Atiku, in a Democracy Day statement he personally signed which was released by his Media Office in Abuja on Monday, said the country’s current challenges required new thinking which should take into account the sacrifices made by democrats who fought hard to enthrone democracy.
His words: “Even as we celebrate, my fellow patriots, let us spare some time to reflect and to mourn all those murdered in the ongoing needless killings across our dear country.
“These Nigerians have been killed in the continuing murderous rampage of criminal elements across the country but especially in Borno and Yobe, and the Benue River Valley, stretching from Adamawa through Taraba to the confluence of Kogi and Benue, and including Nasarawa, Plateau, Southern Kaduna, and Zamfara.
“Others have been killed by armed robbers, kidnappers, cattle rustlers and other marauding bandits. The killings have even extended to sacred places of worship where innocent Imams and Christian clergy and worshipers are slaughtered.”
The former Vice President said the ongoing carnage had gone on for too long and must stop.
He said only the government “could stop these senseless killings in Nigeria to avoid major and further damage to the fabric of our fragile unity.”
Atiku said, “The recent history of Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi and the Central African Republic, among others, should be a strident warning to all of us, especially those in government whose primary responsibility is the protection of the citizens, but who have been dithering, making contradictory and ridiculous excuses and engaging in diversionary finger-pointing.”
Atiku pointed out that we have mourned Nigerian souls lost to terror attacks enough for us to learn that it is insufficient that the Federal Government has an exclusive statutory mandate in providing security for our people.
