Statesman and chairman of Patriots, Professor Ben
Nwabueze, has expressed fears over moves by President Muhammadu Buhari’s
government to purchase war planes from the United States, wondering if it is
not a “hidden agenda” to carry out “jihad” against the Southern part of
Nigeria.
Professor Nwabueze
made this observation as he rubbished the Buhari-led anti-graft war, describing
it as the president’s “Northern Agenda” plot intended to Islamise Nigeria.
Wondering why
Buhari has allegedly concentrated appointments to all the positions vital to
the effective prosecution of the war against corruption to people of northern
extraction, Nwabueze said, “One hopes that the order for the purchase of war
planes from the U.S., ostensibly to fight Boko Haram terrorism, is not
connected with the hidden agenda for a jihad.”
This was contained
in a lengthy statement the professor signed and entitled, “Whether the
eradication of corruption is the motivating object of the on-going war against
it.”
Part of the
statement read, “Given that President Buhari was initially acclaimed, hailed
and idolised by the people as an uncompromising spear-head of a crusade against
corruption – taking crusade to mean, not just a war, but a war fought with
great passion and zeal – it is significant that, in less than two years, the
acclaim is giving way to cynicism about the President’s sincerity in the
prosecution of the war.
“Is he really the
uncompromising crusader that the public had been led to believe? There is
reason to suppose that the public cynicism is the by-product of the President’s
Northernisation Agenda, as it is being carried into effect by his lopsided
strategic appointments which are so manifestly skewed in favour of the North
and against the South.
“Viewed from the
standpoint of the war against corruption, it is significant that all the key
officials involved, even if it be indirectly, in the prosecution of the war are
northerners appointed by President Buhari since his inauguration as President
on 29 May, 2015. A list of such appointees shows this assertion to be an
incontrovertible fact.
“Babachir Lawal,
Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF; appointed in preference to
a hotly tipped candidate from the South-East; after his removal following
allegation of diversion of funds meant for persons displaced by the Boko Haram
insurgency in the North-East, he was replaced by another northerner, Boss
Mustapha, again in preference to a rumoured candidate from the South-East.
“Maj-General
Babagana Monguno, rtd, National Security Adviser (NSA) replacing (Col) Dasuki,
NSA under former President Goodluck Jonathan.
“Alhaji Abba
Kyari, Chief of Staff to the President, replacing Brig-Gen Jones Oladehinde,
rtd, the holder of the office under former President Goodluck Jonathan.
“Ibrahim Idris,
IGP, appointed over the heads of some southern officers senior to him. The IGP
is heading a Police Force, the Nigeria Police Force, NPF, in which 15 out of
the 22 Assistant Inspectors-General of Police, AIG, who exercise much of the
function of the operational control of the Force, are northerners, while three
are from the South-West and two from the South-East.
“These blatantly
lopsided appointments, all of which were made since the inception of the Buhari
Administration, portray the NPF as an army of occupation deliberately designed
to carry into effect President Buhari’s Northernisation Aganda in furtherance
of the dream of the Sardauna to reduce the South to a conquered territory and thereby
prevented from having control over its future.
“The President’s
implacable opposition to re-structuring which envisages the establishment of
State Police should not, therefore, surprise us. He wants to be able to
continue to exercise control over the internal security of the Southern States
and to continue to hold them hostage. It caricatures true federalism that a
constituent state in a Federation should be under the control and yoke of the
Federal Government in the matter of its internal security.
“Daura,
Director-General, Department of State Services, DSS, replacing Ita Ekpenyong;
apart from the DG, the directors are mostly northerners. The control of the NPF
and DSS by northerners must be taken together with the fact that the Minister
of Interior and the Permanent Secretary of the ministry are northerners; that
the Army and Air Force are headed by northerners; and, above all that President
Muhammadu Buhari, a northerner, is the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed
Forces, and has the power under the Constitution to direct the operational use
of the NPF for the maintenance and securing of public safety and public order;
his power to direct the operational use of the DSS is even more plenary.
“The implication
of the control of security by northerners is that the security of Nigeria and
Nigerians is an exclusively northern affair, thereby putting the rest of us at
their mercy.
“Abubakar Malami
SAN, Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, AGF, a young
SAN, who was raised to the rank in 2008, i.e. seven years before his
appointment as AGF.
“Lt-Gen
Abdulrahman Danbazau, rtd, Minister of Interior. viii: Magaji Abubakar,
Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Interior; he has publicly admitted to have
wrongfully sidetracked the Head of Service, HoS, Mrs Winifred Ekanem Oyo-Ita, a
southerner, in the reinstatement of Abdulrasheed Maina, and has apologized to
her accordingly: see the Vanguard of December 1, 2017.
“Ibrahim Magu,
Acting Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC; still kept in
office in an acting capacity since 9 November, 2015 because of repeated refusal
by the Senate to confirm his appointment. “Hamed Ibrahim Ali,
Controller-General, Nigerian Customs Services; customs is the underbelly of
corruption in Nigeria.
“Mohammad
Babandede, Controller-General Nigerian Immigration Services; immigration stands
implicated in Maina’s escape out of Nigeria after his sack from the civil
service and his subsequent re-entry into it.
“Amb. Muhammed
Dauda, Acting Director-General National Intelligence Agency, NIA, replacing Ayo
Oke, a southerner; after he was sacked, following the discovery in the NIA
offices in the Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, of the sum of $43 million, £27,800 and N23
million.
“Alhaji Ahmed
Idris, Accountant-General of the Federation, replacing Jonah Ogunniyi Otunla, a
southerner. Maitanti Baru, Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation, NNPC, replacing Ibe Kachukwu, a southerner, who, as Minister of
State for Petroleum and Chairman, NNPC Board, was sidelined by Baru in the
process for the award of some NNPC contracts; earlier he has been downgraded
from Minister of Petroleum to Minister of State for Petroleum, with the
President taking over as his own Petroleum Minister.
“Abdulrasheed
Maina, Chairman, Presidential Task Force on Pension Reform; although his
initial appointment took place before the Buhari Administration, his
reinstatement after he was sacked occurred during that Administration, with the
President’s approval as the evidence shows…
“There are of
course other lopsided strategic appointments, such as the appointment of Professor
Mahmood Yakubu as Chairman, Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, and Hadiza
Bala-Usman as Head of the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA. The listed
appointments raise critical issues as to the intention or design behind them.
“They look like a
swoop on the South, a jihad designed to foist Northern domination, or even
subjugation, on the South in pursuance of the Sarduna’s agenda, announced as
far back as 1960, to subjugate the South and reduce it to a conquered
territory, with the object of preventing it from having control over its
future,” an agenda which President Buhari, in a speech in May 2015 as
President-elect, re-echoed and vowed to carry to a finish.
“What other reason
could there be for concentrating in the North the appointments to all the
positions vital to the effective prosecution of the war against corruption? We
need to be told. One hopes that the order for the purchase of war planes from
the U.S., ostensibly to fight Boko Haram terrorism, is not connected with the
hidden agenda for a jihad.”
News
Source: - The Ripples | January 11, 2018.
Photo Source: - The Guardian | April 05, 2015.
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