Despite his letter on the state
of the nation, the Presidency on Friday said ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo is
not neutral.
It said since Obasanjo’s has a
political position, his opinion cannot be taken as the gospel truth any longer.
It said political Fulani herdsmen
were on rampage to de-market the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said Nigeria will not break
because “it is very solid, it will remain solid.”
The Special Adviser on Media and
Publicity to the President, Mr. Femi Adesina, who faulted Obasanjo in an
interview with THE CREST online newspaper, said Buhari’s administration is not
failing.
It was the first comprehensive
reaction to the ex-President who raised the alarm that the nation was getting
to the brink.
Adesina said: “Whatever former
President Obasanjo says now cannot be taken as neutral. It cannot be taken as
something from a disinterested party because he has a political position where
he anchors everything he says. His opinion then cannot be taken as the gospel
truth any longer.
“It can only be the opinion of
one man and he has the right to that opinion.”
Adesina insisted that the
security situation in the country is better than the case in 2015.
He said Buhari has made a “big
difference” in addressing security challenges nationwide.
He said: “No doubt, there are
security challenges in the country, but are things better than 2015? Yes,
things are better than 2015.
“In 2015, do you know how many
bombs went off daily in this country? Yes, daily! And with scores dead in
different parts of the country!
“It happened in the North-East;
happened in the North-West; happened in the North-Central. Abuja, the federal
capital, was not immune from it. But, that has largely been reduced.
“You hardly hear of those bombs
going off again because the government has made a big difference. Now, we have
challenges in other areas-kidnapping, armed banditry, armed robbery, and all
that. Yes, there are challenges but government exists to solve challenges. And
this government is doing its best to solve the challenges.”
“People also exaggerate things
for political reasons. We are not saying those challenges are not there. Of
course, they are there.”
The presidential spokesman said
Nigeria will not disintegrate contrary to predictions.
He said: “But then to now say the
entire country has been taken over, to say that the government is failing, is
political. Nigeria is still there, it is very solid. It will remain solid. It
will remain one, and the challenges will be overcome.
“Government is not the only
institution responsible for security. It is a collaborative thing between the
government and the governed. Government at the federal level is not the only
one responsible for security.
“But what do we find? You find
some people, they will go and cause trouble at the local government (level),
and they will be calling President Buhari, who is at the centre, to come and
resolve it.
“You have government at the
federal level; you have government at the state level. And you have government
at the local level. All of them-federal, states, and local governments, must
collaborate to end this security challenge. The people as well as the
traditional institutions have their roles to play. It is a collaborative
thing.”
Concerning the menace of herders/
farmers’ clashes nationwide, Adesina said the challenges are being aggravated
by those he termed as “political Fulani herdsmen” to de-market the
administration of President Buhari.
He said: “The herdsmen/farmers’
clashes are causing security challenges. There are also political Fulani
herdsmen; those ones have been created by hidden hostile hands who want to
de-market the government.
“The Fulani issue is there but it
is no way near what has been trumpeted, and what has been claimed. To some
people in the media, there is no other criminality in the country except Fulani
herdsmen.
“Even when other criminals
strike, it is Fulani herdsmen. It is stereotyping. It is finger-pointing which
is not based on facts. I am not saying that there are no challenges about
Fulani herdsmen due to climate change, dwindling resources and things like
that. Yes, we have those challenges. But it is not every criminality
perpetrated in the country that is done by the Fulanis.
“We have always lived with Fulani
herdsmen in this country. They drive their cattle from different parts. When
the rains are here, you see them. They move southwest and they get forage for
their cattle and all that. And when the rains go and the water recedes, you
find them following the water as it recedes. In the process, they drive their
herds into farmlands and it becomes an issue. There was a way that problem was
settled in this country before.”
“The problem was there in the
first republic, even in the second republic. But it was not as bad as we have
it now because climate change has affected vegetation and the water table. Lake
Chad, for instance, is ten percent of its former size. That has seriously
affected grazing and availability of resources because the herdsmen follow the
water. They follow where there is green grass to feed their animals.”
On the delay in constituting his
cabinet or announcing some appointments, Adesina said Buhari has a clear
direction of where he is headed in his second term.
He also said contrary to
insinuations, appointments made by the President were not lopsided.
He added: “No, the direction is
clear. If some appointments have not been made, it does not indicate that you
don’t know the direction. The direction in which this government is going is
very clear. Direction is determined by policy. It is determined by
pronouncements.
“It is determined by things you
had done in the first term, which you are consolidating in the second term. It
is not the appointment that has not been made that will determine the
direction.
“One thing is to appoint the
brightest and the best; another is to take care of the agitations against some
members of the President’s first term team. Throughout that term, people were
always complaining about lop-sidedness in appointments, about ethnicity,
nepotism and stuffs like that.
“If you look at the entire gamut
of appointments, it is not true that there was lopsidedness. It is not true. If
you look at the totality of the appointments, you will see that there was a
balance in the country.
“People just decided to believe
there was lopsidedness because the security apparatus was like tilted more
towards a particular section of the country; and security is not something you
play politics with. Security is just where you use the brightest and the best.
“The president has explained many
times that he made the security appointments based on the career records of the
people. They were the best in the different services at that time; and he
appointed them.”
Asked why it is difficult for
government to apprehend the sponsors of this particular aspect of violence
against the populace, Adesina said: “They will not always prevail.”
“I am sure eventually government
will get to unveil who the hidden hostile hands are. They are both internal and
external. Nigeria has possibly the most
porous borders in the world. The borders in the north alone are about 1,500
kilometres.
“The entire border area in the
country is about 4,500 kilometres. So, people can come in at will; from
anywhere-Libya, Sudan, Burkina Faso, generally; and all these places are awash
with small arms which they bring into the country. So, it is a problem.
”It remains a problem because we
have not also tried to study and copy what bigger and better organized
countries have done with their borders. There are countries that are three
times bigger than Nigeria in terms of land mass, yet, they are well policed.
Their borders are tightly controlled.”
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