Nigerian President Threatens Crackdown on Freedom Agitators

 Nigerian President Threatens Crackdown on Freedom Agitators  Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari threatened to crack down on insurrectionis...

 Nigerian President Threatens Crackdown on Freedom Agitators 

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari threatened to crack down on insurrectionists following a spate of attacks on the national electoral commission’s offices and other facilities, as pressure mounts on him to tackle growing insecurity in Africa’s biggest oil producer.

“I receive daily security reports on the attacks on critical national infrastructure, and it is very clear that those behind them want this administration to fail,” Buhari said on Twitter late Tuesday. “Whoever wants the destruction of the system will soon have the shock of their lives.”

Nigeria has been plagued by insecurity on several fronts, and Buhari’s previous undertakings to tackle it have come to naught. His ability to act against separatists that have attacked police stations and other targets in southeastern Nigeria is limited, with security forces already overstretched in their battle against an Islamist insurgency in the northeast that’s dragged on for more than a decade and claimed thousands of lives.

The Independent National Electoral Commission said there had been 42 attacks on its offices across 14 states since 2019, the bulk of which occurred in the past seven months.

The pattern and frequency of the most recent assaults indicates that the assailants are intent on disrupting future elections, said Mahmood Yakubu, the head of the commission who briefed the president about the violence. The country is scheduled to hold presidential elections in 2023.

A group known as the Indigenous People of Biafra last December formed a militant wing to protect the southeastern region against incursions by northern herders who it accuses of grazing on farmlands and committing crimes against local residents, resulting in deadly clashes. A secession bid by the oil-producing region in the 1960s sparked a civil war in which more than a million people died.

On Wednesday, Twitter Inc. deleted a tweet in Buhari’s thread for violating its rules. The offending comments said those who fought in the civil war, which included the president, will treat those “misbehaving” today “in the language they understand.” Footage of Buhari uttering the same words remained on the presidency’s verified Twitter page.

Buhari’s remarks were widely criticized on social media by Nigerians who saw them as threatening part of the country with a return to the deadly conflict that ended five decades ago.

Attacks by bandits in rural areas have meanwhile strained food supplies in the nation of more than 200 million people, pushing annual food inflation already fueled by import restrictions to more than 20%. Buhari last month warned that the nation’s food security was being placed at risk.