The leader of the Northern Elders
Forum, Professor Ango Abdullahi, has attacked President Muhammadu Buhari over
his nationwide broadcast speech on Tuesday to mark Nigeria’s 59th independence
anniversary.
The elder statesman described the
broadcast as a mere routine speech lacking content.
Abdullahi said that the country
is merely one theoretically but largely divided in terms of social structures.
According to Abdullahi, Buhari
merely spoke of what his government tried to do when he took over reign of
government in 2015 and the problems he inherited.
He said, “He talked about the
successes, if any, that his government had achieved. But to be honest, in terms
of the content and in terms of the tangibles, by tangibles here, meaning how
Nigerians feel now, I don’t think there is any reason to celebrate,” he told
The Sun.
“These indicators are enough to
frighten anyone in terms of what you read in the papers about the struggle for
political positions, political leadership, zoning whatever and so on.
“The country is still basically a
divided country and this is a reason to fear. Nigeria is one theoretically but
it is largely divided in terms of social structures, in terms of political
cohesion and so on. These are signs that you worry about in terms of the
political future of any country.”
He commended Nigerians for their
patience and perseverance in the face of daunting challenges facing the
country.
“The Nigerian constitution
whether the one, at independence, or whether the one in operation now has been
very emphatic in terms of responsibility of government.
“If you read Chapter Two of the
present constitution, on the fundamental objective and directive principles of
state, it is what the responsibility of governments are to the country and its
citizens and what are the responsibility of citizens to the country.
“If you look at that chapter very
carefully, you will see that there is a serious dereliction of responsibility
on the part of the government, not necessarily this government, in respect of
what government must do to the nation and the citizens.
“Our first set of leaders were
not even given the opportunity to pass on this culture of good leadership by
the interruption of the coup in 1966.
“Most of them were wiped out and
from there on the military boys who were not politicians, who had no experience
in running government and so on took on the affairs of running the country.
“Before we knew it, they were
introducing things that were totally inconsistency and did not tally with the
kinds of demand that a developing country like Nigeria should have.
“We thank God for his mercy that
Nigeria is still one country, and we are not sure perhaps what would happen
given then various indicators on the ground today.”
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com