Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, the National Publicity Secretary of Northern Elders Forum (NEF), believes President Muhammadu Buhari is mostly responsible for the current separatist agitations in Nigeria by the likes of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Sunday Igboho, Yoruba Nation activist.
Baba-Ahmed said Buhari had failed to reach out and find a way to integrate Kanu and Igboho into the mainstream political system.
Kanu is currently in detention in the custody of the Department of State Security, DSS, while his trial continues on October 21.
Igboho, meanwhile, is presently in detention in the Republic of Benin after he was declared wanted by DSS.
“All these arguments we’re making about lack of inclusion, abusing our diversity, have their roots in the way in which this President runs his government. People don’t feel like they belong. And the same people who are saying they’re not part of Buhari’s government are now saying give us this presidency,” Baba-Ahmed told the Nation.
“Buhari, in his view, has failed to address issues that give a chance to irredentists, secessionists, adventurers and killers who ride on this idea that this part of the country doesn’t belong to Nigeria and he has failed to reach out and find a way to integrate them into the mainstream political system; that’s his job.
“You cannot be indifferent to sentiments in the South East. You cannot be indifferent to what’s happening in the Southwest and still hope that you can run a safe and secure country.
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“You ought to have detected this a long time ago and move to nip it in the bud and assure communities that’ll ordinarily feel that people like [Sunday] Igboho and [Nnamdi] Kanu have a case to make. They’ve no case to make.
“Every element and every community in Nigeria has been sidelined by incompetence, by indifference and by a president who doesn’t think that it’s his job to perform the political role of a leader. So that’s the mismanagement that people talk about. It’s sad and tragic that we’re where we’re today when we should be stronger politically. We’re not,” he said.
