*Says they are polluting political, religious space
*Voices concern over ‘cabal’ around
Outspoken politician and physician, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, has attacked former President Olusegun Obasanjo, erstwhile Defence Minister, Lt. Gen. Theophilus Danjuma, and a host of others for claiming that President Muhammadu Buhari was promoting an Islamisation and Fulanisation agenda.
Danjuma and a handful of notable retired officers, under the aegis of Nigerian Christian Elders’ Forum (NCEF), had, last week, raised the alarm that the Buhari administration was backing jihadists instead of ruthlessly fighting them.
Claiming they were miffed by the indifference displayed by the current administration towards the evil agenda, the retired officers reported the alleged refusal of the administration to confront islamisation to the United Kingdom’s All Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief.
Before then, Obasanjo has taken the Buhari administration up on the purported Fulanisation/Islamisation agenda at a church programme in Delta State.
Junaid, who was a member of President Goodluck Jonathan’s National Constitutional Conference, slammed the former military officers over what he described as trying to assume the role of speaking for Nigerians when they had not been so authorized by the people.
The politician, from Kano and who has remained very vocal in the political circles, asked Obasanjo, Danjuma and the others to stop polluting the Nigerian political and religious space with venom that has the potential to destroy the country rather than unite the people.
He said, “First and foremost, I have absolute contempt for what Obasanjo and his friends have said about Nigeria. What they have said will threaten the unity of this country and it is painful that they are not really speaking for the generality of Nigerians but merely seeking self-interest.
“These are statements from some elements who attempted to dismember Nigerian and failed and are now arrogating to themselves the task of speaking for Nigerians when they have not so been appointed by the people.
“What is most painful is that they connived and imposed Buhari on the rest of the people and, having failed woefully to control him and his government, they are now trying to voice their failure on the rest of the country as if they are messiahs.
“Let it be made known to these retired army officers that, in the event of war breaking out on account of their incendiary language, they are not likely to belong to the winning side because Nigerians are now more matured and are not ready to be taking instructions of sermons from soldiers who have no self respect.
“I have no business with Buhari or his administration but we cannot listen to a group of people who are selfishly working to be heard by Nigerians principally for their selfish interests. Nigerians are not ready and willing to allow them to dictate what is good and bad to them anymore.
“They should realize by now that Nigerians do not owe them anything and are not willing to be led or counseled by soldiers anymore.
“These former soldiers actively take undue advantage of Buhari’s inaccurate perception of leadership and the cabal he surrounds himself with to attempt to confuse Nigerians as if they are the voice and conscience of the Nigerian people while seeking to actualize selfish goals.
“If they have forgotten, the former generals should be reminded that they went to war as a choice and had been generously rewarded for services rendered and that Nigerians neither owe them anything nor require selfish counseling on national issues.”
This report was first published in Vanguard on Sunday 09/06/2019.
