A fierce Northern cleric, Sheikh
Hamed Gumi has said it is impossible for President Muhammadu Buhari to accept
fresh ideas.
He also said the President
believed most Nigerians who were not in his circle were rascals, thrives and
fraudsters.
The Islamic cleric said this in
an interview with Punch newspaper.
Gumi also said things had
deteriorated even below what led to the castigation of former President
Goodluck Jonathan.
He argued that the nation was in
a better place under the leadership of Jonathan.
When asked why he chose to
criticize the President instead of advising him on how best to lead the
country, Gumi said: “I cannot get to the other room with him because I am not
his wife but even somebody who has access to the other room cannot get ideas into
his head.
“How do you blame somebody who
does not have access to the other room? You cannot change Buhari. He is already
cast in a mentality. He believes that most Nigerians, if not all, are rascals,
thieves and 419. He believes only his own circle are the good people. You
cannot get across anything.
“He has castigated Nigerians in
many fora and everybody to him on knows that. He is somebody who always blames
others; he does not take responsibility for anything. We are not castigating
him. We are talking about this publicly for two reasons: first, his followers
have to accept something is wrong.
“Definitely, the situation now is
worse. The economy is worse. Feeding is a problem; medical care is a problem.
There are problems everywhere. Nigeria is down. Nobody is secure.
“The honest people in government
have pulled out. Look at what a Governor said recently; that he was resigning
his position as the chief security officer because he is helpless. Another
Governor said we have to face the fact that there is a problem in Nigeria. We
can’t deny that.
“Buhari is just a common man. He
is just an ordinary one man in Nigeria. We cannot be hypocrites, hiding facts
because of a man. Why are people shivering because of him because he has a team
of illiterate, fanatical followers? We can deal with them. They should not hold
us to ransom. He is a victim of this ignorant, unemployed and senseless
followership.”
He advised the President to
resign from his position, insisting that Nigeria needed a new crop of leaders,
plus a leader who will unite the nation rather than polarize it.
“When I see a leader polarising
or dividing the polity, no matter how he claims to be good, he is not good for
the situation. You see, it is not every time you have a leader that is good for
a situation. Every situation has its own remedy. We need in Nigeria a person
who can listen and bring everybody together and also have a way of negotiating
in the murky water of politics,” he said.
Gumi argued that despite the fact
that the north had produced more leaders, the region had nothing to show for
it.
“The northern region, even though
supplied many leaders, has been backward. One of the reasons is the nature of
the northern man. He has a psyche that is molded by the emirate system before
the coming of the white man, which is the absolute control. In some places, you
cannot even put on a very clean cloth because they will say you are competing
with the king.
“The society has not changed.
They feel that they are the new kings. An ordinary northern leader thinks of
northerners as subjects. He does not want to improve their economic and social
well being. For instance, it is high time we stopped this genuflection before
the emirs. They don’t have any power over us. We are human beings.
“They maintain the feeling that
‘I am superior, the others are subjects’. They do not want to assist the
region. This is the northern psyche. Even though they have been ruling for a
long time, the north has been backward. The masses have been looking for a
messiah that will free them from this bondage,” he added.
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If this man want become a politician let him just come out openly so that we can know where he belongs to
ReplyDeleteWhat a myopic way of talking and tt's the same problem Gumi is talking that you are already exhibiting
DeleteClarifying facts from politics
Excerpts from the write-up: He has a psyche that is molded by the emirate system before the coming of the white man, which is the absolute control.