Politics
OBY Ezekwesili, former minister of Education and the presidency are involved in war of words over the crisis between the Nigerian Army and the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB.
Ezekwesili had urged President Muhammadu Buhari to stop being a sectional leader and take the moral high ground in dealing with issues in the country but the presidency through Garba Shehu,senior special assistant to the president on Media and Publicity, blasted her for the statement.
The former minister, who supported Buhari during the 2015 presidential election, urged the president to act as a true leader by showing love to all in a series of tweets on Twitter on Thursday while reacting to the recent deployment of soldiers in the South-East codenamed Operation Python Dance 2.
“It is tragic that you, our President Muhammadu Buhari, have deliberately or inadvertently alienated a segment of the people you lead. It is tragic,” she said.
According to her, it was wrong of Buhari to punish an entire geopolitical zone because of the actions of a few.
“The leader of a country cannot be friends only of those he/she likes. No. That is not leadership. The leader builds up groups. Not divide. You cannot lead only those that worship and swear by you. You are the leader. You must carry the burden even of those that detest you.
“It is the lowest form of churlishness that is unbecoming of a leader to send signals that you dislike anyone of the groups you lead. A leader is a winner. When a winner acts like a loser, things go wrong in their kingdom. Real leaders build a bond with all their people.
“Worst is when a leader makes enemies of most because he abhors the action of one or a few. That is not leadership! That is ethnic prejudice. A real leader does not suffer from the destructive disease of ethnic prejudice. It endangers his/her people and real leaders cannot bear such,” Ezekwesili said.
Reacting, Shehu said that the Indigenous People of Biafra was deliberately provoking soldiers to commit acts of violence in order to draw sympathy from the international community.
“While the military are taking all precautions to observe the rules of engagement, there is a deliberate sinister agenda by IPOB to provoke the soldiers into killing innocent people in retaliation so that Nnamdi Kanu would use the pictures of the victims for international propaganda by accusing the government of ethnic cleansing against the Igbo with the sole purpose of gaining sympathy,” Shehu said in a statement on Thursday.
The statement reads: “The Presidency has advised the Co-convener of the #BringBackOurGirlsgroup, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, to demonstrate a great sense of responsibility in the face of national security challenges posed by the IPOB incendiary propaganda designed to cause civil unrest in the country.
“A prominent influencer like Mrs. Ezekwesili has a moral and patriotic duty not to give ammunition to any violent group that seems determined to pursue its separatist agitation through reckless and destructive methods.”
According to Shehu, Ezekwesili failed to condemn IPOB and its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, who, he said, had been promoting violence for several months.
He said since the former minister was very active on social media, she should have been using her energy to condemn the IPOB leader but she chose to look the other way.
“While it is convenient for the civil society activist to condemn the military and the government of President Buhari, Mrs. Ekekwesili didn’t find it appropriate, even once, to criticise the dangerous and violent propaganda being propagated by the IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu. Oby, as they call her, tweets on everything. Why was she silent on this one?
“The attacks on soldiers and policemen by IPOB supporters were most irresponsible, indefensible and reckless and nobody in her position should elevate mobs to the status of rock stars for the sake of playing to the gallery,” the statement said.
The President’s spokesman wondered why Ezekwesili “retreated to the background or lost her voice while IPOB supporters were violently molesting, harassing, attacking and jeopardising the lives of indigenes and non-indigenes.”
He challenged the former minister to explain to Nigerians where the constitution of Nigeria, and international human rights law, support the killing and molestation of innocent people in the name of advocacy for self-determination.
Shehu said Ezekwesili’s “hypocritical and timid silence while Kanu’s IPOB supporters were engaged in lawlessness and recklessness in violation of his bail conditions is a burden on her credibility as a national crusader who should be courageous to condemn criminality. This art of using a raincoat while taking a bath is nothing short of self- deceit.”
He reminded the ex-minister that if the Buhari administration could take tough action against the extremist religious groups in the northern parts of the country to preserve national security, it was ridiculous to accuse the President of sending soldiers to the South-East because he hates the Igbo.
Stating that Buhari is not marginalising the south east, Shehu noted that the two most important economic entities in the country – the ministry of Petroleum Resources and the Central Bank of Nigeria – were being run by Igbo (from the South South) – Ibe Kachikwu and Godwin Emefiele, respectively.
“A President, who has put the nation’s cash cows, the Central Bank and the Ministry of Petroleum, in the hands of the Igbo; who has given four out of five states in the sub-region senior cabinet posts in his administration, including Foreign Affairs; and Industry, Trade and Investment, and is constructing the Second Niger Bridge after years of deceit and false starts, cannot be called a hater of the Igbo,” he said.
– Sept 15, 2017 @ 12:24 GMT |
Tags: #BringBackOurGirlsgroup Buhari Ezekwesili in war of Words over IPOB Nigerian Army presidency President Muhammadu Buhari
