The federal government has asked
former President Olusegun Obasanjo to withdraw his recent divisive comments,
imputing ethno-religious motive to Boko Haram, ISWAP, and as well apologise to
Nigerians.
In a statement issued in Abuja on
Tuesday, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, 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 are terrorist organisations pure and simple, adding that they care 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 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 mis-characterization 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 reiterated that 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, are 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,” he said.
He also noted that Obasanjo’s
call for wide consultations with various groups as part of the efforts to
tackle the Boko Haram crisis has been neutralised by his ill-advised comments
which have served more to alienate a large number of Nigerians, who are 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 to override his love for a united Nigeria.
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