Tinubu warns against inflammatory comments on Nigeria’s unity

AHEAD the 2015 elections, former governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, has sternly warned politicians and other Nigerians to avoid taking measures or making comments capable of threatening the unity of the country. Tinubu, who spoke yesterday at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Victoria Island, during the public presentation of Lest I Forget: Memoirs of Nigerian Career Diplomat, written by Ambassador Oladapo Fafowora, said that in recent times, self-acclaimed friends, as well as aides of the President have been making comments that could jeopardise the unity of the country. He described those comments as insensitive, inciting and incendiary, adding that such threats are utterly irresponsible and unjustifiable. According to him, “one says if President Goodluck Jonathan is not re-elected in 2015, the tenuous peace now being enjoyed in the Niger Delta will not be guaranteed. “Another builds on that, saying with all the crudity in his being that not only will there be no peace in the Niger Delta, there will also be no peace everywhere across the country. “Earlier, a gregarious presidential aide boasted that he would no longer bear his name if by 2014 the new political platform called the All Progressives Congress (APC) has not vanished into thin air. These are pretty strong words.” The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) chieftain said the statements must be seen for what they are because “words are like eggs dropped from great heights; you can no more call them back than ignore the mess they leave when they fall.” He stressed that it was important “for us” to keep quiet when the dead-enders unleash these kinds of words, adding that the opposition parties must not allow the ethnic militias to ruin Nigeria’s democracy or untie the country’s unity. “It is said that evil triumphs when good men do nothing,” he said. “It is, therefore, incumbent on all our acknowledged good men to speak out against these ethnic jingoists, or those that the Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, will call ‘lickspittle’. “To the best of my knowledge, President Goodluck Jonathan was elected by Nigerians of different ethnic groups, and no single ethnic group, whether minority or majority, can single-handedly elect a President. No ethnic warlord or groveling aide can single-handedly elect a President.” Tinubu disclosed that the framers of the country’s constitution apparently had it in mind when they said that, for a candidate to be elected President, he must win no less than one-third of the votes cast at an election in each of at least two-third of all states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory. “There is strength in our unity, let us guard it jealously,” he said, adding: “Let us work hard to keep our country united. Above all, let us not take our unity for granted.”

By Gbenga Akinfenwa and Adeniyi Adunola