Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State has berated President Muhammadu Buhari for plunging Nigeria into unimaginable economic crisis as well as his inability to tackle the worrisome security challenges decimating the country, and called on him to resign and hand over to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
Ortom in an interview with Sunday Vanguard, also said supporting Buhari to become the president in 2015 was a mistake, even as he stressed that his criticism of All Progressive Congress, APC, led Federal Government was born out of patriotism, equity, fairness and justice.
He said: “The Federal Government has completely failed, no doubt, and I want to call on President Buhari to accept the fact that he has failed this country and I want to advise him to honourably resign as President of Nigeria and hand over to his Vice to handle the affairs of this country. Otherwise, this country is going down.
“I’m really disappointed and that is why I am calling on President to resign because the capacity is not there to lead and address the hardship that Nigerians are going through. I call on him to resign. The President should accept this fact and call all of us irrespective of party affiliations and religion, to tell him the truth of what is happening. If he is willing to take our advice, things will get back on track. We are ready to team up and work with him.”
On his role to the emergence of Buhari as President in 2015, and why their relationship has gone south, the former Minister said it was a mistake. “Yes, I was part of those who worked for the election of the President in 2015. We worked hard for him based on the promises that he gave us. He assured that he would be a President for everybody and for nobody but today, we have seen clearly that the President is a President for the Fulani people.
“Since the inception of Nigeria even before independence, we have never witnessed this kind of nepotism that is going on in our country. We have never witnessed this level of disunity and insecurity in the country. We have never seen this kind of economic downturn the way we have it today. The issue is about incompetence, non-performance, barefooted leadership, lame-duck, and about somebody without a vision and direction to lead our country. So, It is just that we made a mistake in 2015 but by the grace of God, the PDP is ready to rescue our country and rebuild it again, and take it from bottom to top”.
On insecurity, Ortom explained that the basic responsibility of any government was the provision of security for lives and property. According to him, “the level of insecurity in the country today is worrisome. I have severally talked about security summits. I’m not just criticising but I’m also providing solutions to the problems that we have. If you call us to a security summit and you are sincere, we shall advise you and we shall put heads together and come out with solutions.”
Speaking further, the governor expressed worries over the increasing number of internally displaced persons, IDPs, in Benue, saying that over 1.5 million people have been chased away from their ancestral homes by terrorists who have taken over their communities. He noted the resolve of Benue people to defend themselves against armed herders.
“It is really unfortunate that I have over 1.5 million IDPs in Benue State out of the projected seven million population of the state. Moreso, more than 80 percent of the IDPs are farmers that earned us the appellation of the food basket of the nation. Today, they are in IDPs’ camps suffering. It is unfortunate but we will take action in our own way. I have consulted with my people and they have told me what we are supposed to do and we are going to take decisive action because enough is enough. We have cried enough. We will take steps to stop the killings. We will complement the security agencies but we are not going to compromise our peace and security again”, he opined.
While stressing that restructuring of Nigeria was long overdue, the governor adviced the President Buhari to dust the recommendations of the former President Goodluck Jonathan’s National Conference and implement it or initiate his own by calling Nigerians together irrespective of their party affiliations to discuss ways to solve the problems bedeviling the country.
