Former House of Representatives member, Zakari Mohammed, has demanded that President Bola Tinubu declare a state of emergency on security, warning that Nigeria is “bleeding” after a week marked by mass abductions and the killing of senior military officers.
Speaking in an interview with ARISE News on Friday, Mohammed said the wave of attacks – including mass kidnappings in Niger State and multiple killings in Kwara – showed that the government lacked the political will to confront the crisis.
“Mr President should just abandon everything, declare a state of emergency on security and tighten his belt,” Mohammed said.
“For me, I think the political will to tackle security is quite missing. When he gets back to work and sits down, rather than campaigning and receiving defectors, I believe that the country is bleeding and we must do something about it.”
He warned that the killings were widespread, listing incidents in Kwara and Niger States.
“There were five killings. In Kwara, there was an incident in a church. Then in northern Kwara, some rice farmers were abducted and some were killed. Then of course in Niger, in Papiripa specifically,” he said.
Mohammed also criticised the government’s handling of its diplomatic engagements with the United States following President Donald Trump’s allegation of Christian persecution in Nigeria.
“For me, I think it’s a diplomatic mistake,”he said of the delegation led by National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu. “I don’t know why Mr President is afraid of meeting Trump face-to-face. Nigeria is not a backbencher in the community of nations. We have the human resources to guide us properly for whatever delegation we want to go into. We can’t be reduced to a bunch of jesters.”
He added that the scale of killings under the current administration should alarm the international community.
“Over 10,300 Nigerians were killed before this incident happened. International bodies here in Abuja put it together – over 10,000 in the last two years. That’s too much,”he said.
Mohammed urged the United States to support Nigeria with intelligence and modern surveillance capabilities.
“From their satellites and the sophistication of their equipment, they know exactly where these guys are in our forests,”he said. “Even if it means, without physically coming, you deploy technology to blow them up wherever they are. The world has gone beyond kinetic operations. Some of these missiles travel between continents, so why not?”
He also questioned the circumstances surrounding the killing of a Brigadier General in Borno State.
“He gave information of his location. How did that information leak? That is what you should be interested in as a country,” he said. “In the same country, by now we should be getting the reports. There must be an enquiry. That’s how it is, so that it will serve as a deterrent to others.”
Asked what recommendations he would want the US congressional panel to make as it examines Nigeria’s insecurity, Mohammed said the priority should be technology and intelligence support.
“What I think they can comment on is intelligence and the aspect of security infrastructure – and that is where they should stop for now,” he said. “Drones can do this job beautifully well. Rather than engaging our men and losing them in droves, we can pinpoint the locations and take them out.”
He added that emotions must be set aside for the sake of national survival.
“We need to remove emotions from this and secure our country, because that’s the only country we have,” he said.
Boluwatife Enome
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