‘As you sleep with two eyes closed, 133 million Nigerian homes are awake and hungry’ – HURIWA tells Ribadu
The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), a frontline civil society organization, has told the National Security Adviser, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, that his admission that members of his household now sleep with two eyes closed since the arrival of the current government has little meaning to Nigerians because, as we speak, officially 133 million Nigerian households are multidimensionally poor, and thus their members are awake, famished, and unemployed.
HURIWA also chastised the National Security Adviser for claiming that because no police station in the South East has been set on fire since May 29th, the insecurity rocking the zone or Nigeria has abated, just as the Rights group reminded Malam Nuhu Ribadu that over 65 percent of registered voters in Imo State were unable to vote for fear of being killed by armed non-state actors or rampaging armed security forces that were massively dragged. HURIWA reminded the NSA that just last week, Abia state governor Mr. Alex Otti discovered over 50 decomposing bodies of civilians in woodlands near the Lokpanta cattle market in Abia state’s Umunneochi Local Government Area.
According to HURIWA, a major portion of Anambra and Imo States remains vastly ungoverned due to the near total absence of any type of state-funded security forces, who were mainly displaced when police stations in numerous regions were set ablaze. According to HURIWA, practically all of the burnt police stations in Imo state have not been rebuilt, and so there is no substantial presence of police operatives in any of these places except in Owerri, Orlu, Okigwe, and a few other metropolitan districts in the state.
HURIWA noted that the President’s National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, had stated that Nigerians can be certain that security difficulties will be reduced to the bare minimum, despite the fact that security threats continue to plague the country, particularly in the northern states.
Speaking at the Nigerian Guild of Editors’ annual convention in Uyo, Ribadu informed Nigerians that “President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a talking and working politician, the current government is barely five months old, but are committed to curbing the insecurity rocking the nation.” According to HURIWA, Ribadu was also cited in the media as saying that since the current government took office on May 29th, 2023, Nigerians have been sleeping with their two eyes closed.
HURIWA’s national Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, reminded Nuhu Ribadu in a media release that official figures show that 133 million Nigerian families are multidimensionally poor at the moment. According to the Rights organization, 65 percent of multidimensionally poor people (86.1 million) live in the North, while 35 percent – over 47 million – dwell in the South. A sizable proportion of the poor population lacks access to clean cooking fuel, sufficient sanitation, and healthcare.
HURIWA questioned how the National Security Adviser views terrorism as the only threat to national security when some of the most potent threats to national security are associated with and directly linked to food or economic insecurity, which became unprecedented with Tinubu’s removal of petrol subsidy just as the Rights group asked the NSA to confirm the statistical data of poverty in Nigeria from the well-considered poverty index report released by the Natio Within the year, the NBS produced its National Multidimensional Poverty Index Report, which revealed that 133 million Nigerians are multidimensionally poor.
HURIWA reminded the NSA that during President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration, inflation has continued to grow, with the July 2023 inflationary trend reaching 24.08 percent. In addition, the headline inflation rate jumped to 27.33 percent in October 2023, compared to 26.72 percent in September 2023.
Malam Nuhu Ribadu, the NSA to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, specifically stated that while kidnapping has replaced arm robbery throughout the country, the few instances still occurring are carried out by an organized syndicate, even as he promised that “we will not fold our arms and allow banditry to take over the peace of this country.”
When asked why the military is having difficulty removing Boko Haram from the country, Ribadu stated that it was a work in progress. “The government has invested so much in tackling insecurity for the good of the people,” Ribadu continued. “If every Nigerian can behave as true Nigerians and cooperate with government and every security agency, then kidnapping and the likes will soon become a thing of the past,” stated the minister of state.
HURIWA demanded that Ribadu explain to Nigerians why the terrorists from the Northwest states who slaughtered over 30 soldiers and even made the sensational claim in August 2023 of shooting down a Nigerian Airforce fighter jet in Niger state have yet to be apprehended, despite the mastermind appearing in a viral video.
“The NSA who says Nigerians sleep with two eyes closed, is he unaware that 8 youth corps members kidnapped on their way in Zamfara for camp, are still being held for over three months and indeed, only few days back, some 20 Muslims who were on procession in Katsina state were slaughtered by armed terrorists,” HURIWA said.
The rights group therefore cautioned the National Security Adviser to avoid the penchant by politicians for use of media propaganda but instead lead the drive for a coordinated joint armed forces combat of terrorists and also to impress it on the Nigerian police force and the Department of State Services, to rid the country of armed kidnappers who have upgraded their operations since President Tinubu came into office.
“Was it not just yesterday, that a Pastor who was kidnapped in Kogi state, was killed by his captors even after his family had paid the N1 million ransom demanded by the armed marauders? Can the NSA on his own with no security details, drive himself from Biu in Borno state through Kaduna to Katsina without been kidnapped?” HURIWA asked.