APC prescribes low-key centenary celebrations Onyebuchi Ezigbo and Daji Sani Pained by the degree and frequency of the Boko Haram sect deadly attacks, Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State has declared that it is high time something drastic was done to contain the sect scourge ravaging the North east region. The governor who seemed exasperated by the attack in Michika on Wednesday, declared that: ''Enough is Enough,'' stressing that the Boko Haram crisis is getting out of hand and needs new strategies to tackle it. Nyako,who was commenting on the Boko Haram attacks on Madagali and Michika in Adamawa State had maintained that the state of emergency slammed on Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States have proven to be ineffective. He lambasted the federal government for failing to foil Yobe School's attack that seemed predictable since school children had previously been murdered that way in the same state. The governor said: "there is no excuse whatsoever, we want to know more from the authority. By now, authority should be able to know what is happening. We should be able to know where these arms are manufactured and even the signatures of the weapons. We ought to know who ordered them, who paid for them ,how they came into the country. Where they were shipped from, which port in Nigeria when they arrived, who cleared them among others.''President, vice-president, governors and the military they are the only groups that pass check points without being checked, and which of the two groups is conveying those arms to the scene of these action. We want to know?''The other aspect is that army withdrew from the checkpoint, before the attack in Yadi–Buni, who ordered the withdrawal? We also have a case where General Shuwa was killed by the so called Boko Haram. There was army unit there but they didn't respond during the incident; who told them not to respond when Shuwa was being attacked?''The Air Force base was being raided, there is a unit of army nearby, who gave them order not to response until all the aircraft were destroyed?''These are questions that needs answers. So either this thing is control by unknown fellows, or unknown Boko Haram Strategic commanders in the Defence system or stage-managed. We have reached a point where we can come out to tell them our displeasure over the way the situation is escalating,'' Nyako said Reports indicates that protests demanding firmer government action against Boko Haram and other security challenges plaguing the country could likely hold on Thursday next week. The Nyako questions however coincided with the suggestion by the All Progressives Congress (APC) that the federal government should scale down the activities of the centenary as a mark of honour to the innocent school children massacred by the Boko Haram terrorists. The party criticised President Goodluck Jonathan for devoting his broadcast to the nation on Wednesday night to the centenary celebrations instead of the national tragedy involving the cold-blood murder of over 40 school children in Yobe State. In a statement issued yesterday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the President's action sends a wrong signal to the world about the value which the Nigerian government places on the lives of the nation's children."While the nation waits for the President to hit the road to Yobe and Borno States, we call on the federal government to massively scale down the centenary celebrations, if it does not want to cancel them. It is incongruous, unconscionable, unacceptable and an assault on our collective humanity to be celebrating, throwing fire works and popping champagne cocks when the ashes of our children, who were slaughtered and burnt to death for no fault of theirs, are still so fresh, " the party said. It wondered what was so important about the centenary celebrations that it would be elevated over and above what in any nation would be considered a monumental tragedy, describing the President's broadcast as insensitive, misplaced, and an embarrassment to the nation.''Even as the nation is still counting the death toll from Monday night's senseless and gruesome murder of our children, and the ceaseless killings of innocent civilians before that, the President has already switched into a celebratory mood, dwelling on the money-wasting centenary-celebrations instead of leading a clearly distraught nation in mourning.''Nothing better illustrates the fact that the President showed more concern about the centenary celebrations than the calamity that befell the nation than the mention, in only about three paragraphs, of the tragedy in a speech that spanned over 40 paragraphs.''This is very sad indeed, considering that President Jonathan is the head of a government that has failed woefully in ensuring the welfare and security of Nigerians, especially those of our children, which is the very reason for the existence of any government,'' APC said. The party said now that the President has goofed again, he should quickly make amends by visiting the scene of the tragedy to empathise with the families of the victims as well as the government and people of the state, which is what any leader worth his salt will do under the circumstance. It said in case President Jonathan is still in doubt on whether or not to take a trip to Yobe State, and indeed Borno State where hundreds of innocent citizens have been dispatched to their early graves by rampaging insurgents in the past few weeks, he should take a cue from what other Presidents do in times like this.''In the United States, for example, President Barack Obama was his country's 'consoler in chief' as he visited scenes of the tragedies that have occurred in his country since he assumed office, whether it is the school massacre in Connecticut, the mass shooting in Fort Hood, Texas or the tornado in Joplin, Missouri.''We should not do what will amount to dancing on the graves of the children whom we have collectively failed. Yes, we cannot bring those children back to life, but we can at least soothe the pains of their families through genuine empathy and soberness,'' APC said.
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