By Clifford Ndujihe
LAGOS — DISTURBED by the unceasing loss of innocent lives to rising ethno-religious and political violence, two presidential aspirants — Dr. Olopade Agoro of the National Action Council, NAC and Mr. Uba Saidu Malami of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN— as well as the United Action for Democracy, UAD, have urged the government to take concrete steps to end the mayhem.

Lamenting that the government appeared clay-footed in the face of the killings, Agoro said there was no indication that the government could apprehend the bombers and asked President Goodluck Jonathan to resign.

Said Agoro: “It is unfortunately becoming rhetoric for President Jonathan to come up with a promise to catch up with those who perpetuated the evils each time the sad events occurred but with nothing to show on the ground of a guarantee to proffer a meaningful solution to the security lapses.

Malami also condemned the spate of bomb attacks in Abuja, Jos and some parts of the country, describing them as wicked and barbaric.

Decrying the killing spree by some faceless group under the guise of religion, the presidential aspirant urged Jonathan to rise to the occasion and address the collapsing security situation in the country.

In like manner, the UAD, in a statement by its Lagos State Chairman, Mr. Nelson Ekujumi, called for a halt to the spate of violence. It fingered the Nigerian ruling elite for “precipitating this state of anomie by their utter disregard for the feelings and aspirations of the Nigerian people through unresponsive and irresponsible misgovernance of the country.”

The UAD also called on President Jonathan and the National Assembly to “immediately put in place measures that will allow the Nigerian people come together to discuss unfettered issues about the present faulty geographical expression called Nigeria so that we can stop wasting precious lives and properties and drop the toga of a terrorist state that we are and take our rightful place in the comity of civilized people.”