deserve a big applause.
However, there’s one major challenge that is posing a huge threat to our peace, security and investor confidence.
Nigeria has in the recent past suffered unspeakable atrocities at the hands of Boko Haram and many lives have been lost in the most brutal manner.
The responsibility of every government is to ensure its citizens are safe and protected from enemies – both within and outside.
Jubilee has suffered the biggest challenge in security, more than any other country in the region and this can only be attributed to police laxity and several loopholes in the security department.
Mr President, as much as the security docket remains a prerogative of the central government the county administration should also be involved.
It has become a tradition that every financial year, the Government tables a massive master-plan budget. This budgetary allocation sets aside billions for the security docket, but we are yet to see the desired results. We won’t raise eyebrows even if the Government allocated trillions to security as long as we sleep with total peace of mind.
But sadly, most of these allocations set aside for security forces only end up being channelled to few individuals. We’ve heard countless times of the poor living conditions among the police yet they are the people who are supposed to be vigilant and ensure our safety. The ongoing probe of Dasuki arms scandal should be an eye opener to all; this has confirmed our fear of the massive rot in the Nigeria armed forces.
Mr President, the Government must up its game by uplifting the lives and allowances for these hardworking officers who risk their lives everyday just to make sure that we are safe. This will boost their morale, and rampant cases of corruption in the police department will drop.
Nigeria must also equip itself with the latest intelligence gathering techniques in order to check the runaway insecurity.
Invest in securing our border entry points Mr President rather than foreign the joint military patrols if our borders. We need to rein in terrorists along the border from the Chadian and Cameroonian side.
More emphasis should be put on our borders, especially the ones between Niger, Chad and Cameroon because they pose the biggest threat since armed militant groups just stroll across the border after committing crimes in Nigeria.
Your Government should also restructure and reinforce the intelligence service since most of the atrocities committed could have been avoided. Rumour has it that there has always been enough evidence on the looming attacks but are always ignored.
Stringent measures must be put in place to curb the rising radicalisation of young people and the extremist theories being taught in various centres by radical imams.
More must be done in the search for the Chibok girls, we must find these girls and return them back to their parents. At least we have a journalist who claimed they are still alive and he definitely knows how to get to them, if a sincere effort is been made by the government.
Finally, I wish you all the best in the steps your government is taking to make our country safe.
Comrade Ahmed Omeiza Lukman,
Chairman Nigeria Community in Ukraine