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The Presidency has lashed out at Governor Murtala
Nyako of Adamawa, describing the controversial letter he wrote to governors of
Nigerian northern states as a betrayal of trust by a major beneficiary of the
Nigerian nation.
The Presidency’s reaction is contained in a
statement by the Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on
Public Affairs, Doyin Okupe, on Saturday in Abuja.
In the statement, it said Mr. Nyako’s letter to the
northern governors “is an unmitigated leadership disaster’’.
Mr. Nyako had written to the Northern States
Governors Forum, accusing the Federal Government of carrying out genocide
against Nigeria’s northern states.
He alleged that President Jonathan had no exit
strategy to the problem of insurgency, and was complicit in the attack by
various armed groups on various communities in Northern Nigeria.
He also accused the Jonathan administration of being
responsible for the wanton destruction of lives and properties and kidnapping
of school children in the north-east.
But in its reaction, the Presidency described Mr.
Nyako’s action as an open endorsement of the Boko Haram insurgency.
“The content of Nyako’s letter exposed him as
lacking a sense of history as well as incapable of rising above parochial
sentiments.
“The letter was extremely divisive and intentionally
meant to incite one section of the country against the other.
“Nyako’s action is a pathetic embarrassment to the
Nigerian military, from where he derives his career antecedents,” Mr. Okupe
said.
The presidency further described as hypocritical,
Mr. Nyako’s remark that the Boko Haram terrorist group was a “phantom organisation’’
which does not exist.
It said Nyako’s invitation to the other northern
governors to join him to sue the Federal Government “definitely defies common
sense’’.
The Presidency requested the Adamawa Governor to
publish his state’s yearly budget for the past five years to show how much was
voted or spent to support the war on terror.
“This will also reveal how much he has spent to
assist victims of insurgents’ activities in his state, if any.
“We can recall that the governor was
publicly attacked recently by angry youths who accused him of failure to
support victims of Boko Haram attacks on innocent citizens of the state,’’ it
said.
The Presidency therefore urged Nigerians to ignore
Mr. Nyako’s letter, saying its ignoble aim was to create disaffection among
Nigerians and polarise the country along ethnic lines.
“It was also aimed at discrediting the Federal
Government which has continued to work hard to fully eliminate insurgency and
destroy their support base.
“The
insurgency was meant to provide the perpetrators unrestricted opportunity to
further unleash terror on innocent citizens.
“It is a situation which they intend to exploit to
undermine the administration and truncate our growing democracy. This,
Nigerians will surely not allow to happen,’’ it said.
The Presidency assured Nigerians of
Federal Government’s continuous determination to defeat terror and restore
peace to every part of northern Nigeria.
“This is critical to ensure that law-abiding
Nigerians go about their socioeconomic pursuit without hindrance in all parts
of the country,’’ it said.
(NAN)
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