Former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili on Saturday said despite being ascribed as the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, President Muhammadu Buhari, is not in charge of the country’s armed forces.
Ezekwesili, who was responding to the state of insecurity following the murder of Mrs. Funke Olakunrin, daughter of the leader of Afenifere, Pa Reuben Fasoranti, said President Buhari was not commanding the Nigerian Armed Forces the way it should be controlled. She said:
“I think that the President is Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces. If security is failing in the country, that is the fastest way to assess the incompetence that the president has shown so far to an issue that affects the majority of his citizens.
“I do not think we should mince words and that is why I am not mincing words. We cannot have a president who is comfortable to be in the office and spend the night at the Villa unconcerned by the type of challenges that we the citizens are facing.
“The truth is that a government that cannot guaranty the security and safety of the citizens and the government that would not immediately ensure that there is a consequence for the kind of killings that we have seen around the country, but would rather inflame the passions of the people negatively by introducing a matter that is divisive, that government needs to be called to scrutiny and interrogation.
“So, for me, the security issue in our society today says to President Buhari: You are not commanding the Nigerian Armed forces in the way that you should. The safety of the citizens of this country should above every other issue because after all when the dignity of the human life is held in contempt, what else it is in governance.”