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Insecurity: Buhari Government Has Lost Legitimacy, Ozekhome Says

December 20, 2020

Ozekhome, who spoke this weekend in Abuja while reacting to the news of the release of abducted Kankara students, said Buhari has no moral justification for remaining in office since he could no longer perform the essential duties of protecting lives and property.

Mike Ozekhome, a constitutional lawyer, says that the Muhammadu Buhari administration has lost its legitimacy for abdicating its duty and functions in securing Nigeria.

Ozekhome, who spoke this weekend in Abuja while reacting to the news of the release of abducted Kankara students, said Buhari has no moral justification for remaining in office since he could no longer perform the essential duties of protecting lives and property.  

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He said the government had continued to use propaganda to create an impression that the war against Boko Haram terrorists and bandits was being won without considering the reality on the ground.

Ozekhome described the abduction of over 300 school children from Kankara in Katsina State as a sad commentary on the security situation in the country.

He said it was evidence that the government has lost its relevance and credibility for leaving the citizens to their fate and at the mercy of bandits and Boko Haram.

The legal icon said the government through propaganda made Nigerians believe that the terrorists had been technically degraded and defeated.

He said, "As far back as 2016, they were telling us that Boko Haram has been technically degraded and defeated. According to the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, the government will go and do some mop-up operations in Sambisa forest, and that was the end. I said that statement was a lie.

"The Federal government has abdicated its duty in terms of providing security for the people of Nigeria. Whereas under section 14,15 and 16 of the constitution of Nigeria, the welfare and safety of the people are the primary functions of government.

"When the government can no longer provide welfare and security for its people, then its legitimacy becomes questionable," he added.

Ozekhome called on President Buhari to rejig the security architecture of the country and stop exposing Nigerians to untold dangers and threats of terrorists, adding that the present security situation in the country would drive foreign investors away.

"No investors will come to the country to invest where the security is so bad, where court orders are not obeyed. Where citizens' fundamental rights are not respected," he said.

"I don't want to go into the conspiracy of automatic military alacrity. How much was paid as ransom? The good thing is that children were said to have been abducted and have also been said to have regained their freedom. But the question is that why is the president finding it difficult to rejig the security architecture of the country?"

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