The vice presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has said problems of insurgency in the northeast took a dangerous dimension because the President Goodluck Jonathan administration failed to prioritize security in the country.
He therefore said security will be a top priority of an APC government.
According to him, Jonathan’s administration failed to equip the military even when it was obvious that the security situation was getting worse.
He stated that some of the complaints filed by soldiers that were court marshaled for alleged mutiny were that they were not given weapons but asked to go to war against the insurgents.
Osinbajo, who spoke at a Town Hall meeting with young professionals under the auspices of Act Now Professionals in Abuja, said as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, the President ought to have shown an example by leading from the front and not from the back.
He accused President Jonathan of reneging on his oath of office and his promise to protect Nigerians, adding that although the government claimed to have spent about N4 trillion on defence so far, evidence on ground points the contrary.
He said, “From what we are seeing on ground and with the complaints by soldiers that they are not given weapons to fight the insurgents, it is either that money was not spent at all or somebody is telling lies.”
“When you have a situation you do not politicize the insurgency like that. You do not point to the opposition and say it was the opposition that is sponsoring it until Gen. Muhammadu Buhari almost lost his life when Boko haram attacked him.
“We must start by understanding that there is a war going on in that part of the country and what the government need to do is to get the nation behind it, not pointing accusing fingers at wrong places.”
