President Muhammadu Buhari has warned that those bent on destroying the country will soon have the shock of their lives.
In a stern statement issued on Tuesday by Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Buhari said those promoting insurrection and burning down critical national assets will have themselves to blame.
Adesina, said Buhari spoke after he received briefings from the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, on series of attacks on facilities of the electoral body around the country.
The President said he receives daily security reports on the attacks, maintaining that “it is very clear that those behind them want this administration to fail”.
The statement said, “Insecurity in Nigeria is now mentioned all over the world. All the people who want power, whoever they are, you wonder what they really want.
“Whoever wants the destruction of the system will soon have the shock of their lives. We’ve given them enough time.”
Buhari recalled that he visited all the 36 states of the country before the 2019 election, noting that “majority of the people believed me, and the election proved it.”
The President who promised to continue leading the country in accordance with Constitutional provisions, said those misbehaving in certain parts of the country were obviously too young to know the travails and loss of lives during the Nigerian Civil War (from 1966-1967).
Buhari said, “Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand. We are going to be very hard sooner than later.”
He said Service Chiefs and the Inspector General of Police had been changed, “and we will demand security from them.”
Commenting on the dangers posed in the conduct of the 2023 general elections as a result of the burning of INEC offices, Buhari said, the electoral body would be given all necessary support needed to function, “so that no one would say we don’t want to go, or that we want a third term. There will be no excuse for failure. We’ll meet all INEC’s demands.”
The INEC Chairman, while briefing the President said a total of 42 offices of the commission had so far been attacked nation wide.
According to him, “The 42 incidents so far occurred in 14 states of the federation for a variety of reasons….Most of the attacks happened in the last seven months, and they are unrelated to protest against previous elections.
“From the pattern and frequency of the most recent attacks, they appear to be targeted at future elections. “The intention is to incapacitate the Commission, undermine the nation’s democracy and precipitate a national crisis,” the INEC chairman said.
