Ezekwesili asks Buhari to pardon convicted soldiers

A former minister of Education, Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, has asked Nigerians to appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari to get pardon the soldiers arrested for mutiny in the fight against Boko Haram.

Ezekwesili, leader of the Bring Back Our Girls group, said the soldiers were wrongly punished for refusing to fight the insurgency ill-equipped, considering that some former public officials shared the money meant to equip the army.

Delivering a keynote address titled: “A caring society grows faster and better,” at the launch of the Bunmi Adedayo Foundation on Tuesday in Lagos, Ezekwesili said the diversion of the funds was a demonstration of how political leaders and citizens exhibit ‘I don’t care’ attitude towards governance.

She said: “The exemplification of a society of ‘I don’t care’ could not have been worse in manifestation than recent revelations that while the tragedy went on in the Northeast, those responsible for governance sat around the table, watched citizens being taken out by the bunions of terror and felt comfortable to share the resources meant to equip the fighting soldiers and then turned around and said to those among the soldiers that refused to be sent on a suicide mission that they deserved to die.

“How else can you define ‘I don’t care’? I hope you will join me in telling the President of our country that those soldiers don’t deserve to die. Our President must use the prerogative of mercy that the constitution gives him to waive any kind of charges against those ones, we are not saying all soldiers, because some may have misbehaved in the course of this war.

“But we are saying that it is reprehensible that our society will degenerate to the level where leaders, who as are found in these other societies, stay awake worried about the challenges of their citizens, in our own case, stayed awake sharing the resources, meant to protect the territory and the people.”