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| Ambassador Zakari Ibrahim |
CPC condemns call for Buhari's arrest
By: Chuks Okocha and Onyebuchi Ezigbo
Worried by the growing army of social dissidents in the
North, the northern states governors have been advised against the continuous
arming of the youths for the purpose of using them as political thugs.
They were also enjoined to open up the political space and
avoid monetising the electoral process.
These were part of the high points of the recommendations of
the “Report of the Northern States
Governors’ Forum Committee on Reconciliation, Healing and Security” submitted
by a 40-man committee headed by
Ambassador Zakari Ibrahim as Chairman and Dr. Joshua Dimlong (Ngolang
Ngas).
According to the report, “ The use of youths as political
thugs is widespread with dangerous consequences of militarising them and
exposing them to living dangerously through extensive drug abuse. This has huge
negative implications on human resource availability for social and economic
development of the northern states.
The report recommended that “Government should outlaw the
use of political thugs at all levels and enforce the law appropriately, holding
the sponsors of such thugs responsible as co-partners for all the misdeeds of
the thugs.
“Violence and monetisation of all political processes has
been identified as restricting the political space and excluding many potential
political actors, resulting in a serious disconnect between the political class
and the electorate,” the report said.
The report further said government of the northern states
should “impress on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the
State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs) to regulate the monetisation of
all political processes”.
According to the report that was adopted in the last
Northern States Governors’ Forum (NSGF) in Kaduna, it said, “the Northern state
governments are advised to make demonstrable moves towards more accountable and
democratic governance and more consultation with affected communities as a
means to effectively defuse the drivers of discontent”.
The report also advised northern governors on the need to
promote prudence and public accountability in order to channel more resources
for human security development between the government and the governed.
Also, the report further said, “There is wide range of
unemployment in the region, which results in a dissatisfied, impoverished
population as well as an army of unskilled, vulnerable, restive youth all over
the region who have become cannon fodders for insurgency and all other
political tensions.
“There is an underlying resentment and apprehension for
development initiatives among the general populace, whether these initiatives
are from national, international or even private parties. This is largely
because the content and packaging of some of the development programmes have
not included a sensitisation of the citizens or their inclusion in designing
the development programmes,” the report said.
On a state by state basis, the report singled out Plateau
State, noting that, “the relationship between the Fulani pastoralists and
farmers continues as a festering sore in Plateau State and this must be
attended to”.
In Kano State, the
report said, “Kano has over the years been a fulcrum of negative response to
tensions around Nigeria and beyond. Some of the characteristics which are at
the root of this peculiarity of Kano are the fight for space between inter and
intra religious groupings, propelled by a poor social fabric, a general lack of
adequate knowledge and exposure to issues among the population and a
willingness to use religion and ethnicity as offensive tools.
“In such a context the insurgency would have found fertile
ground for escalation. However, the character of the current insurgency differs
significantly from the norm."
In another development, the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) has decried the call by the
President of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN ), for the arrest of General
Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), which it said was based on distorted facts about the statements made by the former Head of
State on Boko Haram.
In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary,
Mr. Rotimi Fashakin, the party said the aim of the CAN President's call was to
paint its national leader in bad light, as being supportive of the heinous activities
of the Boko Haram insurgency.
"It is our view that this statement is utterly
tendentious and unsupportable by incontrovertible facts. We are aware that, as
it was before and after the 2011 elections, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor is keen on
helping the electoral fortunes of his friend, President Goodluck Jonathan. We
are therefore compelled to re-tell GMB’s uncompromising stand on Boko Haram ,
" it said.
Following Buhari's
criticism of the efforts being made by the Federal Government to combat
the security threat posed by the
religious insurgency, especially it's declaration of state of emergency in
three north-east states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, Oritsejafor accused
the CPC leader of ethno-religious
chauvinism.
However, CPC said
Oritsejafor is harboring an orchestrated plan to discredit Buhari and to
present him as supporting the insurgency of Boko Haram in Nigeria.
"Our attention has been drawn to the recent call by
Pastor Ayodele Oritsejafor, President of CAN
for the arrest of General Muhammadu Buhari (GMB) – the national
leader of CPC on account of his recent
commentaries on national issues.
"The kernel of the latest orchestrated distortion of
GMB’s recent commentaries was done to blacken him as supporting the insurgency
of Boko Haram in Nigeria. In fact, Pastor Oritsejafor impudently asserted?
“We are aware that this is a rehash of the stance of Pastor
Ayo Oritsejafor to a previous piece of mendacious writing by Dr Reuben Abati in
his Guardian Newspaper column, wherein he alluded to GMB as being responsible
for post-election violence in some parts of the North in April, 2011," it
said.
Buhari was quoted by CPC as having said in an interview on
the genesis of Boko Haram, in June 2012:
"When we knew who was Maitatsine, wasn’t he arrested, killed and
his corpse shown to everybody? But this Boko Haram, if you could recall
somebody recommended me to represent Boko Haram.
"I told them the honest truth that I didn’t know who
their leadership was and I still don’t know who their leaders are. I don’t know
their philosophy because no religion advocates hurting the innocent. So, all
those people giving it a religious meaning are wrong. You can’t kill a person
and say Allahu Akbar (God is great). It is either you don’t know what you are
saying or you don’t believe in it. It is one of the two.
"Bombing other human beings to death at any time is
callous. It becomes much more reprehensible on a Christmas day and all lovers
of peace must condemn these gruesome acts and demand that the perpetrators be
fished out and brought to book." Buhari said.
The party said Buhari is averse to anyone giving the insurgency a religious
connotation.
"How on earth would the Vatican and the British
authorities speak before the Nigerian government act on attacks within Nigeria
that have led to the death of our citizens? This is clearly a failure of
leadership at a time the government needs to assure the people of the capacity
to guarantee the safety of lives and property. You can devote the entire budget
to security and there won't be any result if there is no competence in
leadership to know what to do at the right time.
“We leave discerning Nigerians to judge and see the
incongruity in Pastor Oritsejafor’s reckless call and GMB’s unwavering
patriotic stand on Nigeria’s insecurity. Again, Pastor Oritsejafor has proven
to be, a willing implement for destabilization in the hands of the Presidency,
in the orchestrated heckling of GMB ahead of the 2015 elections.
“There are certain incongruities in the Nation state under
President Jonathan that GMB has continued to sensitize Nigerians about, and for
which the government has continued to distort with its divisive weapon of
preying on the ethno-religious fault lines in the country," the party
added.
The party added that Buhari was blaming
the genesis of the bloody insurgency of Boko haram on act of cruel
injustice, coupled with the official acquiescence of the PDP-led Federal
Government of President Good-luck Jonathan.
For instance, it recalled the incident in Baga, a fishing
community in Borno State, where a
Nigerian soldier was killed.
According to CPC, the
ensuing reprisal attack by the Military left in excess of 185 persons
dead – mostly children and women – and many houses destroyed.
On the alleged slaughter of about 60 security men
(consisting of police and State security operatives) in Nasarawa by the Ombatse
cult group, CPC described as improper conduct the statement credited to the SSS
boss Mr. Ita Ekpeyong, that " he has left everything to God".
"In a bizarre twist of the events, the Director-General
of Directorate of State Security (DSS), Mr. Ita Ekpeyong, said he had forgiven
the killers of the service men and left them to God’s judgment. GMB, in his
characteristic candour, lambasted the head of Nigeria’s spy agency for this
perfidious statement.
"These are his exact words: “However, the Nasarawa attack is a cult that
infiltrated the police itself. The latest I learnt from you the press is that
the number of security personnel killed is 56. The cult group slaughtered 56
security men. The SSS boss or whoever that said he has left everything to God
has no right to do that.
"Constitutionally, Nigerians can practise any religion
they want or they can be atheists or anything they want to be, that is
constitutional. But nobody should hurt a citizen of Nigeria and then get away
with it, not to talk of slaughtering 56 law enforcement agents and then
somebody is coming out from the system to say such a thing. It is either that
person doesn’t know what he was talking about or he shouldn’t even be there.”
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