President Muhammadu Buhari has asked those he described as “ethnic warriors” to sheathe their swords, assuring that he was prepared to work with people from all regions of the country in the best interest of the nation.
He assured that any part of the country that requires special attention would receive it, irrespective of primordial affinities, adding: “Narrow-minded people have not been able to live above.”
This is coming against the backdrop of what the Presidency said was a twisted information credited to the World Bank President, Jim Yong Kim, who disclosed in Washington DC, United States, that Buhari had requested a concentration of the Bank’s intervention efforts in the northern part of the country, particularly in the Northeast.
Kim, speaking at a press conference in Washington DC on Thursday, said the Bank had concentrated on the northern part of Nigeria in line with Buhari’s request.
This comes just as a leading pro-democracy and non-governmental organisation, Human Rights Writers Association Of Nigeria (HURIWA), condemned the directive as an impeachable infraction.
The body said the disclosure that the President asked the Bretton Wood funding institution to focus on northern Nigeria has confirmed the long held perception that he was a northern irredentist, who has scarce regards for the constitutional principles of equity, equality and social justice to all Nigerians and that he has no care in this world about respecting the constitutional principles of federal character in the appointments and execution of government policies.
The Presidency, in a statement yesterday, blamed the development on mischievous people, “who twist everything for their vile purposes, making it seem that it was a calculated attempt to give the north an unfair advantage over other parts of Nigeria.”
The statement signed by Buhari’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, said the northeast has suffered since 2009 when the menace of Boko Haram began and thus deserve care, so that the people could live a normal life again.
He urged those ululating over the disclosure by the World Bank boss to be a bit reflective and consider the ravages that the northeast has suffered since 2009, when the Boko Haram insurgency started.
“Schools, hospitals, homes, entire villages, towns, cities, bridges and other public utilities have been blown up, laid waste and lives terminated, in excess of 20,000, while widows and orphans littered the landscape. The humanitarian crisis was in monumental proportions.
“President Buhari simply did what a caring leader should do. He took the battle to the insurgents, broke their backs and then sought for help to rebuild, so that the people could have their lives back.”
“Should that then elicit the negative commentary that has trailed the disclosure from the World Bank? Not at all, except from insidious minds, he stated.
The Presidency noted that Buhari has a pan-Nigerian mandate and is poised to discharge his duties and responsibilities in like manner, adding: “Any part of the country that requires special attention would receive it, irrespective of primordial affinities, which narrow-minded people have not been able to live above.
“This President will always work in the best interest of all parts of the country at all times. Let ethnic warriors sheathe their swords.
“The truth of the matter is that President Buhari, right from his first week in office in June 2015, had reached out to the G-7 in Germany that Nigeria needed help to rebuild the northeast, which had been terribly devastated by insurgency.
“He said the country would prefer help in terms of rebuilding of infrastructure, rather than cash donation, which may end up being misappropriated. In concert with governors of the region, a comprehensive list of needed repairs was sent to the G-7 leaders.
“Also, during a trip to Washington in 2015, and many other engagements that followed, President Buhari sought the help of the World Bank in rebuilding the beleaguered northeast, which was then being wrested from the stranglehold of a pernicious insurgency.
“It was something always done in the open and which reflected the President’s concern for the region,” the statement said.
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