A group, The Nigeria Security Watch Forum (NSWF) has called on the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) to desist from creating more crisis in the country in the name of protecting its leaders and followers in the country. The body said in a strongly- worded letter made available to Vanguard in Abuja last night that it was miffed by the disposition of the ACF to cause more harm to the nation because of careless statements. The NSWF, in its reaction to the position of the ACF in which it stated that the Nigerian military’s performance in the crackdown against Boko Haram is unimpressive, noted that the leadership of the ACF has deliberately buried the truth on its face. The Forum in a statement issued by its National Coordinator, Mallam Abubakar Danbaki noted that the security crisis the nation is presently being confronted with is as a result of the deliberate policies and legacies bequeathed to Nigeria by former northern military leaders. The Forum said that one of the military presidents from the north reportedly ordered the removal of all ‘Firing pins’ of the military Armoured Fighting Vehicles in order to sustain himself in power without giving any consideration to national interest and defence of the nation’s territorial space. In the process, the self-styled president from the north destroyed the Nigerian Army and bastardised the entire military in order to stop officers from coup plotting. The Military is yet to recover from this deliberate destruction policy. The group recalled with pains that the said General had openly declared that he was not an advocate of airpower. “He therefore deliberately crippled the Nigerian Air Force from being one of the best in Africa to what it is today. As a result, war planes were abandoned and were never serviced for years just as fighter pilots were not sent on training. Like the army, the Air Force is yet to recover till date. “After that, General Abacha continued the policy of crippling the military in order to perpetuate himself in office. So, rather than fund the military, General Abacha created a Strike Force under the supervision of Major Hamza Al-Mustapha. The consequence of these actions is what the nation is grappling with presently. The group said: “Instead of the ACF to continue to play the ostrich, it should be asking some very important questions. For example, of the so called trillions budgeted for defence, how much was actually released? What percentage of the so-called trillions went into the funding of the armed forces? “ It will interest ACF to know that since the present democratic dispensation there has not been any major equipment purchase for the entire armed forces, a fact that the military high command has been shouting about for years. It will interest ACF to know that every nation gets the kind of armed forces it is willing and ready to pay for. “Of great importance is the hypocritical approach of the AFC towards the resolution of national questions. It is also on record that when the military moved in at the initial stage to tackle Boko Haram frontally, the same leadership of the forum rose in defence of the insurgents alleging that the military was committing genocide and killing northerners. “The same so-called leaders of ACF said Boko Haram should be negotiated with and treated like the Niger Delta militants, but find it very convenient now to condemn the military as being ineffective. “It is expected that as leaders of the North whose past actions and inaction created the present security crisis, they should be seen taking positive steps towards resolving the problem and not introducing sentiments that would embolden Boko Haram to continue their atrocities. You might also like
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 13:49:34 +0000
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