Boko Haram has rather degraded military, says Moghalu

Presidential standard-bearer of Young Peoples Party (YPP), Prof. Kingsley Moghalu, has said that the Boko Haram terrorists have rather succeeded in degrading the army.

“That is the painful truth, contrary to the spin of the current administration that it has technically degraded the insurgents,” he added.

The YPP flag-bearer, in an interview with The Guardian, regretted that lack of political will to address the socio-economic and security challenges compounded the country’s problems.

He said: “We need to professionalise the national security leadership of this country. Right now under (President Muhammadu) Buhari, we have simply tribalised it and, therefore, trivialised it because virtually all the leaders of security are from one part of the country. So what we have is regime protection.”

Moghalu promised to bring a more sophisticated understanding of what national security entails, adding that since it is far more than Boko Haram, “we must address the endemic poverty in this country, which is actually a national security threat. A lot of people turn to terrorism because they have no economic freedom and opportunity.”
  
Meanwhile, Movement Against Fulani Occupation (MAFO) has called on Amnesty International (AI) to immediately review its recent report on Benue herdsmen killings to reflect the true and current picture of the carnage.

The non-partisan, non-governmental organisation, in a press briefing at the weekend in Makurdi, Benue State, also pointed out that the humanitarian gaps resulting from the crisis and the people living under extreme conditions as a result of the crisis in internally-displaced persons (IDPs) camps across the state were not considered in the report.

“The use of the word ‘clashes’ presupposes some form of confrontation with the Fulani herdsmen attackers, which is not the case even by the AI report. Hapless Catholic priests, who are not farmers, killed during morning Mass and thousands of unarmed women and children killed in their sleep can never be said to be ‘clashing’ with their murderers,” MAFO stated.

In another development, the presidential candidate of People’s Trust (PT), Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has condemned the dangling of 2023 presidential ticket to the south west and south east regions by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and some high-ranking political office holders in the country.

Olawepo-Hashim said in Lagos yesterday that such action could lead to ethnic balkanisation.

Flaying everyone involved in the antic as an agent of political retrogression, he described it as somalisation of Nigerian politics.

The PT candidate posited that tribal campaign hinged on 2023 as a promissory note confirmed the shallowness of political discourse in the country, adding that issue-based campaigns had been jetissioned by the two mainstream political parties.

He said: “Nigerians have grown beyond this bigotry through inter-marriage, electoral endorsement and business union. That reprehensible statement promising 2023 presidency to the south west should never have emanated from the office of the vice president. That office transcends tribal thinking. The presidency is and should be a rallying point for all Nigerians irrespective of tribe or religion.

Wondering why politics and campaign cannot be about higher ideals of national unity and prosperity, the PT candidate affirmed that the presidency should be about merit, competence and passion to deliver on good governance, not on ethnic card.