The Northern Ethnic Youth Group Assembly (NEYGA) has chided the presidential candidate of All Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, and National Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, for politicizing Nigeria’s security challenges.
The group tasked both presidential candidates to learn from politicians in the United States and Israel who buried their political interests and supported their governments in the heat of the 9/11 and the October 7, 2023 attacks by Al-Qaeda and Hamas on the US and Israel soil.
NEYGA spoke against comments by Atiku and Obi, in the wake of recent attacks by gunmen on schools in Oyo and Borno States resulting in the abduction of some pupils.
While Obi accused the Tinubu government of lacking the capacity to protect schoolchildren, thereby converting them into what he called “Pawns in Ransom Economy,” Atiku stated that the security challenges “makes a mockery of the so-called Safe Schools initiative.”
While noting that the primary responsibility of any government is the security and welfare for the governed, Atiku had said: “President Tinubu has no moral or political latitude to stay in Aso Villa a day longer if tens of hundreds of abducted citizens languish in captivity across the country,”
However, NEYGA said it was wrong, unethical and unpatriotic for Atiku and Obi to seek to use the plight of innocent school pupils as a campaign tool, saying both politicians largely contributed to the current insecurity in Nigeria.
In a statement signed by its spokesperson, Alhaji Ibrahim Dan-Musa, NEYGA said, “We are disappointed that men who have held high political offices, and who are aspiring to preside over Nigeria, would resort to using the plight of children, especially those in distress, to seek score cheap political points.
“Such unfortunate comments by Atiku and Obi only lend credence to the claim by President Tinubu that some persons out there want to use insecurity to scare him out of the 2027 presidential race.”
According to the group, “had the government in which Atiku served as Vice President nipped Boko Haram founder Mohammed Yusuf in the bud, and tackled the menace of out-of-school children early enough, perhaps we wouldn’t have found ourselves in this type of insecurity challenges.”
On Obi, NEYGA stated: “The NDC presidential candidate served as key Adviser of a federal government that caressed terrorists. Sadly, the same Obi is today talking of “Pawns in Ransom Economy.” He appears to have forgetten that, it was the same government he served as Adviser that taught terrorists that money could be made from kidnapping students and converting them to his “ransom economy.”
The group advised both politicians to learn how opposition politicians in other climes behave during periods of security challenges, stressing, “they rally support for the government in power.”
Said NEYGA: “Consider the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US. At least 2,977 people lost their lives in a matter of hours. President George Bush, a Republican, was in power. At no time did the Democrats face him.
“All Americans united against the terrorists, so much so that it took a Democrat, President Barack Obama, nearly 10 years after 9/11, to hunt down the mastermind, Osama Bin Laden,” noted NEYGA.
“In 1972, members of the terrorist group Black September killed 11 Israeli Olympic team members at the Munich games. Prime Minister Golda Meir was of the Labour Party. Members of other political parties didn’t attack her. They rallied round her government to ensure that all members of Black September were eventually eliminated,” further noted the group.
The group said: “More recently on Israel, on October 7, 2023, Hamas led a massive, coordinated surprise attack on Israel, killing 1,200 Israelis and taking about 240 persons hostage. No politician in Israel called for the resignation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They supported the government to fight Hamas, and the results are still being felt today.
“In September 2013, gunmen from the Somali Islamist group Al-Shabab attacked Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi, killing 67 persons and taking hundreds hostage. No Kenyan politician called for the resignation of President Uhuru Kenyatta. They supported his government and today, Kenya is safer for that,” remarked the group.
“We find it strange and amusing that Atiku Abubakar, under whose Vice Presidency Mohammed Yusuf, the founder of Boko Haram flourished, will be talking of insecurity in Nigeria as if he and his boss didn’t nurture this Frankenstein monster.
“We advise our former VP and Obi, who was part and parcel of the administration that lacked the courage to fight insecurity, and who taught terrorists that schoolchildren are ideal pawns, to be more circumspect when commenting on insecurity,” the group cautioned.
