Nigeria is becoming World’s Laughing Stock - Audu Ogbeh

A former Minister of Communication and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress,  Chief Audu Ogbeh, has said Nigeria is fast becoming a laughing stock among other nations in the world because of the state of insecurity in the country.

Ogbeh therefore asked President Goodluck Jonathan to take drastic actions in the fight against the Boko Haram sect, noting that the country was already in “grave danger”.

The former national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, who spoke with journalists in Abuja on Monday night, wondered why the Federal Government and the military could deploy soldiers to man streets without adequate equipment.

He said a situation where invaders would arrive and kill 100 in Katsina, 215 in Birnin Kebbi, kill in Kaduna, Plateau, Benue, Nasarawa states without being challenged was not acceptable.

He alleged that some of the the mercenaries were hired from neighbouring counties, saying that when they were caught, it was realised that they were of Arabian nationalities.

He said,  ”Nigeria is fast becoming a laughing stock in the world. I think it is reaching a state where not only foreigners but Nigerians will begin to lose confidence in their country.

“Again what of our neighbours, how much respect does Cameroon, Niger or Chad have for Nigeria? And what level of diplomacy are we deploying to talk to these people to make sure that bandits don’t take refuge in their territory? If they had respect for Nigeria they won’t

try it.

“I remember 1983 when some Chadian troublemakers invaded Nigeria and killed some soldiers, Gen. Buhari pursued them on the orders of President Shehu Shagari until the United States started panicking that we were implementing a Gaddafi agenda.

“Recently I was discoursing with Buhari on this issue and he said he wanted to give them a bloody nose because he wanted to show them that they had no business entering Nigeria to cause trouble.

“So when are we going to get tough. We are not a small country. And why should small neighbors do this to us or pretend not to know what is going on? When are we going to take tough measures against them?”