Convener, Barr. Saint Moses Ogbonna, has said that the actions taken by President Muhammadu Buhari, has divided Nigeria more than the activities of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB and other agitating groups in the country.
Ogbonna, who stated this in Aba, explained that the ongoing agitation for self determination and restructuring in the country is the result of Buhari’s treatment of other Nigeria as second class citizens through appointing mainly people from his zone.
He said;“People have come to realize that what is happening now in Nigeria is unprecedented. It has never happened, giving major appointments only to people from the Fulani ethnic group. This is why other Nigerians are agitating for secession and restructuring. What President Buhari ought to do is to ask himself why are some sections of the country agitating for secession and restructuring? Buhari should know that there are things he has been doing that no president of Nigeria has ever done.
“The people who want to break up Nigeria are not even the IPOB or any other group but the federal government. If the Fulani herdsmen were not everywhere taking up people’s land and killing them, no one would have taken the IPOB Leader, Nnamdi Kanu seriously. It is the biased and nonchalant attitude of the federal government that made people start listening to Nnamdi Kanu and other agitators. If the federal government negotiates with bandits and killer herdsmen, what stops it from negotiating with the agitating groups?
Ogbonna condemned what he described as Buhari’s ‘double standard’ in dealing with insecurity in various sections of the country.
“There is a high level of insecurity; killings and abduction everywhere. The measure which Buhari has been using for one section of the country is different from the one he has been using for others. Certain sections of the country began to see themselves as unwanted, as second class citizens. Since you don’t use the same rule for the country, allow other people to use their own rule.
“For instance, Fulani herdsmen are killing people everywhere. Before now, we had herders, we had Boko Haram bombing public places and killing people but they were never declared terrorists. The herdsmen destroy farm crops, rape women and kill their husbands. In some places, they sack people and take over their villages, yet the President has not declared terrorists. Now, we have bandits who are abducting students and other Nigerians. The President has never declared them terrorists. The bandits are now settled with millions of Naira for kidnapping people.
“But you brand people who resist the killer herdsmen and bandits, as terrorists. This is double standard. You come hard on one section and play soft with the other. Buhari has polarized the nation. There is no appointment for you if you are not Fulani or from the North. The President has allowed his minister, Isa Patanmi who had confessed that he had an alliance with terrorist organizations. Look at how the bio-date of Nigerians has been handed over to a self confessed terrorist sympathizer?
“All these have made people ask if we are still one country? Since you have divided the country along those you like and those you marginalize, why allow the other part to go. You can beat a child and expect him not to cry.”
He urged Buhari to emulate his predecessors who did their best to manage the nation’s diversity by accommodating people from every section of the country.
