President Muhammadu Buhari has taken a swipe at Tuesday’s call by the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) and some northern youths on Fulani herders to leave the southern part of the country.
The president, who declared that Nigeria belongs to all, enjoined all citizens to ignore the infamous and unwarranted order by NEF and its co-travellers.
The president assured Nigerians that his administration would continue to protect them in whatever part of the country they live irrespective of whether they were originally there or not.
In a reaction to the order yesterday in Abuja, Buhari said that “all citizens of Nigeria are free to move and live within any part of the country they please, whether or not they are originally from there.
“In line with our country’s constitution, the government of Nigeria and the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari will protect citizens of Nigeria wherever they find themselves.
“No one has the right to ask anyone or group to depart from any part of the country, whether north, south, east or west,” the president said.
Buhari, who stated the government’s position in a statement issued on his behalf by his senior special assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, questioned the intentions of NEF and the other so-called leaders in delving into issues with unsolicited and ill-intentioned advice.
The president said: “They have no one’s authority to make such pronouncements. The polarising role of the Northern Elders Forum and all those other groups dabbling into issues of security to score cheap political points has for long been a sore point in Nigeria’s body polity.
“They should not be allowed to mislead anyone, least of all the Fulani herders. The Buhari administration is fully devoted to finding a lasting solution to the herder-farmer clashes in different parts of Nigeria – one that would be acceptable to all the parties involved,” he said.
The president, therefore, called on all Nigerians to help keep the peace in the country.
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