Second Republic federal lawmaker, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, yesterday dispelled fears that Nigeria would break if President Goodluck Jonathan was not allowed a second term in office in 2015.
Mohammed pointed out
that the country had gone beyond the stage of disintegrating on account of the
electoral fortune of one man.
The political
commentator made the claim in reaction to the assertion by former Anambra State
governor, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, that Nigeria would break up if President
Goodluck Jonathan was not allowed a second term in office.
The former governor
had said in an interview with Vanguard that the issue of Nigeria’s continued
existence and second term for Jonathan were inseparable and that any attempt by
any group under any guise to deny Jonathan of his second term could lead to
unintended consequences.
One of the
consequences, according to Ezeife, is that aggrieved Niger Delta militants
would blow up oil facilities and threaten the future existence of the country.
But Mohammed while
responding to the issue on the phone from Kano, described Ezeife as the wrong
person to issue such a threat at a time when the country was already boiling because
of careless actions and utterances of loose politicians in the country.
Mohammed, who was
apparently irked by the assertion by the former governor, accused him of
stoking avoidable fire so as to win the sympathy of President Jonathan for
political patronage, which he had been denied since leaving office many years
ago.
The northern
political commentator noted that it was out of place for a former governor, who
is regarded as an elder to forget where he was coming from and dance naked in
the open just for cheap popularity and political patronage.
Mohammed said:
“It is unfortunate that Ezeife, who witness the Biafran war orchestrated by his
kinsmen, which claimed over one million of Igbo people, should be beating the
drums of war today.
“It is, therefore,
clear to all that the man has lost touch with reality and is merely playing to
the gallery for selfish motives.
“People like Ezeife
are perpetual political opportunists in the Nigerian political arena and should
be ignored especially when they fan the embers of ethnicity and war in time of
peace such as we have in Nigeria.
“My candid advice to
Nigerians is that they should ignore him because he does not have a good sense
of history and does not speak for anyone in Nigeria.”
Mohammed also
dismissed the claim that Niger Delta militants would blow up oil facilities and
divide the country if Jonathan lost the next election, saying that with a
credible administration in place, terrorists would not have a place in the
scheme of things.
“Contrary to Ezeife’s
postulation, Niger Delta militants or any terrorist group cannot be a threat to
a government that emerges through credible, free and fair election in Nigeria,”
Mohammed said.
Ezeife had
warned: “Everybody can make noise but if those who are making noise
should think deeply, they would realize that the continued existence of Nigeria
as one country is anchored on Jonathan’s continuation in office come 2015.”
On what would happen
if President Jonathan contested the election and lost, he said: “We would be
faced with the same problem.
“The Niger Delta boys
would blow up all the oil pipelines and then a part of the country could say
they are no longer interested in Nigeria; they could say Nigeria legally
expired when the nation marked its centenary and that they are now on their
own.
“This is not what I
want, but I am afraid it could happen if we foolishly think of only our short
term interest, instead of thinking of long term implications.
Culled From Vanguard
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