President Muhammadu Buhari has declared that it will be difficult for government to put an end to the spate of violence in Kaduna State if the people continue to frustrate government’s efforts.
The president made this remark on Saturday when reacting to the violence which has led to gross loss of lives.
“If the people resist government’s efforts to hold the perpetrators and their sponsors accountable, it would be very difficult to bring the violence to a permanent end,” he said.
He added that, “While the government remains committed to protecting its citizens, the communities involved must also put their shoulder to the wheel in order to find a lasting solution.”
According to him, “lack of cooperation by those involved might frustrate government’s efforts towards finding a lasting solution, especially if those efforts are politicised.”
President Buhari regretted that “everything is politicised in Nigeria, including the efforts to bring offenders to justice, because their people will rise up in arms to resist their arrests and prosecution.”
The president expressed sadness over the spate of killings, saying it was sad that people derive joy in shedding the blood of their perceived enemies.
He said the actors should come to terms with the fact that mutual violence had no winners, but losers on both sides of the conflict.
“I am deeply troubled by the fact that sanctity of life is now treated with such reckless disregard that people derive joy in shedding the blood of others or perceived enemies,” he said.
According to the President, “inhumanity has replaced compassion in the hearts and minds of the perpetrators of these atrocities.”
“No responsible leader would go to bed happy to see his citizens savagely killing one another on account of ethnic and religious bigotry,” he further noted sadly.
According to President Buhari, “Violence cannot be the solution to these persistent conflicts as long as people resort to deliberate provocations, revenge and counter revenge.”
He described hate, bigotry and prejudice as “deadly poisons that have infected the human psyche on such scale that people now don’t have any moral inhibitions about taking life.”
The president also appealed to the warring communities to stop inhibiting the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA’s efforts to deliver food, medicines and temporary shelter to the victims of the violence who are in urgent need of assistance.
No fewer than 10 people were killed on Friday in an attack on Nandu Village in Kaduna State.
The Chairman, Sanga Local Government, Kaduna State, Mr Charles Danladi, who confirmed the incident on Saturday said however that normalcy had returned to the village.
