Insecurity in Nigeria: What Buhari Govt Should Do - Archbishop Onayekan

A Nigerian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church, John Onayekan has asked the Muhammadu Buhari administration to call for a national cohesion if it can no longer protect and secure the lives of citizens.

The cleric gave this advice while condemning the latest trend of dialoguing with the bandits in the country.

He told the government to 'stop pretending to be in charge'.

Onayekan voiced his opinion during a recent interview with newsmen after the ordination of the Auxillary Bishop of Minna Diocese.

“If the government cannot secure the lives of the people, they should call for a kind of national cohesion. They should stop pretending that they are the ones ruling," Onayekan said.

"In some countries when these incidents happen, it gets to a stage where the government will call for national unity where everyone comes on board to proffer solutions.”

Onayekan who was the Archbishop of Abuja from 1994 to 2019 said the government has no excuse for the current insecurity in many parts of the country.

He warned that if the Federal Government does not take a definite step, there will be a revolt that would be dangerous to the people.

Onayekan said, “The fact remains that we are not where we should be.

"We should not be living in a country where we are always with our hearts in our mouth when we are moving from one place to another”

“We should not be living in a country where the children cannot study in schools and where bandits can come and cart away students and their teachers into the bush and sit there and boast for dialogue.

“Sadly, we have people who claim to be our leaders who during elections forced us, begged us and cajoled us to put them in power, now that they are in power, do your work for goodness sake.”

Archbishop Onayekan insisted that criminality has no religion.

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“This has nothing to do with APC or PDP, it is not political and we have also seen that it has nothing to do with Islam or Christianity, not even with our ethical differences.

"We have a gang of criminals that are almost taking over our country and the government should either do it or allow others to do it,” the clergyman added.