The Coalition of Northern Groups on Tuesday, said the persistent killings in northern Nigeria was an indication that northern votes were wasted in electing President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 and 2019.
The coalition stated that the latest massacre of innocent farmers in a single attack in Borno State showed that northerners made a mistake in putting up a solid, united front for President Buhari in spite of ethno-religious differences.
A statement issued by the coalition’s spokesman, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, in Kaduna, said northerners have now been abandoned to suffer insecurity, poverty and poor governance.
The group had said last weekend that Buhari has become a big part of the Northern problems instead of the solutions he was elected to become.
The group said communities in northern Nigeria are now left to protect themselves after years of waiting for Buhari administration to keep its promise to end insecurity in the region if elected.
“Northern communities are under the threats of bandits and kidnappers, our highways are no longer safe, villagers are fleeing their communities and our conclusion is that the president has failed and he is deliberately not agreeing to the advice of majority of Nigerians that he should at least sack the service chiefs,” he said.
“All we hear now from our people in the rural areas is disappointment and in some cases regret. People do not even look at the potentials of farming now because the villages and farmlands have been vacated.
“It has become necessary now for all communities to mobilise and protect themselves because the bandits have chased people out of their homes and even places like Ahmadu Bello University in the heart of Zaria and Nuhu Bamali Polytechnic are not safe and this is coming at a time that students will likely be returning to school. What this means is that parents should not hastily send their children to school, they must be certain that their lives are secured,” he said.