Prominent northern politician, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, has taken President Goodluck Jonathan to the cleaners over his performance, saying his incompetence is taking its toll on the country.
Musa, who was a Second Republic Governor of Kaduna State, said this during an interview with The PUNCH.
The elder statesman argued that the fact that over 200 schoolgirls abducted by the Boko Haram sect from Chibok, Borno State, had not been rescued 81 days after, showed gross incompetence on the part of the Federal Government.
He also described the involvement of foreign security agents in the bid to rescue the schoolgirls and halt Boko Haram insurgency as unpatriotic, saying the Federal Government was capable of handling the situation.
Musa said, “Jonathan’s incompetence has affected every part of Nigeria. The inability to resolve the issue of the abduction of the schoolgirls from Chibok, Borno State and the continued abduction of women and children is a show of gross incompetence on the part of the Federal Government.
“Apart from that, President Goodluck Jonathan and his government went ahead to unpatriotically invite foreigners to solve a problem that the Federal Government has the capacity to solve. And up till today, the foreigners have not been able to identify where the abducted children are. Nothing concrete is coming both from the Federal Government and those invited to help”.
On the chances of Jonathan’s re-election into office come 2015 given the current state of the nation, Musa said the Peoples Democratic Party would suffer defeat if it fields the president as its candidate.
His words, “Considering the negative state of the nation that has affected every part of Nigeria, particularly the level of poverty and insecurity. Jonathan should not contest for re-election in 2015. His party will not even nominate him. But if it does, it will face the consequences, because Jonathan will lose the election woefully.
“He will not get reasonable votes even in the South-South where he comes from because the South-South is also suffering from the negative state of the nation. South-South people are also suffering from the current level of unemployment, hunger and insecurity. Jonathan’s incompetence has affected every part of Nigeria”.
He also faulted allegations that the All Progressives Congress was behind the Boko Haram insurgency, saying no political party has the capacity to sponsor such sustained terrorist attacks.
“…In fact, as political parties, I don’t think the PDP or the APC is capable of mounting such an insurgency as the Boko Haram. As government in power, certainly they (PDP) can, but as a political party, I don’t think they can. That rules out the APC from being responsible for this kind of insurgency. The fact that the APC has been criticising the Federal Government for failing to stop the insurgency is quite logical”, he asserted.
Musa added that the insurgency, which was aimed at destabilising Nigeria, could only be sponsored by the Federal Government, those he labelled as “bands of thieves in the country, who are rich; or foreign imperialist, who have targeted Nigeria for disintegration by 2015”.
Speaking on last month’s governorship election in Ekiti State, Musa declared that “It was not free and fair”, adding that “It was not even tolerable”. He said that the level of participation of the army, police and other security forces as well as the harassment that occurred in the state just before the election, tilted the outcome in favor of the PDP’s candidate.
