OPC Warns Buhari against Divisive Tendencies

Shola Oyeyipo

President Muhammadu Buhari has been warned against taking actions that are capable of further dividing the already ethnically polarised Nigeria, especially with appointments considered favourable to the North.

Giving the warning  tuesday during a press conference held at his Century Hotel, Okota, Lagos, the President and founder, Oodua Peoples’ Congress (OPC), Dr. Fredrick Fasheun, noted that President Buhari has been festering divisive tendencies going by some of his action since assuming office warning that without addressing the issue, sectional agitations will persist.

He also aligned himself with most other Nigerians to implore the authority to give restructuring a chance as a way to unify the country by adopting the outcomes of the 2014 national conference, stating that “OPC hereby joins other Nigerians to demand the restructuring of the country. We cannot continue to do things the same way and expect different results. Time has come for the government to face the fact that Nigerians have drawn the roadmaps for the country’s unity and survival through the 2014 national conference.

“Its reports provides the sine qua non, the irreducible minimum requirement, for the country’s peaceful coexistence; and its provisions should be implemented, for the country’s peaceful coexistence; and its provisions should be implemented as a matter of urgency.

The OPC leader, who attributed the growing agitation for restructuring to some uncouth statements by the president, stressing that “some of his (Buhari’s) declarations, perhaps made innocently, have inadvertently only succeeded in dividing the nation, paving way for unbelievers to keep agitating for the irreducible minimums like restructuring, true federalism and devolution of power.”

Pointing out that the president has continued to favour his northern kinsmen at the detriment of their southern counterpart, particularly in the area of what he tagged “unhealthy and unbalanced appointments,” Fasheun said President Buhari was contradicting the letter and spirit of the constitution, specifically the Federal Character principle as contained in Section 14(3).

He called on the president to reverse the recently announced appointment of the directors of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) because out of the 15 appointments, 10, which constitutes 67 per cent come from the mostly Hausa-Fulani North.

Fasheun stated that “Buhari continues this unhealthy trend of northern domination and Southern marginalsation in the nation’s security institutions and today the north holds firmly to the positions of National Security Adviser, Inspector General of Police, Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Air Staff, Chief of Defence Intelligence, Director General, State Security Services (SSS), Comptroller General, Nigerian Customs Service, Comptroller-General, Nigerian Immigration Service and chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).”

He also alleged that secret appointments into federal parastatals like the NNPC, NPA, CBN and security arms like the DSS and EFCC have followed similar trend, heavily skewed against the South in favour of the North.