THE Joint Action Civil Society Coalition/Nigeria Mourns Secretariat has urged Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari to take urgent steps towards addressing the issue of incessant killings across the country.
In commemoration of the National Day of Mourning on Friday, the coalition of 127 civil society organisations issued a statement, decrying the incessant killings within the country and the ‘indifference’ of the president towards the plight of Nigerians.
Citing the silence of the president on the recent massacre of over 130 Nigerians in Benue and Plateau states, the coalition hinted that Buhari appeared unwilling to provide leadership to address the insecurity challenges facing the country.
“President Buhari remains indifferent to the growing toll of massacres, industrial scale abductions and lawless abuse of Nigerians all over the country,” the statement read.
The statement highlighted the killing of security officials, the targeting of schools by terrorists, the strike action by judicial workers, among others, as major issues plaguing the country.
It stated that rather than find solutions to the issues, the government was further deepening the crisis through nepotism, and persecution of civic actors and the media.
“We have come together on this fourth National Day of Mourning to ask the president to take urgent steps to #securenigeria by addressing these priority areas that we have identified above. There is no time to waste, the time to act is now,” it read.
The civil society organisations had, in February, called the attention of the public to the violence and atrocities carried out across several states in the country. They had also issued a statement earlier in May, calling on Nigerians to participate in a series of mass actions against the present administration.
They embarked on a march on Friday, in peaceful protest against insecurity and impunity spreading throughout the country.
Ijeoma Opara is a journalist with The ICIR. Reach her via [email protected] or @ije_le on Twitter.