The APC Presidential Campaign Organization (APCPCO) has stated that President Jonathan lacks the competence, capacity and training to deal with the Boko Haram menace ravaging many parts of the North east region of the country and therefore cannot be taken seriously when he claims that he will deal with the terrorists.
A statement by Garba Shehu, Director of Media and Publicity of the campaign organization, said that the claim by President Jonathan during his campaign visit to Maiduguri, capital of Borno State and hotbed of the insurgency that he would deal with the menace of the terrorists looks more like a joke or mere talk designed for the occasion of the campaign event.
President Jonathan has been at the helm of affairs in Nigeria for more than five years. During this time, the Boko Haram has transformed from a group of armed delinquents to an active fighting group or movement without the government headed by President Jonathan able to contain it. It is childish for the same person to say that he would deal with a group that became a monster under his watch.
President Jonathan is advised to stop the careless talk about dealing with Boko Haram because he clearly has shown little appreciation and leadership in the area of national security. Rather, he should join eager and long-suffering Boko Haram victims across the nation and other well-meaning Nigerians to ensure that General Muhammadu Buhari emerges victorious in the February 14 poll to deal with Boko Haram, as well as unemployment and widespread official corruption, two other vices ravaging our nation under his watch.
If President Jonathan and his party want to be true to Nigerians, it is for them to acknowledge that to deal with Boko Haram, and the wider national security issues it has thrown up over the years is within the scope of his opponent, General Buhari, because the latter has travelled similar road in the past with distinction when the nation’s security and well-being was endangered as it has been in the last four years since Boko Haram became a national security and regional security menace while Jonathan fiddled.
The Boko Haram terrorists are no longer a group that President Jonathan and those who work with him can handle. A new and committed leader is needed. This is made more necessary because the terrorists have been holding more than 200 Nigerian school girls hostage for several months and has taken over chunks of the nation’s territory, without a whimper from the “happy-go-lucky” government of President Goodluck Jonathan.
If in the past five years, the Boko Haram has transformed while Jonathan made empty promises, pray, how can such a leader make any difference in another four years? The most likely scenario if Jonathan is given another four years in office is that the terrorists would effortlessly take over the entire country.
