Buhari responsible for deeply divided Nigeria, says Odinkalu

Chidi Odinkalu, former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), says Nigeria has never been as divided as it is under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari.

In an interview with The Sun, Odinkalu said Buhari acts as if “Nigerians don’t matter, as if we don’t exist”.

Odinkalu, who questioned the priorities of the president, said Buhari was quick to send a “very powerful message” when Winnie Mandela, ex-wife of Nelson Mandela, died, but kept mum on the deaths that occurred in the country days earlier.

“The country is deeply divided as it is now and I think the reasons are due partly to the actions and inactions of President Buhari,” Odinkalu said.

“ I am not the oldest Nigerian alive but in my limited lifetime I have never seen Nigeria this deeply divided and I think many of the issues have to do with this incumbent president. So far the president behaves as if Nigerians don’t matter, as if we don’t exist, as if he doesn’t need us and that he is doing us a favour. So on security, there is nothing.”

Odinkalu said Buhari who contested the presidency on the mantra of change is “incapable of change”.

He said though it is up to Nigerians to decide if they want Buhari to be president beyond 2019, “he is not a person to unite Nigeria and he is not the person to transform the economy”.

“President Buhari ran on a mantra of change, but nothing has changed, not even the thinnest drop in his performance,” he said.

“He has changed nothing and is incapable of changing nothing. He is incapable of change, he is incapable of fighting corruption. Let the people decide whether the country that Buhari has led over the last three years is the kind of country he promised he would create.Whether the kind of divisiveness, prejudices and subversion of the basic precepts of coexistence is the way to go, it is up to Nigerians to decide.”