Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom said President Muhammadu Buhari is a father and a grandfather who should understand that Nigeria is collapsing due to the activities of terrorists.
Ortom stated this in a message on Saturday to congratulate Buhari on his 79th birthday.
He said: “I join your family, friends, political associates, and all Nigerians to congratulate you on the occasion of your 79 birthday.”
The governor, however, urged the president to take urgent action to secure the country before he leaves office in 2023.
Ortom said he recognizes the sincerity of the President when he was elected in 2015 and the expectations of the people but regrets that all high hopes were dashed.
He said President Buhari may have good plans but Nigeria is gradually bleeding to death.
Ortom said: “To some, the President is a father, to others, grandfather while yet to others, he is a great grandfather who should understand that Nigeria at the moment is collapsing due to the activities of terrorists who have continued to destroy the very foundation of the unity of this country.
The Governor added that the current insecurity threatening the lives of the citizenry is a complete departure from the hopes and aspirations he promised the country when he was elected President in 2015.
Ortom said: “Daily, people are slaughtered like animals either on their farms, at home or roasted to death while traveling from one destination to another with video clips showing the faces of the killers, yet no one has been arrested. The roads have become booby traps where the citizenry are scared to travel on, for the fear that they may be kidnapped for ransom or in some cases killed outrightly. It is an open secret that no one is safe in this country any longer.”
The Governor said he’s compelled to remind Mr. President of these dangers the country is going through, peradventure he is not aware that Nigeria is collapsing during his time and gradually giving the sovereignty of the country into the hands of the murderous terrorists.
Governor Ortom said he loves Mr. President and so he’s pleading with him to use his 79th birthday, not as a member of a political party or any religious bias, but as a grandfather and a nationalist, to address the obvious imbalances in the nation now before he hands over power in 2023.
He said the security architecture in the country has collapsed and the citizens now live in perpetual fear as strangers in their own country.
He encourages “the President not to listen to sycophants who may not be telling him the truth that all is well. All is not well with Nigeria right now Mr. President. You must therefore take urgent steps now to pull the nation back from the precipice before it is too late.”
The Governor urged every citizen not to sit on the fence but join hands with Governments at all levels as patriots to assist in redeeming the nation from the hands of bloodthirsty terrorists so that Nigeria can gradually move into political stability and economic prosperity for all.
He prays that God will keep Mr. President in perfect health and grant him the wisdom and strength to steer the nation to stability.