President Bola Ahmed Tinubu says kidnappers across the country must henceforth be described as and treated as terrorists.
Amounting to a major political shift after Muhammadu Buhari’s regime tagged such criminals as “bandits,” the new label came when Tinubu spoke on Tuesday at a Ramadan dinner with members of the Judiciary led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Olukayode Ariwoola.
A close associate of Buhari, former Kaduna State’s Governor Nasir El-Rufai had gone as far describing the operations of bandits as a “business.”
According to Tinubu, those involved in the kidnapping of schoolchildren were cowards, incapable of confronting the might of Nigeria’s Armed Forces and they would be defeated.
He said: “We must treat kidnappers as terrorists. They are cowardly. They have been degraded. They look for soft targets. They go to schools and kidnap children and cause disaffection. We must treat them equally as terrorists in order to get rid of them, and I promise you we will get rid of them.”
The dinner had in attendance by serving and retired judicial officers, including two former CJNs, Justice Mahmud Mohammed and Justice Walter Onnoghen.
The President pledged that his administration would continue to implement necessary reforms to improve the welfare and working conditions of judicial officers.
He said: “I recognize that the Judiciary has one of the most unrewarded responsibilities. They are yet to modernize equipment and recordkeeping, and their progress towards improvement is slow.
”When you look at the career path of a judicial officer, they cannot practice the vocation for which they were trained after retirement.
”While the framers of the law may have their reasons, I perceive this differently and see this from a fair compensation angle that should benefit all.”
President Tinubu expressed gratitude to the Judiciary for their dedicated service to the nation, acknowledging their role in upholding the respectability of the judicial arm of government.
Expressing gratitude for the invitation to join the President in the Ramadan dinner, the Chief Justice of Nigeria commended the President’s commitment to judicial reforms and the welfare of judicial officers.
Ariwoola prayed: “May the Lord continue to bless you and your administration. Let your ship land and berth beautifully. We shall continue to pray for your administration because there are many good things in the pipeline for Nigerians.”
For the CJN, the Tinubu administration deserved commendation for the “unprecedented” milestone of appointing a full complement of 21 justices to the Supreme Court.
Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, expressed gratitude to the President for forwarding the Executive Bill titled, “Judicial Office Holders, Salaries and Allowances, Etc, Bill 2024” to the National Assembly.
The Minister of Justice said: “It takes a man with a great heart, determination, and consideration to do what the President did. More than 300.3 percent increase has been given to the judges. The President has done his own part, never mind that the bill is still with the National Assembly.
”In my short stay as the Attorney-General, I have come to observe that anything that concerns the Judiciary, you are very much interested in it, and I thank you for your abiding interest in the Judiciary.”
