Insecurity: Buhari losing popularity in the north, says Shehu Sani

A former member of the National Assembly, who represented the Kaduna Central Senatorial District in the 8th Senate, Shehu Sani, says the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), is losing his popularity in the northern part of the country due to his inability to solve the country’s security challenges.

“Buhari is losing his popularity in the north because of the insecurity. The northerners are most fanatical about Buhari before now but he is losing that because of the insecurity in the region,” the ex-senator said Wednesday on a Topnaija Online interview programme, The Roundtable.

Bandits had taken the Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, by storm on Friday night and abducted over 300 schoolboys after a gun duel with the police. The President had arrived in the state the same day for a week-long private visit –hours before the abduction took place.

Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, in a recording on Tuesday, had said the abduction of the schoolboys was done in order to discourage people from obtaining western education.

But speaking on Wednesday, Sani said it was logistically impossible for Boko Haram which is based in the North-East part of the country to kidnap that number of students from the North-West. He, however, said there must have been a consortium between the bandits and the terrorists.

Sani also said the solution to the insecurity plaguing the northern part of the country is not “complicated”, adding that the Buhari regime must get off its high horses and consult with people who understand the security situation of the north so as to end the menace of banditry, kidnapping and terrorism.

The former lawmaker added that it was self-defeating for the Buhari regime to claim that Boko Haram has been technically defeated while the terror group continues to wreak mayhem on the citizens daily.