By Stephen Ubanna
Those who thinks that former President Olusegun Obasanjo, and Nigeria Civil war veteran, will support those plotting for the disintegration of the country would be disappointed.
The former Ogun state born Nigerian President who was said to have had a closed door meeting recently with Abdusalmi Abubakar, a retired Army General and former military Head of State, who had midwifed the current Democratic dispensation in the country and other former Leaders had lashed out at those plotting for the disintegration of the Nigeria, describing it as the most idiotic thing to think about by any person in this trying phase of Nigerian political, social, and economic development”.
The former Nigerian President who could no longer sit-by and watch the nation being destroyed by self interested individuals, and who may have acted on the mandate of the other former Leaders who had reviewed the insecurity situation in the country , may have taken advantage of of ”the Luncheon and investiture organised by the Nigerian Institute of Surveyors, in the premises of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, OOPL, in his home state to speak out.
He may not be one of the best of friends of President Muhammadu Buhari , a retired Army General, who had said that” Nigerian Unity is not Negotiable”, to throw his weight behind him, insisting that ”it is better to remain together as one indivisible nation with fairness and equity ”.
Obasanjo, who could not hide his feelings, had corroborated the views of Abubakar Sa’ad, a retired Brigadier General and Sultan of Sokoto that it will cost Nigerians less to work for the unity of the country while admitting that ”the present situation in the country is not palable”. The Ogun state born politician had confirmed the Sultan’s Statement that ”Nigeria is sick”. He was said to have told the agitators of disintegration of Nigeria that ”it is not the solution”.
Appealing to ”the secessionist agitators and their sponsors to bury the idea and work for the unity and oneness of the country” , where every Nigerian can be proud that he or she has a stake in this country.
He noted that in this age where people are talking about the ” the reintegration of Africa for economic development , disintegration of Nigeria in order to Igboland, Yoruba or the Housa/ Fulani Land as an independent nation should be shelved as it will never materialise.
He may have alluded to Sunday Egboho, pro-Oduduwa Republic agitator and Nnamdi Kanu, the Leader of the Indigenous Peole of Biafra, IPOB, who is on self-exile in the United Kingdom, UK.
He has told those that cares to listen that ”Nigeria will come out stronger from all the challenges currently facing the citizens ,” if the agitators will shelve their individual interests and work together for the unity and progress of the country”. He had cited Pakistan, Yogoslavia and Sudan , as countries that have disintegrated but are yet to find solutions to their problems.
Kanu, the Pro-Biafra, Campainer, was believed by the Nigerian government to have master-minded the removal of the Kastina state born Nigeria President’s Tweet, which had made reference to the 1967 and 1970, Civil war and his threat to threat the agitators in the Language they will understand, which Twitter Authorities had said contravened its operational rules. In apparent reaction to the Company’s action in deleting in deleting the Nigerian President’s Tweet, the government banned its operations in Nigeria.
Lai Mohammed, minister of Information and Culture may have spoken the mind of the retired Army General , when he said”all social media platforms, referring to Twitter, Facebook and others must register with the Corporate Affairs Commission, NCC, as part of efforts to regulate their operations in the country.
His anger may have been informed by the fact ”they are making money from the country without paying tax”. According to the minister, they are making billions of naira out of this country and they are not paying tax, stressing that that ”it can’t be allowed to go on” any longer.
The minister was said to have made it clear to Jack Dorsey and the Chief Executive officers, CEOs, of the other Multinational social media platforms operating in Nigeria that ”they must register as Nigerian Companies to do their business”. He was emphatic on this. ”They must be licensed and refrain from their platform being used for activities that are inimical to the growth of Nigeria”.
At the recent presentation of the book written on him by one Femmy Crrena, titled , ‘’The Man, The General, and the President’’ at the OOPL premesis Obasanjo, the former Nigeria President had dropped a bombshell.
He had attributed the rising insecurity challenges facing the country to ‘’bitterness and sadness following in the Land” , noting that the solution to addressing the insecurity situation and return the country to normalcy lies by‘’according education its rightful position in the country to reduce the numbers of pupils out of school’’, which he had put 14 million.
But Yahaya Bello, governor of the north central state of Kogi and political ally of the Nigerian President had told those that cares to listen that’’ the insecurity situation besetting the country are politically engineered’’. He may have spoken the mind of the Katsina state born Nigerian President who had said that there are those who are sponsoring’’ the crisis in the attacks in the different parts of the country to ensure that his Administration fail’’
Bello had said that the only way to overcome the crisis is’ to ensure fairness, justice, and equitable distribution of resources to the country’s six geo-political regions. This may not have been the case in the last six years in the country as some parts of the country have been neglected, particular,the south east geo-political region.
The Kogi state governor who has signified his intention to run for the 2023, Presidential election on the Platform of the All Progressive Congress, APC, but on the pages of Newspaper, had said that what the country needs now is’’ a credible and patriotic Leader to fix the myriads of challenges’’, referring to himself.
An ambitious governor Bello, may have known that given the party zoning policy, it may not be possible to emerge as the party Presidential Candidate in the 2023, general elections that as it will work against him , that he had started his sensitization Campaign to win party members support that the position of the Nigerian President should not be determined by zoning but by’’ sincerity and competence’’.
Emerging from a meeting with the Nigerian President on Thursday, June 3, 2021, the governor who had said that he is’’ under intense pressure from different parts of the country to run for the February 2023, Presidential election’’’ maintains that ‘’competence should be the requirement for electing the next President of Nigeria and not his ethnicity or religious background.
Hear him: We have practiced a seaming rotational Presidency since 199 and date but what has come out of it are’’ myriads of problems ranging from socio-economic, political to insecurity challenges’’ , begging to be fixed. Bello, who could not hide his feelings, noted that the country had copied the North American country of the United States, US, brand of Democracy but did not’’ go for the best’’.
He lamented that the country appear to be stagnant over the last 22 years of practicing’’ rotational presidency’’. Appealing to the APC, Leadership that if they want to go for zoning in the 2023 general elections to pick its Presidential Candidate ‘’they must go for perfect zoning’’.
Perhaps to win the people of the south east support in his Presidential ambition in 2023, he had said that his first strategy when eventually he heeds the call to serve at the Federal level ‘’will be to be fair, just and equitable to all’’. He had said that he’’ will ensure that all Nigerians would be involved in his government ‘’ regardless of tribe and religion’’, noting that it is the only the rising security Challenges facing the country’’ will automatically drop to the barest minimum’’.
Many see the Kogi state governor’s remarks as an indictment on the retired Army General, who had been accused by Matthew Kukkah, a Clergy man, of running a government’’, that had favoured only the north west and leaving out other regions, particular, the south east.
In a related development, the Nigerian President has confirmed the appointment of Usman Alkali Baba, as the Inspector General of Police,IGP, barely two months in office as Acting IGP. Magari Dingyadi, the minister of Police who broke the cheery news on Friday, June 4, 2021, after the Federal Executive Council meeting Chaired t Buhari was said the confirmation of the appointment of Baba, the former Acting IGP, was a clear justification of the retired Army General ‘’Confidence on him for reducing the insecurity situation in the country’’.
Political analysts believe that his two –month tenure as Acting IGP, had witnessed the gruesome murder of top politicians in the country and several kidnap cases in different parts of the country. They were said to have to have cited the gruesome murder of Ahmed Gulak, a former Skilful Speaker of Adamawa House of Assembly and Special Adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan , on Political matters, in the volatile Owerri, Capital of Imo state, Christopher Dega a retired Assistant Inspector General, AIG, of Police, and Tavershima Aldrotough, both Principal Special Assistants to Samuel Ortom, governor of Benue state on Security and Knowledge Economy/ Investment, respectively by unknown gunmen . Given the bad name which the Indigenous People of Biafra , IPOB , and the Eastern Security Network , ESN, had earned for itself over the years, particular, being linked with the attack on public assets in the south east, may have given the Law Enforcement Authorities the ammunition to link the south east secessionist Group with the Adamawa top APCPolitician.
Meanwhile , Hope Uzodimma, a Senator of Federal Republic of Nigeria and now governor of Imo state who had said that Gulak’s gruesome murder was’’ political Assassination’’ has dropped another bombshell. This time he had accused the Opposition aggrieved APC, members, in the state, of’’ fueling the insecurity in the state’’.
He was said to have made the open confession while inaugurating a security Council at the grassroots level of the state in order ‘’ to proffer solution s to the state’s security challenges’’. According to him, the aggrieved party members are working closely with the Opposition People’s Democratic Party, PDP,which want power at all cost, by hiring boys from neighbouring states to come here and cause trouble,’’ threatening to deal with them’’.
He may have spoken the mind of Buhari, the Commander-In –Chief, of the Nigerian Armed Forces, C-In-C, to deal with them ruthlessly. Recall that the retired Army General, had threatened’’ to treat IPOB and other Criminal groups plotting to destroy the country in the language they would not understand, which earned him a ban from the use of its facilities for Communication by Twitter
It is not surprising why the United States media giant is under pressure from both within and outside the country are unde intense pressure to extend the same ban on Uzodimma, the Imo state governor.
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