The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has rejected the declaration of a state of emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States by President Goodluck Jonathan saying it will hinder electioneering campaign and disenfranchise voters in 2015.<\/p>\n
In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said while emergency rule does not appear to be anything new, in 2011 when 15 Local Governments were under emergency rule it did not stop the insurgents.<\/p>\n
\u201dIf the medicine given to a patient has not cured his or her illness, is it not futile to prescribe more of the same medicine for the patient? If the declaration of a state of emergency in 15 local government areas in four states in 2011 has not curbed the activities of the insurgents, why extend such measure to other areas? If the use of force in the affected states have failed to curtail the activities of the insurgents, why send in more troops?<\/p>\n
\u201dThere is nothing new in the President\u2019s action. It is more of the same:
\ndeployment of more troops to the affected states and the use of tougher, scorched-earth tactics against the insurgents. In the first instance, this stepped-up militarization of the states amounts to an asymmetric use of force in an environment where the insurgents operate within a civilian population, hence it will ultimately be counterproductive as the death toll will continue to mount while the civilian population \u2013 who will be caught in the cross fire \u2013 will be alienated.<\/p>\n
\u201dSecondly, the President should go ahead and disband the committee he recently inaugurated and saddled with reaching out to the insurgents, because by opting to flood the states with more troops under an ill-advised emergency rule, he has succeeded in pulling the carpet from under the Committee\u2019s feet. Who negotiates genuinely with a gun to his head? The committee\u2019s job is over, the members can as well pack up and go home.<\/p>\n
\u201dThirdly, one hopes the President\u2019s action is not linked to the politics of 2015. With the three states militarized, there can neither be electioneering campaign nor voting there. We had warned earlier that as
\n2015 approaches, the Jonathan Administration will increasingly take measures that will make it impossible to hold election in many states The over militarization of some states in the north, the plan to destabilise the South-west using slush funds from the so-called oil pipeline protection contract and the infantile threats from some Niger Delta militants seem to be part of this plan<\/p>\n
\u201dFourthly, what happens if and when the declaration of emergency rule fails to stem the violence, now that the President has gone for broke and played his last card?<\/p>\n
\u201dIn view of the reasons stated above, we hereby reject the declaration of emergency rule in the three states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, and we call on the National Assembly to also reject it and not allow itself to be used to rubber stamp a declaration that is largely cosmetic.<\/p>\n
\u201dWe reiterate our earlier statements that the Boko Haram crisis has its roots in years of bad governance that have produced an army of unemployed, unemployable, disenchanted and demoralized youths who are now ready hands and willing tools for those seeking to perpetrate violence. The unprecedented corruption across the land, as well as injustice and extra-judicial killings are also fuelling this crisis,\u201d ACN said.<\/p>\n
The party said while the short-term solution to the Boko Haram crisis should be a combination of dialogue and a minimal use of force, the long term measure to deny Boko Haram of willing recruits and make the sect unattractive to anyone is to ensure that the State can adequately meet the yearnings and aspirations of its citizens. And the only way to do this is through good governance that delivers the dividends of democracy to the citizens; stamps out corruption and ensures a just and equitable society.<\/p>\n
\u201dBoko Haram is like a bad tree. To kill it, it must be uprooted, instead of trimming its branches. The measures announced by President Jonathan on Tuesday will not deliver the killer punch to this reprehensible sect.
\nThere is need to think out of the box,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has rejected the declaration of a state of emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States by President Goodluck Jonathan saying it will hinder electioneering…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n