President Muhammadu Buhari has reiterated the essence of Nigeria’s unity, urging those contemplating its breakup to have a rethink.
Speaking at a meeting with the council of south-east traditional rulers at the state house on Thursday, Buhari said the question of having another country out of Nigeria was misplaced.
“The question of having another country out of Nigeria is going to be very difficult,” he said in a statement issued by Garba Shehu, his spokesman, on Thursday.
“From 1914, we have more than 200 cultures living with one another. God had endowed this country with natural resources and talented people. We should concentrate on these and be very productive.”
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Addressing specific issues raised in the address by the traditional rulers, the president gave assurance that the southeast would also benefit from the new railway architecture being put in place by his administration.
On their request for more representation for the southeast in his government, the president said that he was “very conscious of the sensitivities of the southeast”, on account of which, he gave the region’s four out of five states senior ranking ministers in the federal cabinet.
Buhari used the occasion to appreciate the good work of the ministers from the region in the federal government, saying they are doing very well for the country.
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He appealed to the traditional rulers to persuade their people to give his government a chance and to continue to serve as beacons of culture and traditions of their people.
He assured the delegation that kidnapping and cattle rustling, which he described as “unfortunate”, would be the government’s next target, now that “we have managed to calm down the northeast”.
In taking note of the profuse commendation for his administration’s war against corruption and insecurity by the traditional rulers, Buhari expressed frustration at the endless nature of some ongoing trials, citing some of the cases as going far back to the tenure of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
“We are asking the judiciary to clean itself. Nigerians are tired of waiting. They want some actions,” he lamented.
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The president said he hoped that the acting chief justice of Nigeria and attorney-general of the federation would come to some form of agreement by which specially designated courts will give accelerated hearing to some corruption cases that are pending, arguing that “we want Nigerians to know we are serious.”
Earlier in his address, the chairman of the southeast council of traditional rulers, Eberechi N. Dick, had made requests for roads, other projects among other issues, even as he assured the president of their support for his leadership and programmes.
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), whose leader Nnamdi Kanu is in prison, has been calling for an independent state for the southeast.
On Thursday, a federal high court, Abuja denied Kanu bail.
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2 comments
“The question of having another country out of Nigeria is going to be very difficult. From 1914, we have more than 200 cultures living with one another. God had endowed this country with natural resources and talented people. We should concentrate on these and be very productive,” the President said.
It is interesting to observe the toning down of the former Autocratic Rhetoric of Mohammadu Buhari and his co-civil war generation whereby the non –existing one Nigerian Unity is non-Negotiable and merited an indivisible status. Now he seems to have admitted that the so called Unity of the Nigerian enclave is in reality divisible but according to him difficult. He really deserves a high commendation on that rethink.
On the other hand Buhari admitting that despite Gods endowment of the country with natural resources and talented people over the years (of which I should presume that he is one of them),Nigeria is not productive as supposed, whereby one should now concentrate on these and be productive, seriously poses the question, why?
It is on this note that I humbly remind him and his complots, that the instrument which in this case is the natural resources he mentioned coupled with the talented people together, can only be productive in a sustainable and conducive environment. And that is what has remained impossible under the non-existing one Nigeria Unity that is non-Negotiable and merited an indivisible status.
Nations are not there for people of one or more ethnic groups to just get along with one another and produce the president in turns, but to lay the foundation for each and every one of its citizens to excel and achieve his or her maximum potentials. This has remained summarily impossible under the un-existing one Nigeria Unity.
In earnest, the more sustainable, but difficult solution of division of the country according to Buhari, but leading to a likelier chance of good governance, remains a more credible and easier attainable alternative to ensure the citizens welfare that has become impossible with the non-existing one Nigeria Unity Principle. I hope they also have a rethink on that.
Again Buhari consistently refuses to mention his Fulani herdsmen menace as a threat to National security but rather, Kidnapping and cattle rustling (cattle stealing).Very interesting.
Buhari Lies, There Is Nothing Like One Nigeria, If The Easteners Keeps Calm, They Will Be Doomed. This Nation Needs To Be Split.