A Pro- Democracy group has described as a terrorists’ propaganda the calls in some quarters for the resignation of President Muhammadu Buhari over the state of insecurity in the nation.
The National Democratic Front (NDF), said the calls by some few individuals were apparently sponsored by terrorists, who are hell bent on making Nigeria ungovernable.
Recall that a coalition comprising 43 frontline civil society organisations and Femi Falana’s law firm have asked President Muhammadu Buhari to resign or be removed from office by the National Assembly if he cannot address the persistent insecurity in the country.
According to them, through the balancing, it will be demonstrated “that every part of Nigeria matters as sectional appointments appear to fuel sectional violence.”
Reacting, however, NDF in a statement by its Director, Paul Aliyu, said it has uncovered of a by some coalitions to facilitate further degeneration of the security situation in the country, which they will then use to launch a “Buhari Must Go” protest across the nation
The group, therefore, called on Nigerians and the international community to hold every single group and individual in the coalition responsible for any resulting degeneration in the security situation in the land.
Full text of the statement below.
Gentlemen of the press, you are aware that a coalition made of 43 groups has come out to demand that President Muhammadu Buhari steps down or be impeached by the National Assembly if he does not meet their five-point demand. The basis for this seditious demand is the security breaches in the country, which these groups are claiming that the president has not done anything about.
Without meaning top promote the propaganda that these elements have deployed against the nation, we will repeat their demands here just so we are able to specifically speak to them:
Provide political and moral leadership for the security crisis and ensure governmental actions are humane in tandem with Section 17 (2) ( C ) of the Constitution;
End impunity for abuse of power and sectionalism through his appointments by balancing the need for competence with the federal character principle. In this way, he will demonstrate that every part of Nigeria matters as sectional appointments appear to fuel sectional violence;
Take responsibility and end the persecution of the media and free speech both of which are foundations of a democratic state.
Mobilize our rich Nigerian assets to address the insecurity situation across the country and seek international cooperation to ramp up security assets.
Where the President fails to fulfil his constitutional duties as stated above, we demand he steps aside or the National Assembly initiates impeachment proceedings against him on grounds of gross misconduct as provided for in Section 143 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Before proceeding to speak on these demands, we will first speak on the identify of those making them so that Nigerians can appreciate that they are being taken for a ride by a criminal gang that has remained dissatisfied from the moment their sources of slush and illicit funds were obstructed by the reforms birthed by President Muhammadu Buhari. The collation is an assortment of groups with several interests that have been packaged to appear as being in the best interest of Nigerians but in reality are a danger to the entire country:
The coalition is apparently led in part by Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), whose head, Auwal Musa (Rafsanjani) is a board member of Amnesty International and Transparency International – two organizations that are obsessed with confirming Nigeria as a failed state. These are organizations that have invested much in supporting Boko Haram and just any terrorist organization. That can help create a sense of terror and insecurity. It is now apparent that the entire support that Amnesty International and Transparency International has been offering to terrorists was meant to culminate in their Nigeria asset, Rafsanjani, leading a charge to overthrow the government of President Buhari through a coup by the legislature, which he has infiltrated with CISLAC that has been gathering blackmail materials on federal lawmakers.
Socio-Economic Right and Accountability Project (SERAP) is another of the NGOs that has over the past few years invested a lot of resources to de-market the government of the day by constantly raising false alarms based on unsubstantiated claims. Its strategy has been to distract the government from functioning using spurious litigation and court cases that have never been pursued to conclusion. What has become apparent now is that these series of court cases were intended to incapacitate the government so that the resulting inaction can be held against Mr. President.
Alliance for Credible Elections (ACE) and Youth Initiative for Advocacy, Growth & Advancement (YIAGA) are NGO wings of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which has continued to smart from the serial election losses that it suffered in the hands of the All Progressives Congress (APC) that produced President Buhari. It is understandable that these NGOs are now trying to get through a coup what their client could not win in free and fair elections.
BudgiT Foundation, another signatory to the illicit demands, should have been upfront in declaring that its cofounder, Oluseun Onigbinde, takes instructions from the arch-nemesis of the Buhari government, Oby Ezekwesili. It is another organization that has persistently seen no good in the government especially since Onigbinde discovered that he was not suitable for public office on account of his anti-Nigeria stance canvassed on his social media handles. It is no surprise that organizations like his were quick to jump on the impeach-Buhari wagon.
There is of course the terrorists-supporting Femi Falana Chamber, which has consistently been championing the course of groups that have been declared as terrorists. The legal defence so afforded to these group had made it possible for them to contribute to the lingering insecurity in the land. These are groups that are deployed to distract law enforcement of the military from focusing on major threats to the country. The situation they created is now being used as justification to demand for President Buhari’s removal.
Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth, Nigeria is a fanatical Niger-Delta front that hides under environmental issues to pursue separatist agenda. The list is replete with other groups that are closet separatists, whose interest is in exploiting the prevailing situation to provoke the emergence of micro-nations from Nigeria. Such groups are on the ride to achieve the separatist goals of their main body.
While we are surprised that the media attack dog for this coalition did not make the list of signatories, the presence of Media Rights Agenda (MRA) and Women In Media on the list is an alarm bell. It shows that these anti-Nigeria elements have infiltrated and possibly compromised the objectivity expected from the media. It speaks to the serial negative reporting that has been deployed against President Buhari with the implication that a lot of what we have been reading about the government is a reflection of what the anti-government coalition wants Nigerians and the world to perceive and not the reality.
From this snapshot of the collation that is seeking to further compromise Nigeria worse than it already did, it is apparent that their demand number 1, that President Buhari should “Provide political and moral leadership for the security crisis and ensure governmental actions are humane in tandem with Section 17 (2) ( C ) of the Constitution” is one that they are already working against. They have been persistent in distracting President Buhari in performing this very task and some of them actively sabotage whatever the country has achieved in this regard.
The second demand that Mr. President should “End impunity for abuse of power and sectionalism through his appointments by balancing the need for competence with the federal character principle. In this way, he will demonstrate that every part of Nigeria matters as sectional appointments appear to fuel sectional violence,” is a sad one. It confirms that the collation is singing from the hymn book of separatists who have been intolerant of other ethnic nationality. It is a demand that is meant to justify the drumbeats of war that have been coming from separatists. It is sad that a collation that is lying about looking out for Nigeria’s interest can be pitching citizens against each other on the basis of political appointments. This is a diss of the efforts of Mr. President in helping on daily basis to restore normalcy to the country. The recent change of the security chiefs is a sign of a new strategy even though they will build on what the immediate chiefs have achieved. We therefore need to give the new services chiefs the needed time to study the situation and come up with their own strategy.
The collation further demanded that the president should “Take responsibility and end the persecution of the media and free speech both of which are foundations of a democratic state.” Unfortunately, this is the one place that collation has been unfair to Nigerians in that they are asking for a licence to act irresponsibly without consequences. They want a situation where some people, hiding under the media, can incite violence without being held accountable for their actions. They want extant legislation that govern responsible behaviour in information dissemination to be discarded so that they will be at liberty to deploy toxic propaganda to destabilise the Nigerian state.
While this group is asking for the president to “Mobilize our rich Nigerian assets to address the insecurity situation across the country and seek international cooperation to ramp up security assets,” they are doing the exact opposite in contributing to precipitate the security situation in the country. Mr President has been working hard to address the security situation while it is apparent that some people are out to jeopardise his efforts. Nigerians had been wondering who these people are, which makes it a good thing that this coalition has exposed itself as part of those that have been undermining the country’s security for their own selfish end.
Consequently, the collation’s demand that “Where the President fails to fulfil his constitutional duties as stated above, we demand he steps aside or the National Assembly initiates impeachment proceedings against him on grounds of gross misconduct as provided for in Section 143 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” is one that Nigerians should hold them accountable for. It is a subtle threat and an exposure of their plan to overthrow the government in any way possible.
The National Democratic Front (NDF) hereby alerts Nigerians to the uncovering of the plot by the coalition to facilitate further degeneration of the security situation in the country, which they will then use to launch a “Buhari Must Go” protest across the nation. We want Nigerians and the international community to hold every single group and individual in the coalition responsible for any resulting degeneration in the security situation in the land. We ask the law enforcement agencies to be at alert, especially with the discovery that the collation is reportedly working on multiple options for distablizing the country further in order to force the president out of office. This is a dangerous threat to our democracy and must not be allowed to evolve.