The Catholic Bishop of Yola Diocese, Rt Reverend Stephen Mamza, has said the unabated killings, violent crimes, and conflict across the country indicate that President Muhammadu Buhari has been sleeping on duty as the nation’s Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
The Catholic bishop, who spoke on the occasion of Easter, regretted the recent attacks on Adamawa, Benue, Zamfara, Nasarawa states and Southern Kaduna.
He described as unfortunate the inability of security agencies to stop these attacks despite available information to them before the attacks.
Mamza said, “We are really in a dilemma. We (Nigerians) are feeling that we don’t have protection. From all indications, there’s nothing being done. There have been calls from all over the country. Look at what is happening in Zamfara State; look at what is happening in Benue periodically, in Nasarawa State and now in Adamawa (Southern Adamawa).
“If there is a government in place then the government should listen to the people and address the security challenges. We have mass burials from time to time and there’s no sign the government cares about what is happening.”
The cleric noted that it “is the constitutional duty of the government to provide security for its citizens but that is if such government really cares.”
He charged the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government to wake up to its responsibilities of protecting lives, noting that the impression out there was that government did not seem to be in control of the insecurity situation in the country.
“Why are we living in a country where it seems there’s no government in place?” the Catholic Bishop lamented.
He said his worry was the legacy that Buhari was going to leave behind if he failed to heed the calls by Nigerians “to overhaul the security architecture which has failed to address the security challenge.”
He said, “Since the history of this country, apart from the civil war we have never had the kind of killings under a President like we have in the last four years. So, it is clear, the killings are too many. And if the strategies they have in place do not work why can’t he (Buhari) change and overhaul the entire security architecture? People have been asking him to overhaul his security chiefs but he doesn’t listen. He doesn’t care.