Buhari’s South Korea Trip Insulting To Over 600 Dead Flood Victims in Nigeria – HURIWA
Prominent civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), on Monday, said President Muhammadu Buhari insulted over 600 dead victims of ravaging floods across Nigeria with his current trip to Seoul, South Korea for the first World Bio Summit.
HURIWA, in a statement issued by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, said it is deeply disturbing that at a time when devastating floods have submerged major parts of no fewer than 20 states in Nigeria, the President finds it appropriate to hop in the next presidential jet off to South Korea where he is at the moment.
The group lamented that in saner climes, Buhari’s colleagues will sit at home and coordinate emergency response to over 32.5 million persons displaced by floods resulting from torrential rainfalls, failure to construct proper drainage systems and dams in the country.
HURIWA castigated the National Emergency Management Agency for drastically editing the actual number of victims by just affirming that just 2.5 million persons are affected. The Rights group said that the areas affected by floods are densely populated making it inevitable that over 32.5Million citizens would have been rendered internally displaced persons.
According to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), s ridiculous and dubiously reduced number of about 2.5 million persons were affected and over 603 persons killed by the flooding caused by torrential rainfall within two months.
“This year’s devastating floods in Nigeria have attracted international sympathies from the King Charles III of the United Kingdom and the United Nations. But rather than sit at home and act as a leader needed by his people in moments of dire emergencies, Buhari goes another junketing spree in faraway South Korea! What a leader!” HURIWA’s Onwubiko exclaimed.
Onwubiko further stated, “Buhari’s incessant foreign trips and junketing abroad is abominable especially in moment of crisis situations. It is no doubt the unfeeling and detached nature of the President as he regards his foreign trip more than Nigerians and issues confronting them.
“As stated by Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State, Cameroon will soon open the dam in the next one or two years again but Buhari’s government is bereft of a national plan to deal with the next one.
“Buhari’s government has equally failed in the building of the Dasin Dam to mitigate flooding from Cameroon’s Lagdo Dam. The President has not built any embankments or any national emergency plan.
“According to reports, by the end of 2021, the President had spent over 200 days on medical leave in the United Kingdom alone since coming to power. His insouciance and insensitive leadership are in sharp contrast with the selfless leadership of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy who has staunchly stood by his people since the Russian invasion broke out early in the year.
“Now that the United States and Britain have warned of a possible terrorist attack in Abuja, Buhari is again AWOL! The Commander-In-Chief is missing in action. In serious climes when there is insecurity, their Presidents stay back and coordinate counter-terrorism strategies to keep their people safe.
“Buhari’s trip to South Korea is frivolous and useless. This is a trip that his Minister of Science and Technology or Health could have attended alone given that the event is a technically health and technology related which the President is absolutely bereft of any qualification to attend.”
