The Coalition of Northern Politicians,
Academics, Professionals and Businessmen and an opposition party on
Thursday took a swipe at President Goodluck Jonathan over his comment
that Boko Haram was not caused by poverty or misrule.
Jonathan had in an interview with the Cable News Network’s Christiane
Amanpour, Wednesday night, said, “The sect was not born out of misrule,
definitely not; sometimes people feel it is a result of poverty, but
no. Boko Haram is a local terror group and that is why we call on the
rest of the World to help us.”
But the Convener of the Coalition of
Northern Politicians, Academics, Professionals and Businessmen, Dr.
Junaid Mohammed, disagreed with claims by the President.
Mohammed said in a telephone interview
with one of our correspondents that it amounted to begging the issue for
the President to deny the link between poverty, misrule, bad governance
and general insecurity.
The member of parliament in the Second
Republic, said, “I don’t agree with him (Jonathan). If he denies that
poverty, bad governance and misrule right through history is not
responsible for violence, then let him tell us what is.
“If he says it is political, everything
that happens in a political environment is political. What he should now
tell us is if poverty is not an issue and if bad governance is not
responsible for part of our problems in Nigeria, let him tell us whether
or not these are political.
“In any case, if indeed what is
responsible for the violence and insecurity in the country is politics,
what is the solution to it?
“What is he planning to do? What are his
own ideas of dealing with this problem? Or is he saying that because
they are political, we should all stop playing politics?”
Also, the Executive Director of Civil
Rights Congress, Mallam Shehu Sani, faulted Jonathan’s assertion that
the Boko Haram insurgency was not a product of misrule and poverty.
Sani, in a separate telephone interview
with one of our correspondents, said the President’s assertion
demonstrated his lack of understanding of the issue.
Sani said, “What we should understand
clearly is that the President is completely lacking in knowledge and
grasp of the situation on the ground.
“And one comment after another, he has
completely exposed his ignorance about the root causes and solution to
the Boko Haram violence.
“The emergence and sustenance of the
Boko Haram violence is remotely connected to the years of destruction,
injustice and iniquity in the northern part of Nigeria.
“The major foot soldiers of the group are clearly people who are from the lower ladder of the society.
“It is not possible to find people who are economically comfortable engaging in violence.”
When asked about the privileged
background of the underwear bomber, Abdulmutallab, Sani said, “That is
Mutallab as an individual but this is a group. Mutallab acted as an
individual; he acted alone.
“He enjoyed privileges and got connected to a foreign terrorist group, what we are talking about is a homegrown terrorist group.
“I am sure those who are being arrested are foot soldiers only; you don’t see people from the middle class or the upper class.”
On his part, the spokesman for the
Congress for Progressive Change, Mr. Retime Fashakin, said Boko Haram
was a result of the Peoples Democratic Party’s misrule.
He said, “Most probably, Boko Haram
evolved out of the hopelessness of PDP’s misrule in the last 13 years. A
hegemony that refused to reduce the burgeoning army of unemployed
youths is definitely stoking the fire of discontent in the land.
“Starting from the Obasanjo regime to
date, Nigeria’s political economy has always been driven to satisfy the
whims and caprices of the Breton Wood institutions and their choking
economic prescriptions.
“Do you now see why this will naturally
encourage people’s discontent? If you understand the fact the Nigeria
has about six times the income in the last 13 years than between 1960
and 1998, then you will come to terms with profligacy embedded in the
PDP brand. These resources have been frittered away through legendary
corruption and anti-people schemes.”
National Chairman, Action Congress of
Nigeria, Chief Bisi Akande, who spoke through his media assistant, Mr
Lani Baderinwa, on Thursday, asked rhetorically, “If poverty and misrule
are not the cause of Boko Haram, what then is it?”
“Majority of Nigerians believe Boko
Haram is caused by poverty while many people believe it is due to the
jostle for 2015 presidential ticket within the Peoples Democratic
Party,” he said.
An online information network, Conscience Reports, on Thursday in a statement made available to journalists by its Chief Executive, Mr. Eneruvie Enakoko, said the CNN interview had exposed the President’s lack of touch with the realities of the nation.
“The Amanpour interview further
revealed that the President is neither in charge nor on top of issues;
he seems to have lost touch with reality, and he clearly has lost
control, because the Nigeria he spoke of last night (Wednesday)
certainly does not exist; it exists only perhaps in his dreams,” Enakoko
said.
He said the President was “at best untruthful” in answering questions from his interviewe
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