Don’t leave Southern Nigeria – TheNigerialawyer

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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