The Federal Government on Tuesday said former president Olusegun Obasanjo is on a mission to divide Nigeria at the twilight of his life.
The government has asked him to withdraw the offensive statement and tender a public apology over his comments imputing ethno-religious motive to Boko Haram and ISWAP.
Minister of information Lai Mohammed who was reacting Obasanjo’s recent claim that Boko Haram insurgency and banditry in the north was for ‘Fulanisation’ of the country, said such indiscreet comments are far below the status of an elder statesman.
In a statement, the Minister said it was 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.
Mohammed said, ”Since the Boko Haram crisis, which has been simmering under the watch of Obasanjo, boiled over in 2009, the terrorist organization has
killed more Muslims than adherents of any other religion, 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.”
According to him, Obasanjo’s prescriptions for ending the Boko Haram/ISWAP crisis, which include seeking assistance outside the shores of
Nigeria, are coming several years late, as President Buhari has done that and more since assuming office, hence the phenomenal success he has recorded in tackling the terrorists.
He continued, ”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 Obasanjo’s call for wide consultations with various groups as part of the efforts to tackle the Boko Haram crisis has been
neutralized 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.
Mohammed urged Obasanjo, whom he said took bullets for Nigeria’s unity, not to allow personal animosity to override his love for a united Nigeria, saying it will not be out of place if he withdraws his unfortunate statement and apologizes to Nigerians.
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