FG to Obasanjo: Don’t break up Nigeria in your twilight

The federal government has asked former President Olusegun Obasanjo to withdraw his recent divisive comments, imputing ethno-religious motive to Boko Haram and the Islamic State’s West Africa Province (ISWAP) dastardly acts, saying he should apologise to Nigerians.

It also said the former president should not encourage the country’s breakup in the twilight of his career.  

Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed said this Tuesday in a statement in Abuja.

The insurgency broke out over 10 years ago in the North-eastern part f the country, with Borno, Yobe and Adamawa as the worst hit states.

 Over a thousand lives and property worth billions of naira were also lost to the insurgency.   

What Obasanjo said

Obasanjo, had while speaking  Saturday at the second session of the seventh Synod of the Anglican Communion, Oleh Diocese, in  Isoko South local government area of Delta state said the insurgents were planning to Islamise Nigeria and the entire Africa.

He spoke on ‘Mobilising Nigeria’s human and natural resources for national development and stability.’

On the insurgency, Obasanjo said, “It is no longer an issue of a lack of education and employment for our youths in Nigeria which it began as, it is now West African Fulanisation, African Islamisation and global organised crimes of human trafficking, money laundering, drug trafficking, gun trafficking, illegal mining and regime change.”

He said: “Every issue of insecurity must be taken seriously at all levels and addressed at once without favouritism or cuddling. Both Boko Haram and herdsmen acts of violence were not treated as they should at the beginning.

“They have both incubated and developed beyond what Nigeria can handle alone. They are now combined and internationalised with ISIS in control.

“We could have dealt with both earlier and nip them in the bud, but Boko Haram boys were seen as rascals not requiring any serious attention in administering holistic measures of stick and carrot. And when we woke up to the reality, it was turned to industry for all and sundry to supply materials and equipment that were already outdated and that were not fit for active military purpose.

“Soldiers were poorly trained for the unusual mission, poorly equipped, poorly motivated, poorly led and made to engage in propaganda rather than achieving results. Intelligence was poor and governments embarked on games of denials while paying ransoms which strengthened the insurgents and yet governments denied payment of ransoms. Today, the security issue has gone beyond the wit and capacity of the Nigerian government or even West African governments.”

FG replies

But the federal government in its response, said such “indiscreet, deeply offensive and patently divisive comments are far below the status of an elder statesman.

“It is particularly tragic that a man who fought to keep Nigeria one is the same one seeking to exploit the country’s fault lines to divide it in the twilight of his life.”

The minister said Boko Haram and ISWAP elements were terrorist organisations who cared little about ethnicity or religion when perpetrating their senseless killings and destruction.

“Since the Boko Haram crisis, which has been simmering under the watch of Obasanjo, boiled over in 2009, the terrorist organisation has killed more Muslims than adherents of any other religion.

“The terrorist group blown (sic) up more mosques than any other houses of worship and is not known to have spared any victim on the basis of their ethnicity.

“It is therefore absurd to say that Boko Haram and its ISWAP variant have as their goal the ‘Fulanisation and Islamisation’ of Nigeria, West Africa or Africa,” he said.

The minister said President Muhammadu Buhari put to rest the wrong labelling of Boko Haram as an Islamic organisation when he said, in his inaugural speech in 2015, that “Boko Haram is a mindless, godless group who are as far away from Islam as one can think of.”

He said Obasanjo’s comments were, therefore, “as insensitive and mischievous as they are as offensive and divisive in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country like Nigeria.”

“It is wondering whether there is no limit to how far the former president will go in throwing poisonous darts at his perceived political enemies.”

The minister noted that Obasanjo’s prescriptions for ending the Boko Haram/ISWAP crisis, which include seeking assistance outside the shores of Nigeria, were coming several years late.

He said President Buhari had done that and more since assuming office, “hence, the phenomenal success he has recorded in tackling the terrorists.”

“Shortly after assuming office in 2015, President Buhari’s first trips outside the country were to rally the support of Nigeria’s neighbours – Benin, Cameroon, Chad and Niger – for the efforts to battle the terrorists.

“The president also rallied the support of the international community, starting with the G7, and then the US, France and the UN.

“That explains the massive degrading of Boko Haram, which has since lost its capacity to carry out the kind of spectacular attacks for which it became infamous, and the recovery of every inch of captured Nigerian territory from the terrorists,” the minister further said.

He also said Obasanjo’s call for wide consultations with various groups as part of the efforts to tackle the Boko Haram crisis had been neutralised by his ill-advised comments which served more to alienate a large number of Nigerians offended by his tactless and distasteful postulation.

The minister called on the former president, whom he said took bullets for Nigeria’s unity, not to allow personal animosity override his love for a united Nigeria.

MSSN kicks

In a related development, the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria (MSSN) has described Obasanjo’s comment as reckless, unpatriotic and uncalled for.

The society said this in a joint statement by its Amir/Zonal Coordinator, Barrister Qaasim Odedeji, Zonal Secretary, Alhaji Abdul Jalil Abdul Rasaq and Public Relations Officer, Engr. Bashir Momoh, Tuesday in Osogbo.

“On Saturday, the 18th day of May, 2019, a former head of state and former president of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was a guest speaker at the second session of the Synod of Anglican Dioceses held at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Oleh in Isoko local government of Delta state.

“Speaking on the topic: “Mobilising Nigeria’s Human and Natural Resources for National Development and Stability”, Chief Obasanjo claimed that “Fulanisation and Islamisation of West Africa” is now the main reason for ‘Boko Haram’ insurgency, kidnapping and banditry. 

“In his words, the former president said: “It is no longer an issue of lack of education and lack of employment for our youths in Nigeria which it began as, it is now West African Fulanisation, African Islamisation and global organised crimes of human trafficking, money laundering, drug trafficking, gun trafficking, illegal mining and regime change.” 

The society said: “We believe the statement relating the crimes to Islam, and most especially coming from a former head of state and former president, is not only reckless, it is unpatriotic and uncalled for. 

“If despite the incomparable loss of lives by Muslims in the Boko Haram insurgency and other criminal activities, people like Obasanjo still find it difficult to believe that the crimes have no way in Islam and can go ahead to associate them to Islam, it is most unfortunate and highly disappointing to say the least.

“If we must remind Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, perhaps he has forgotten, his regime as President of Nigeria gave rise to regional insurgency such as Niger/Delta militancy and Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) with the militants being mainly southern Christians, yet, nobody ascribed the militancy to ‘Christianisation.

“Also, considering where Obasanjo chose to make the reckless statement, the congregation being purely southern Christians, it shows Obasanjo deliberately made the wrong assertion to instigate tribal and religious crisis. This is worrisome and unbecoming of somebody of Obasanjo’s status as former head of state.

“In the circumstance, MSSN B-Zone condemns in the strongest term the statement made by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo claiming what he called Islamisation as the reason for Boko Haram insurgency and other criminal activities.

“We want to state it for the umpteenth time that insurgency, kidnapping, banditry, drug trafficking been perpetrated across all states in Nigeria and by people of different religions and tribes, have no basis in Islam and have nothing to do with Islam and Muslims.

“We call on Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to be careful in his statements and stop making statements defamatory and indicting of Islam and Muslims in Nigeria in order not to put Nigeria in an avoidable tribal and religious crisis.

“We finally call on well-meaning Nigeria and international community to call Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to order in his reckless statement capable of throwing Nigeria into conflict. As an old man and a former president of the country, he should be more patriotic and concentrate on actions that can bind Nigeria together rather than those that can break it.”

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