In exercising their electoral franchise in the 2015 presidential election, Nigerians freely gave their mandate to General Muhammadu Buhari as he was then known, in place of their former president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan. Indeed, it was a historic exit for Jonathan because it was the first time an incumbent Nigerian president would be rejected at the polls. This gave Buhari a prized second chance to run the affairs of Nigeria 32 years after his military regime.

For the record, it took Buhari 12 years of relentless contests before he eventually succeeded in ascending the presidential throne.

We are therefore right to assume that President Buhari must have patiently, painstakingly and strategically prepared for the gargantuan task of Nigeria’s presidency. His persistent quest could only mean that he truly hungered and thirsted to govern the country he once publicly wept for. It however appears that he did not prepare well for the job.

But anybody who has keenly observed Buhari’s administration will easily know that the president has introduced a strange element into governance since he assumed office: buck passing. From all intent and purposes, blame game is not a virtue of any good and responsible leadership. A leader must be in charge and take responsibility even if anything goes wrong in the sphere of his office, notwithstanding whether such miscarriages resulted from delegated duties or inherited; the buck stops on his table.

Blame game has been a major attribute of President Muhammadu Buhari’s government as it struggles to define, analyse and find solutions to, not just the killings being carried out by herders in the country, but in practically every other thing.

For instance, let us take the president’s observation in his recent trip to London. To the consternation and irritation of many Nigerians, he attributed the killings in Nigeria to the late Lybian leader, Muamma Gadaffi-trained and armed militia. Then while on a mission to douse the dust arising from the president’s gaffe, the Minister of Interior, Gen. Dambazzau (rtr) faltered by blaming state governments for setting up militia cum security outfits which he claimed complicated the situation.

Although the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo later visited Benue, one state that is unarguably now depopulated by the wanton killings, all he did was to try to debunk the killings as being religious or ethnic, and then announced that N10billion would be made available to rebuild the communities devastated by the herders. In all these, no one thought it wise to accept the ranching law which the Benue State Government put in place. Not until the havoc has been done that the option of ranching was finally accepted.

Obviously, there is so much hypocrisy in this government. And we ask: Who were the people trained by Gadaffi? Has, any one of them been arraigned? Were the arms and ammunition they used for their dastardly operations recovered? Why would the entire Middle Belt of Nigeria be turned into a killing field? Is there no hidden agenda? If truly Gadaffi trained killers were responsible for the killings, why would it be that Benue State which does not share any borders with any other country became so special for their operation? Why did the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris violate the president’s order to go to the crisis-ridden Benue State which he refused and till date, there is no punishment or whatsoever for violation of his order?

These developments have forced us to believe that the on-going killings in Benue, Plateau, Taraba, Kaduna, now Kogi, Zamfara, etc. are more political than economical or sociological. Also, it is certain that the Federal Government has not sufficiently cleared itself of partisanship, lack of empathy and genuineness in tackling the problem.

We therefore call on the Federal Government to display unbiased approach, sincerity of purpose and decisiveness in these problems or else, it will go down in history that the Buhari-led government obliterated Nigeria’s unity on ethnic, regional and religious altars.

Of course, nothing corroborates this allegation than the fact that all the Service Chiefs are from the North and are of Islamic descent.