Former President Goodluck Jonathan has criticised
his successor, President Muhammadu Buhari, for planning to extend the military
show of force to the South-South and the South-West.
Jonathan said this in a Facebook post on
Tuesday which was signed on his behalf by his aide, Reno Omokri.
The former President was emboldened by the
statement by Senate President Bukola Saraki who had said the military had no
right to declare the Indigenous People of Biafra as a terror group.
He said, “However, we want to advise the Buhari
administration, which has announced plans to extend the military show of force
to the South-South and the South-West through Operation Crocodile Smile, to
tread with caution.
“Nigeria is no longer under military rule. In a
democracy, you separate the military from the police. The military is not meant
to fight criminality within a nation because they are trained to fight a
nation’s external enemies.
“It is the police that are trained to fight crime
internally. When the military starts doing the job of the police and starts
fighting or doing what they call a ‘show of force’, the effect will not be to
reduce crime. The effect will be to intimidate people.”
Jonathan also lambasted the Minister of
Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, for saying the activities of IPOB started
because he lost the 2015 election.
Mohammed had said looters and disgruntled elements in
the opposition were the chief sponsors of IPOB.
The former President said, “The insinuations in the
press conference given by Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on
Sunday, accusing the opposition of sponsoring the IPOB and the fact that he
mentioned that Nnamdi Kanu preached Nigerian unity during the administration of
former President Goodluck Jonathan is another clear indication that the present
administration has not left propaganda mode for proper agenda mode two and a
half year into their tenure.
“If the government, in which Lai Mohammed serves,
knows which opposition members are sponsoring IPOB, then they should identify
them, arrest them and then prosecute them.”
Jonathan wondered if Saraki, who is a member of the
All Progressives Congress, could be said to be a sponsor of IPOB since he had
come out to say the proscription of the group was illegal.
While commending the South-East governors for their
efforts in restoring peace, Jonathan said Mohammed had no moral right to cast
aspersions as the minister had once criticised him for declaring Boko Haram a
terrorist group.
He added, “It is our suspicion that Lai Mohammed is
talking from history seeing as he criticized the Jonathan government for
banning Boko Haram in a statement he released on June 10, 2013, even though the
Jonathan government had gone through due process before proscribing that
murderous sect. Perhaps Lai Mohammed thinks everybody is like him and those he
represents.”
He asked the minister to concentrate more on
serving the nation than on propaganda.
Credit: Punch
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