Rage over Buhari’s failure to visit school, 333 still missing — Govt

After the abduction of the students of the Government Science Secondary School, Kankara State, prominent group and Nigerians reacted over President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) for not visiting the school despite the fact he is in Katsina state on a weeklong vacation. Daily Time reports.

Nigerians took to the social media to criticize the President for failing to visit the school and wondered why he would ask the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, to travel to Katsina State from Abuja, when he (Buhari) was currently in the same state on vacation.

One @SodiqTade tweeted, “My problem right now is Buhari sending delegates to Katsina from Abuja while he is currently in the same state. It takes minutes to get to the school but no let’s waste resources.

READ ALSO: Kankara school attack further confirms complacency of service chiefs – Northern elders

“Those who asked Goodluck Jonathan to travel miles from Kano down to the incident site in Borno on same day are now making ‘long distance’ excuse for Buhari. Even though the incident site is Katsina and Buhari is in the same Katsina. They said 150 minutes road journey is much for him.”

@EhiOziegbe tweeted, “Buhari should resign if he is not well. How can he be in Katsina and a delegation is going there? There is something that is not adding up with all the nonsense happening in the North.”

Similarly, one @Boufdadi tweeted, “Where is Buhari? Why isn’t he showing his face? Why can’t he go and commiserate with the parents of the abducted children? There are things we are not being told. Time will tell us these things.”

Another tweet @maojawo, described the visit by the delegation as a waste of public resources.

“Wastage seems to be the only thing this government know how to do. Buhari in Katsina cannot pay condolence to the people, he sent people from Abuja to do it for him. The time, energy, and resources for it are wasted,” he tweeted.

“Is the President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, Federal Republic of Nigeria not in Katsina State? Only God knows how much fund will go down into this visit,” @aladeniyi_ asked.

In his contribution, @DanielBalogun wondered why Buhari could not cut short his vacation to visit the school and commiserate with families of the victims.

Those who commented on the abduction of the students and Buhari’s inaction, included the Coalition of Northern Groups; the Middle Belt Forum; the Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin; the Pan Niger Delta Forum; and the apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo.

The presidency, through Garba Shehu, the special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity said it was focusing on how to quickly resolve the issue thrown up by the abduction of the students and not politics.

In responding, the presidential aide said, “As I speak to you, the Minister of Defense and the nation’s service chiefs just left the place.”

When told that Nigerians were already faulting the President for sending a delegation, while he is currently in the state, Shehu said, “Our focus is about resolving the issue. Leave us out of politics.”

On Sunday the Middle Belt Forum asked the president to resign from his position having failed to tackle the insecurities challenges in the country.

the National President of the Middle Belt Forum, Dr Bitrus Porgu, lamented the incident and wondered why Buhari, who promised to bring insurgency to an end within three months of assuming office, would continue to remain in power for more than six years without solving the problem.

Porgu said, “As far as we are concerned, in a civilised society, he would have resigned as an honourable person, because he has not been able to fulfil his promise to Nigerians.

“Unfortunately, in our clime, that has not happened, because people are not people of honour. The abduction in Kastina is just one too many. Those who abducted the young students will go and initiate them forcefully into terrorism and this is an unfortunate development.

“As the students were abducted, just yesterday (Saturday), a village south of Chibok in Borno State was attacked by terrorists, and from the information I gathered, two soldiers were killed along with one civilian, while the soldiers were able to bring down two of the insurgents.”