As Tinubu is criticised over killings, APC deploys Buhari era tactic

​The ruling All Progressives Congress on Wednesday deployed a familiar strategy the party and its government used over the eight years of the former Buhari administration to ward off criticisms, aggressively tackling a critic and saying the problem raised was not peculiar to Nigeria.

The party spoke in response to Amnesty International’s statement that 123 people had been killed since President Bola Tinubu took office on May 29 and that the new government has not acted to save lives. Mr Tinubu has yet to set up his cabinet or change military chiefs.

“It is horrific that attacks by gunmen have claimed at least 123 lives mere weeks after President Bola Tinubu assumed office on 29 May,” Amnesty said.

“Rural communities, always bracing themselves for the next bout of violence, are facing deadly attacks by rampaging killers. Protecting lives should be the utmost priority of the new government. The Nigerian authorities must urgently take steps to stop the bloodletting.”

It cited attacks in Plateau state between June 9 and June 11 where dozens were killed, and in Benue and southern Kaduna where hundreds died.

In the last eight years, attacks claimed thousands of lives in those areas and in the North-west states of Zamfara, Katsina and Sokoto. Critics said President Buhuri did not do enough to end the bloodletting.

In a statement criticising the Tinubu government, Amnesty, which frequently criticised the Buhari administration, said “The brazen failure of the authorities to protect the people of Nigeria is gradually becoming the ‘norm’ in the country.”

“The government said it will enact security measures in response to these attacks, but these promises have not translated into meaningful action that protects the lives of vulnerable communities,” it said.

“The Nigerian authorities are obliged under international human rights law, regional human rights treaties and Nigeria’s own constitution to protect the human rights of all people without discrimination — and that includes the right to life. Those suspected of criminal responsibility for these callous crimes must urgently be brought to justice in fair trials.”

– Stoking internal conflict

In its response, APC spokesperson Felix Morka said Amnesty’s conclusion was “hasty and inconsiderate” and said the group was known for “stoking internal conflict and citizen antagonism in developing nations through weaponisation and accentuation of local situations to achieve its sinister objectives while hypocritically looking the other way when similar incidents occur in developed nations, especially in the Western world.”

The party cited instances of violence in the United States and the United Kingdom as examples Nigeria was not facing a peculiar problem.

“In the first 150 days of 2023, America has recorded 263 mass shootings, with hundreds of death yet Amnesty International has not been on the mountain top to accuse US government of dereliction of duty,” the party said.

“In United Kingdom there is growing and daily menace of knife crimes. In 2022 alone, UK police recorded 49,265 offences involving knives and other sharp instruments and 46,334 in 2021. In Nottingham, a mass shooting in the city centre claimed three victims. Amnesty International has not accused UK government of failure to protect her citizens.”

– Lessons from the past

The Buhari administration repeatedly blamed its predecessor for many of the nation’s ills and excused Nigeria’s grave economic problems by pointing to global events such as COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine war, even though some of the problems predated those crises.

The APC said President Tinubu was “just settling down”, and had shown readiness to deal with insecurity by meeting with security chiefs a few days after he was sworn in.

“The isolated cases of shooting that are now several decades old in our country, will need methodical and strategic thinking to ensure normalcy. No organisation should gloat over these unfortunate incidents. It’s too early for such unsympathetic reaction,” it said.

“Amnesty International and its affiliates are advised to give the young government some time to work things out, in consonance with its pledge to our people, rather than rushing out with its jaded diatribe against the Nigerian government and its security authorities.”