Senate President David Mark’s remarks that Nigeria may break up if the activities of the dreaded Boko Haram insurgents are not checked have attracted scathing criticisms from the cross section of the country.
Mark had at the opening of the Senate’s Retreat in Uyo, Akwa Ibom state, blamed the persistent violent activities of the sect on the inaction of ‘northern leaders and elders’, whom he accused of not doing enough to proffer solutions to the mayhem perpetrated by Boko Haram.
The Senate President had said: “The elders in the North, I ask, can they really stop this menace? And if they cannot, let them say so.
“Because the impression at the moment is that there are some group of elders in the North who can stop it; there are group of elders who know what is happening.
“My candid opinion is that they cannot stop it and they don’t know what is happening. If they were involved at all at some time, they are now completely out of control right now as we speak but if they are, I think it is proper that they come out because Nigeria has to be one for northern Nigeria to exist.
“The way the exercise is going at the moment, if Boko Haram is not halted, it may result to the break up of this country and God forbid, because people will not take it for too long. I call on the elders that they should come out frankly and they should assist if they are in the position”, he said.
But the Northern Elders Forum yesterday described Mark’s remarks as unfair to elders of the region.
The spokesman of the Forum, Professor Ango Abdullahi, noted that Mark has been heard at various fora speaking against the leadership of the North and accusing them of not living up to their responsibilities and wondered if Mark has excluded himself from being a leader of the region.
“If he has excluded himself from being a leader or elder, then I think he is right to say that others who are regarded as elders or northern leaders should be queried for the security challenges being faced in some quarters in the country”, Abdullahi said.
He lamented that the Senate President who is the No. 3 citizen in the country and also No. 2 citizen in the North after the Vice-President could accuse “northern leaders and elders” of doing nothing about the security challenges bedevilling the country, especially the North.
According to him, Mark cannot be a leader and a derelict, and say others should bear responsibility for some of the failures in the North.
“So there must be something sinister about this. If you look at the details of his submission at the retreat, he is also trying to shift the blame on northern Muslims for the crises that are going on. In other words, he is passing the buck to those he considered to be Muslims in the North.
“I believe this should not be coming from somebody who occupies No.3 position in the country and No.2 position in this part of the country, and we still regard him as one of our own even if he decided not to; but we still think so”, the Professor who was one time Vice Chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, affirmed.
Abdullahi, who had also served as Obasanjo’s adviser on agriculture and food security, said he could not remember Senator Mark ever convening any meeting of northern leaders and elders as the Senate leader to discuss problems bedevilling the country or the North.
Also yesterday, the Plateau state government condemned the implicit calls for the dismemberment of the country in Mark’s remarks, saying it regards the advocates as ‘unpatriotic, wicked and wild.’
The state’s Information Commissioner, Pastor Yiljap Abraham, made the condemnation when he visited the Jos office of the National Orientation Agency (NOA).
Although Pastor Abraham did not make a directly reference to Mark, in statements that appear to be veiled rejection of the Senate President’s controversial Uyo remarks, the commissioner said emphatically that such “unwarranted calls” were a “disservice to the nation.
“We, as a government, feel those calling for the nation’s break up are unpatriotic and wicked to a nation that they claim to belong.
“Nigeria is good enough to be kept as a united entity no matter the challenges we are facing as a nation’’, he said.
Abraham argued that Nigeria was not the only country facing security challenges, and stressed that break up was certainly not the solution.
He expressed regrets that some of such advocates were people who were educated and well enlightened members of the society.
“What the Plateau government is saying is that we must not politicise serious issues like this; we must move together toward a united and prosperous nation for our younger generations”, he stressed.
Responding, the Plateau Director of NOA, Mr Musa Chantu, said that the size and population of Nigeria was a huge advantage that must be explored toward greatness. “We shall gain more as one nation and must reject any call for any division. America is bigger and larger than Nigeria in size and population, yet it is intact and prospering, so why not Nigeria?’’.
Two youth organisations in the North had similarly blasted Senator Mark over his statement of Monday.
In a statement jointly signed by Messrs Nastura Sheriff for Arewa Youth Development Foundation and Shettima Yerima for Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, the groups said they found it "regrettable that David Mark, himself a northerner and occupying his present office by the grace of the North, should turn round to accuse the region's elders of being behind the crisis".
The groups said it was surprising that the Senate President could publicly feign ignorance of "the concerted efforts by the Northern Elders Forum that has cut across religious and tribal boundaries; the various meetings held by the Northern Governors Forum, the northern traditional rulers and various coalitions of religious leaders".
They recalled that the northern elders have in their effort recently visited and presented a comprehensive document advising President Goodluck Jonathan on how to handle the security situation.
The region's youths also lamented that the Senate President has not for once "attempted to meet with any of the elders, political leaders, religious or cultural leaders on how to resolve the situation, to now find the courage to point accusing fingers particularly at the elders.
"It is on record that Mark has never visited Maiduguri, Kano or Potiskum to console with families of the thousands of people slaughtered in the course of this violence but now finds the voice to criticise respected elders of the North," they further lamented.
The groups challenged Mark to name those he claimed in his statement to be behind the terror group and to tell the world the action he has ever led the Senate to take towards arresting the security threat.
Earlier in a veiled response to Mark even at the retreat, Borno state governor, Kashim Shettima disagreed with the Senate President insisting that Nigeria will not break up because of the activities of the
Boko Haram sect just as he counselled that Nigerians must learn how to live with one another.
Shettima said it was impossible for the country to break up along religious lines because adherents of the two dominant religions in the country, Christianity and Islam, are interwoven in the northern and southern parts of the country.
The Senate President had said: “The elders in the North, I ask, can they really stop this menace? And if they cannot, let them say so.
“Because the impression at the moment is that there are some group of elders in the North who can stop it; there are group of elders who know what is happening.
“My candid opinion is that they cannot stop it and they don’t know what is happening. If they were involved at all at some time, they are now completely out of control right now as we speak but if they are, I think it is proper that they come out because Nigeria has to be one for northern Nigeria to exist.
“The way the exercise is going at the moment, if Boko Haram is not halted, it may result to the break up of this country and God forbid, because people will not take it for too long. I call on the elders that they should come out frankly and they should assist if they are in the position”, he said.
But the Northern Elders Forum yesterday described Mark’s remarks as unfair to elders of the region.
The spokesman of the Forum, Professor Ango Abdullahi, noted that Mark has been heard at various fora speaking against the leadership of the North and accusing them of not living up to their responsibilities and wondered if Mark has excluded himself from being a leader of the region.
“If he has excluded himself from being a leader or elder, then I think he is right to say that others who are regarded as elders or northern leaders should be queried for the security challenges being faced in some quarters in the country”, Abdullahi said.
He lamented that the Senate President who is the No. 3 citizen in the country and also No. 2 citizen in the North after the Vice-President could accuse “northern leaders and elders” of doing nothing about the security challenges bedevilling the country, especially the North.
According to him, Mark cannot be a leader and a derelict, and say others should bear responsibility for some of the failures in the North.
“So there must be something sinister about this. If you look at the details of his submission at the retreat, he is also trying to shift the blame on northern Muslims for the crises that are going on. In other words, he is passing the buck to those he considered to be Muslims in the North.
“I believe this should not be coming from somebody who occupies No.3 position in the country and No.2 position in this part of the country, and we still regard him as one of our own even if he decided not to; but we still think so”, the Professor who was one time Vice Chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, affirmed.
Abdullahi, who had also served as Obasanjo’s adviser on agriculture and food security, said he could not remember Senator Mark ever convening any meeting of northern leaders and elders as the Senate leader to discuss problems bedevilling the country or the North.
Also yesterday, the Plateau state government condemned the implicit calls for the dismemberment of the country in Mark’s remarks, saying it regards the advocates as ‘unpatriotic, wicked and wild.’
The state’s Information Commissioner, Pastor Yiljap Abraham, made the condemnation when he visited the Jos office of the National Orientation Agency (NOA).
Although Pastor Abraham did not make a directly reference to Mark, in statements that appear to be veiled rejection of the Senate President’s controversial Uyo remarks, the commissioner said emphatically that such “unwarranted calls” were a “disservice to the nation.
“We, as a government, feel those calling for the nation’s break up are unpatriotic and wicked to a nation that they claim to belong.
“Nigeria is good enough to be kept as a united entity no matter the challenges we are facing as a nation’’, he said.
Abraham argued that Nigeria was not the only country facing security challenges, and stressed that break up was certainly not the solution.
He expressed regrets that some of such advocates were people who were educated and well enlightened members of the society.
“What the Plateau government is saying is that we must not politicise serious issues like this; we must move together toward a united and prosperous nation for our younger generations”, he stressed.
Responding, the Plateau Director of NOA, Mr Musa Chantu, said that the size and population of Nigeria was a huge advantage that must be explored toward greatness. “We shall gain more as one nation and must reject any call for any division. America is bigger and larger than Nigeria in size and population, yet it is intact and prospering, so why not Nigeria?’’.
Two youth organisations in the North had similarly blasted Senator Mark over his statement of Monday.
In a statement jointly signed by Messrs Nastura Sheriff for Arewa Youth Development Foundation and Shettima Yerima for Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, the groups said they found it "regrettable that David Mark, himself a northerner and occupying his present office by the grace of the North, should turn round to accuse the region's elders of being behind the crisis".
The groups said it was surprising that the Senate President could publicly feign ignorance of "the concerted efforts by the Northern Elders Forum that has cut across religious and tribal boundaries; the various meetings held by the Northern Governors Forum, the northern traditional rulers and various coalitions of religious leaders".
They recalled that the northern elders have in their effort recently visited and presented a comprehensive document advising President Goodluck Jonathan on how to handle the security situation.
The region's youths also lamented that the Senate President has not for once "attempted to meet with any of the elders, political leaders, religious or cultural leaders on how to resolve the situation, to now find the courage to point accusing fingers particularly at the elders.
"It is on record that Mark has never visited Maiduguri, Kano or Potiskum to console with families of the thousands of people slaughtered in the course of this violence but now finds the voice to criticise respected elders of the North," they further lamented.
The groups challenged Mark to name those he claimed in his statement to be behind the terror group and to tell the world the action he has ever led the Senate to take towards arresting the security threat.
Earlier in a veiled response to Mark even at the retreat, Borno state governor, Kashim Shettima disagreed with the Senate President insisting that Nigeria will not break up because of the activities of the
Boko Haram sect just as he counselled that Nigerians must learn how to live with one another.
Shettima said it was impossible for the country to break up along religious lines because adherents of the two dominant religions in the country, Christianity and Islam, are interwoven in the northern and southern parts of the country.
Instead of casting aspersions on the Senate President, Hon. David Mark, Northern leaders must act to stop the perennial infliction of genocide on their fellow Nigerians. The whole world is watching Nigeria and the time bomb is ticking, every Nigerian should put hands on the deck and pull their bootstraps up to stop this darkness that is descending on Nigeria before we become another Sudan.
ReplyDeleteThe truth must be told and there is no need to play the " ostrich behavior " of living in a fools paradise. The Senate president is only sounding the alarm of an impending apocalypse and the" doubting Thomases" are busy enjoying their lives in a dream world hoping that they will wake up one morning and the crisis will just disappear.
This monster called Boko Haram like all other religious terrorist groups does not negotiate nor compromise. They read the Holy Koran upside down and give Islam a bad name. This is a wake up call.
Jonathan alone cannot solve this problem, it requires our collective effort combined with international cooperation and assistance to deal with this monstrosity. Our people has to learn to be vigilant and end corruption which enables these people to buy their way to execute their nefarious acts.
In summary, action not words nor blames will guarantee our victory over the forces of negativism and division.
May God protect us all from the forces of evil. Amen
Chief Godfrey Ajoku
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