Southern Leaders Forum (SLF) on Wednesday said that President Muhammadu
\nBuhari\u2019s actions through lopsided appointments, concentration of key
\nsecurity appointments in a section of the country, flagrant disregard for
\nfederal character principle, indifference to murderous activities of
\nFulani herdsmen greatly contributed to agitations in the country.<\/p>\n
The leaders also said the national broadcast by President Buhari\u00a0on Monday<\/span><\/span> The Southern leaders in a statement signed by Chief Edwin Clark and Chief \u201cThe president expressed his dissatisfaction about comments on Nigeria Dangerous To Deal With Dissent By Force<\/p>\n They noted that \u201cexperience worldwide has shown that any attempt to deal \u201cAs elders who believe that it is better to seek solutions to problems, we Unity Of Nigeria Negotiable \u201cThe claim that Nigeria\u2019s \u2018unity is settled and not negotiable\u2019 is \u201cIf we are a settled nation, we would not be dealing with the many crises \u201cThe British negotiated to put the various ethnic groups together. All the Arrest Arewa Youths Over Quit Notice On Igbos<\/p>\n The leaders, who said President Buhari\u2019s words that Nigerians can live \u201cThe one sentence by the president that every Nigerian can live anywhere \u201cWe are distressed by the refusal of the police to comply with the arrest Speaking further, the Southern leaders said, \u201cWe acknowledge the \u201cNigeria ceased to be a federation since 1966 after the first coup. The They noted, \u201cWe do not accept the president\u2019s claim that the National \u201cWhile the composition of the National Assembly is clearly jigged and Buhari Taking Sides With Fulani Herdsmen<\/p>\n They also averred that Buhari\u2019s broadcast in which he described the \u201cWe are equally miffed that the president talks about the serial \u201cWhile we do not hold the administration responsible for all the causes of \u201cThe insensitive and clearly lopsided recruitments\/appointments into all \u201cConcentration of most of the heads of armed forces and other national \u201cThe president going on a global stage to say he could not treat those who \u201cOfficial indifference to the murderous activities of herdsmen against \u201cThe flagrant breach of the constitutionally enshrined federal character \u201cThe early retirement of mostly southern senior officers from the Nigerian \u201cAs elders who have spent most of our lives fighting for the unity of the \u201cThis is the time to renegotiate Nigeria along federal lines negotiated by Southern Leaders Forum (SLF) on Wednesday said that President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s actions through lopsided appointments, concentration of key security appointments in a section of the country, flagrant disregard for federal…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nin which he said he and the late Chief Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu agreed in
\n2003 that Nigeria must remain one and united is not a Sovereign National
\nConference and should not be taken as the collective decision of Nigerians
\nwhich cannot be reviewed.<\/p>\n
\nA K Horsfall for the South-South; Chief Nnia Nwodo and Prof. Joe Irukwu
\nfor South-East and Chief Ayo Adebanjo and Chief Reuben Fasoranti for
\nSouth-West also said the statement by the president that recent comments
\nhave crossed the red line is an attempt to commence the criminalising of
\ndissenting opinions as hate speech, especially given the recent direction
\nby the vice president that hate speech will henceforth be regarded as
\nterrorism.<\/p>\n
\nwhile he was away that \u2018question our collective existence as a nation\u2019 and
\nwhich he said have crossed the \u2018red lines\u2019. Against the background of the
\nthreat to treat \u2018hate speech\u2019 as \u2018terrorism\u2019, we see a veiled threat to
\nbare fangs and commence the criminalisation of dissenting opinions in our
\nnational discourse\u201d, the Southern leaders said.<\/p>\n
\nwith dissent by force usually drives it underground which makes it much
\nmore dangerous and difficult to deal with. We should have learnt a lesson
\nor two from Boko Haram which was an open organisation before the state
\ndrove it underground and we are still under its reign of terror despite
\nofficial claim that it has been \u2018technically defeated\u2019 or \u2018degraded\u2019.<\/p>\n
\nappeal that we must engage in social engineering fully aware that
\nglobalisation has made it very difficult to use repressive tactics to
\nrepress opinions.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cMr. President deploys the imagery of the late Chief Emeka Ojukwu to play
\ndown the demand for the renegotiation of the structure of Nigeria by
\nsaying they both agreed in Daura in 2003 that we must remain \u2018one and
\nunited\u2019. While we agree with them, the meeting between the two of them
\ncould not have been a Sovereign National Conference whose decisions cannot
\nbe reviewed. The fact that we agree on their conclusion that we should
\nremain united does not foreclose discussions of the terms and conditions
\nof the union\u201d.<\/p>\n
\nuntenable\u2026Every country is a daily dialogue and there is nothing finally
\nsettled in its life. Stable nations are still fine-tuning details of the
\narchitecture of their existence now and then. How much more Nigeria that
\nhas yet to attain nationhood?<\/p>\n
\nof nation building that are afflicting us today which have made it
\nextremely difficult to squarely and urgently face issues of growth and
\ndevelopment.<\/p>\n
\nconstitutional conferences held in the years before independence were
\nnegotiations. When the North walked out of the parliament in 1953 after
\nChief Anthony Enahoro moved the motion for independence it took
\nnegotiations to bring them back into the union after their eight-point
\nagenda which was mainly about confederation. All the conferences held
\nafter independence on constitutionalism are all forms of negotiations.
\nThere is no peaceful co-existence that is not about negotiations in a
\nplural society\u201d.<\/p>\n
\nanywhere is too short to address the danger posed by the quit notice by
\nArewa youths to Igbos living in their region, also noted that it is
\ndistressed over the failure of security agents to arrest the masterminds
\nof the quit notice after the order was given by Governor Nasir el-Rufai
\nand Acting President Osinbajo.<\/p>\n
\nwithout let or hindrance if meant to address the quit notice by Arewa
\nyouths against Igbos is rather too short to address the clear and present
\ndanger that the unwarranted threat represents.<\/p>\n
\norders given by the Kaduna State governor and the vice president while the
\npresident was away. Instead of ensuring that these orders are carried out,
\nthe president has now come to just make a bland comment on the explosive
\nissue. We are of the view that leadership requires more than this at this
\ncrucial moment\u201d, they said.<\/p>\n
\npresident\u2019s admission that there are \u2018legitimate concerns\u2019 in the land
\n.That is commendable. We, however, disagree with his take that Nigeria is
\na \u2018federation\u2019.<\/p>\n
\nturning of Nigeria into a unitary constitution which is not conducive for
\npeace and development in a multi-ethnic country is what the
\nmilitary-imposed 1999 constitution, which lied against itself with the \u2018We
\nthe people\u2019, is all about. This is the taproot of the crisis of nationhood
\nin Nigeria\u201d.<\/p>\n
\nAssembly and the Council of State are the only legitimate, appropriate
\nbodies for national discourse. While we do not dispute that these are
\nlegal bodies, we insist they are not appropriate bodies to discuss the
\nsocial contract that could bind us together as a nation-state.<\/p>\n
\nindeed one of the bodies to be restructured, the Council of State is not
\nopen to Nigerians for any discourse. If any \u2018discourse\u2019 is to take place
\non constitutional changes within the democratic framework Mr. President is
\nthe one who has the responsibility to initiate the appropriate process\u201d.<\/p>\n
\nattacks against defenseless farmers and Fulani herdsmen as a conflict
\nbetween two quarrelling group portrays him as taking sides with the
\naggressive herdsmen.<\/p>\n
\nonslaughts by AK-47 wielding Fulani herdsmen against defenseless farmers
\nas a conflict between two quarreling groups. In the last two years, the
\nFulani herdsmen have become much more ferocious in their attacks against
\nfarmers in the South and Middle Belt areas of the country with security
\nforces shying away from enforcing law and order. To present the various
\nonslaughts on farmers by these herdsmen as \u2018two-fighting\u2019 would portray
\nthe president as taking sides with the aggressive Miyeti Allah.<\/p>\n
\nagitations in Nigeria due to the crises of unitary constitution, there are
\nclearly many errors of commission and omission the government has
\ncommitted that have accentuated the strong self-determination feelings and
\nagitations across the country which only restructuring can tame today:<\/p>\n
\nfederal institutions. Even key prominent northern leaders have expressed
\nopenly their disapproval of the pattern of appointments.<\/p>\n
\nsecurity agencies in a section of the country.<\/p>\n
\ngave him 5% of their votes equally with those who supported him with 97%.<\/p>\n
\npeace -loving citizens on their farms and other settlements.<\/p>\n
\nprinciple. Appointment of legal adviser of Meyiti Allah as Secretary of
\nthe Federal Character Commission.<\/p>\n
\narmed forces and other security forces.<\/p>\n
\ncountry based on justice, fairness and equity, we call on the president to
\nrealise that the country is in a very bad shape at the moment and requires
\nstatesmanship and not ethnic, religious, regional and political
\npartisanships.<\/p>\n
\nour founding fathers to stem the tide of separatist feelings and
\nagitations. This is why we do not accept that it portrays the president in
\na favorable light to be away for a long time and to return to a badly
\nfractured polity and avoid promoting in a new dialogue for a better, just,
\ninclusive and peaceful country\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"