By: Abayomi Adeshida

An American based Advocacy Expert and President,  Equal Rights for People Living With Disabilities  International Incorporation, Chief Eric Nwabueze Ufom has thrown his weight behind the decision of President Muhammadu to retain the current set of Service Chiefs on hos administration despite calls from different quarters for Buhari to relieve them of their duties.

Chief Ufom, however, warned that beyond the decision of the President to retain them,  the efforts of the Senior Officers and the entire security architecture would come to nought if the government should fail to employ spirited efforts to address the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among those who are at the lowest rung of the society towards the search for lasting peace.

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According to him, “it was good for the President to tell the Service Chiefs that their best is mot enough, but the country does not need another set of Service  Chiefs at this time without any significant change in the structures on applied by the same officers who are already at the twilight of their careers.

“Remember that the President himself was once in their shoes and he must have understood that he needs the experience of the current crop of the leadership of the Services to keep the reduce the activities of the insurgents.

“Unfortunately, this strategy will only work for a little while because going with the daily reports of wanton loss of lives and property across the country, the country might experience mass desertion by the military and a collapse of the entire security of the country   ‘It is not roo late yet for government to pay attention to the over twenty million beggars and street urchins across the that are rising daily with the loss of places of abode, ancestral homes and natural habitats.

“These people are abandoned at Internally Displaced Peoples camps daily.

“The most pathetic part of the woes befalling the country is the fact that most of these camps are places originally constructed as schools and vocation centres.

Also during the lengthy telephone interview, he warned members of the Nigerian Northern Governors  Forum (NNGF) to take the lead by redesigning the wheels by paying due attention to helping the Almajiris to cure them of the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder  (PTSD) that has fuelled their resolve to contribute to the insecurity across the country.

Chief Ufom who said he has been an expert in the field of advocacy for over thirty years spoke from Houston, Texas in the United States of America.

He told Vanguard that he was giving the advice with the understanding that the reputation of his non-profit group, Equal Rights for People Living With Disabilities  International Incorporation was on the line.

During the telephone interview, Chief Ufom totally faulted the decision of the Governors to banish Almajiris from their States to other parts of the country because it would always bring the country on its knees and affect the nation in many ways.

Responding to a question from this reporter on the causes and lasting solutions to insecurity across Nigeria, Chief Ufom said, “with all due respect, the Northern Governors Forum made a grave mistake by relocating Almajiria from their States and spreading the woes across the country instead of using the same resources to gather these underprivileged compatriots and cure them of a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that has been with them from birth.

“The Governors took that wrong decision to banish  Almajiria from their States out of insincerity of purpose, buck-passing and blindness from the temporary immunity they currently enjoy.

“They have placed themselves above the same society that bred these children into poverty, raised on the streets where many of the Almajiis die of hunger and natural conditions that should not have taken their lives if the government cared about them.

“The trauma continues with each election cycle when politicians keep their families abroad and hire the hungry boys into camps, arm them and give them stipends that can barely feed them and stock their rising drugs and narcotics-ridden lifestyle.

“Now that they are in office, they suddenly realised the need to shake off the street urchins from their backs and the resultant effects is the daily reports of rising cases of kidnappings for ransom, bandits attacks and unexplainable fire incidences in big markets across the country.

“The solution will come when the people in government have a sincerity of purpose and turn this huge army into profitable citizens.

“There are conventions of the United Nations that protect the rights of every citizen that are being violated when these people are being forced to relocate from the places they choose to live.

“Once those in government remember that their term in power is temporary, they can pay deserved attention in making the society safe for everyone as guaranteed by several chatters and conventions of the United Nations to which Nigeria is a signatory,” he concluded.

Vanguard