The Presidency on Sunday described as “inaccurate,” the article by the respected news magazine, The Economist, on President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s efforts at tackling the threats to the country’s stability.
The London-based magazine had in its editorial on Saturday said the Buhari’s administration was inept, high-handed and incapable of tackling the endemic corruption in Nigeria.
It added that the country was collapsing under the threats of Boko Haram insurgency, banditry, and separatist agitations due to the inability of the Nigerian Army and other security agencies to rise up to the challenges.
However, in a statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, Garba Shehu, the Presidency said Buhari was strengthening Africa’s democracy with a genuine approach.
The Presidency added that the resilience and fortitude of patriotic Nigerians would see the nation through the difficult times.
The statement read: “The Economist is correct: Nigeria faces four key threats to the stability and prosperity of the nation – namely: ISWAP/Boko Haram terrorism in the North-East; kidnapping and crime in the North-West; herder-farmer disputes in the central belt; and the delusions of IPOB terrorists in the South-East.
“The Economist is also accurate to state that they have come to a head under President Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration. Yet they do so, because for so long, under previous administrations, whether military or democratic, tough decisions have been ducked, and challenges never fully met – with the effect of abetting these dangers and allowing them all to fester and grow.
“Today, all four threats are being fought concurrently and it is only this President’s administration which has finally had the will and determination to confront them.
“The Buhari administration has sought to push back terrorism which has been a threat for more than two decades since the first emergence of Boko Haram. It is only the Buhari administration that has now sought to intervene against the kidnapping and banditry that has been a simmering threat for far longer.
“It is only this President’s government which has taken on IPOB, the violent terrorist group which bombs police stations and offices of security agencies, while also threatening those who break their Monday-sit-ins whilst claiming the mantle of forebears who half a century ago fought a civil war.
“And it is only the Buhari leadership which has sought – ever, in over one hundred years – to identify the root causes of the herder-farmer clashes and find durable solutions.
“The forms may have altered, and the threats posed by each may have waxed and waned, but what has been constant is that administration after administration since independence – whether military or democratic – none sought to fully address these threats to Nigeria as President Buhari’s government does now.
