It is President Goodluck Jonathan’s tried and tested style to employ politics of ethnicity and religion to divert the attention of Nigerians from the series of socioeconomic problems of the country, erstwhile Minister of the Federal Capital Territory who is now Interim Deputy National Secretary of newly registered All Progressive Congress (APC), Mallam Nasir El-Rufai said on Friday.
Speaking in Kaduna during a programme on Liberty Radio, El-Rufai condemned the president for always turning the other way when certain individuals threaten peace and unity of the country, particularly to make case for their ethnic group ahead of the 2015 general elections.
“There are many agents confronting the Nigerian nation. What is very worrying is the kind of rhetoric that is going on in this country, a lot of which are being sanctioned by the government,” he said.
“For example, whenever Asari Dokubo speaks, just know that a week earlier, he had been called to the villa and given some money. And whenever EK Clerk speaks, you know it was arranged.
“How can a small ethnic group like the Ijaws threaten the rest of us? We have 170 million. I don’t know how many of that population makes up the Ijaw nation, but I don’t think they are more than 5 million.
“How can 5 million people threaten us saying unless their son becomes president, there will be no Nigeria? Who are they to do that? The government keeps quite when somebody says that. Of course, the expected reaction is that you have people from the north also threatening similar thing.”
El-Rufai wondered what type of a country would have its peace so blatantly threatened yet there is no one to call the belligerents to order.
“It is sad. Again, it is this political strategy of Jonathan to always use ethnicity and religion whenever there is a problem,” he observed. “Whenever there is a big issue about Excess Crude account or subsidy issue, they bring this issue of ethnicity and religion. But I have not lost hope because I know that Nigerians can see through their pranks and their game and will vote them out in the next election. The challenge for the next president is to build trust among the various ethnic groups so that Nigeria can walk towards one direction.”
He argued that while country Nigeria has survived one civil war, it is unlikely that any country can survive two civil wars.
“Those who are stealing crude oil, buying and stockpiling arms should know it is not the number of arms you have that decides who wins a war. Otherwise, the USA would have won in Iraq, but they couldn’t and at the end they had to leave the Iraqi to solve their problems,” he said.
“So, they should think very deeply about what they are doing and learn from history. I know that Nigeria will survive these bad and incompetent leaders who steal during the day and drink and womanise at night instead of working for the Nigerian people.”