Ethnic And Religious Tension Can Never Be Solved As Long As Buhari Is In Power — Ex NHRC Chair, Prof Odinkalu

*Says Buhari HAS destroyed Ethnic And Religious Diversity In Nigeria
*Says With People Like Pantami In Power, Terrorism May Not End

The former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Professor Chidi Odinkalu, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari has destroyed the ethnic and religious diversity in Nigeria.

In an interview with SUN Nigeria, Odinkalu said Buhari sees himself as a northern Muslim rather than assuring safety of the citizens and their properties.

He said, “President Muhammadu Buhari has destroyed the ethnic and religious diversity of the country by portraying himself as an extremist Northern Muslim rather than doing what is required to assure every Nigerian that he has a safe and secure place in the country. Buhari sees himself not as a Nigerian beholding to everyone in the country but as a Northern Muslim who is only beholding to Muslims in the North East and North West. It is also clear that he has more allegiance to Niger Republic than he has to Nigeria.”

On whether the ethic and religious tension can ever be solved, Odinkalu said the problem cannot be solved as long as Buhari is in power.

“It is very clear to me that the problem cannot be solved as long as Buhari is in power; Buhari is the symbol of all extremist tendencies in Nigeria and the problem will remain as long as he is in power. Buhari does not have the capacity to change, he doesn’t understand what it means to be different from the narrow, hateful bigot that he is,” he said.

The Professor of Law also expressed concern that Nigeria may be heading the way of Afghanistan with People like Pantami in power. According to him, Pantami had endorsed the Taliban and al-Qaeda in many of his teachings and has never hidden his admiration for terrorism and in Nigeria.

Odinkalu said, “We do not have to look at what happened in Afghanistan to understand the situation starring us in the face. Alhaji Isa Pantami, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy is an admitted terrorist. From his fatwa on Mr Achi, the leader of the ECWA students in Abubakar Tafawa Belewa University (ATBU) in 2004 which led to the killing of the student to his teachings in mosques all over endorsing the Taliban and al-Qaeda, he has never hidden his admiration for terrorism and in Nigeria, he is responsible for telecommunications infrastructure and databasing all Nigerians who have access to telephones. Do you know what that means? We don’t need to go to Afghanistan to know that we have a regime that is actively supporting terrorism in Nigeria, it is self-evident. Any government that is serious about fighting terrorism would not have any compulsion to proscribe these so-called bandits and killer herdsmen and declaring them terrorists.”

Regarding the attack on the Nigerian Defence Academy in Kaduna, Odinkalu said if there was a similar school in the South East and same was attacked, rye entire region would have been overrun by the Nigerian Army.

He said, “If we had any military institution in the category of the NDA in the southeast or any part of the South and it was attacked in the manner in which the NDA in Kaduna was attacked, that entire region would have been overrun by soldiers and they would be given open-ended rules of engagement – kill, maim and destroy-, none of that is happening now and none of it will happen.

The NDA is in the Afaka in Kaduna, and students of a secondary school in the same Afaka were kidnapped earlier in the year and I wondered how such a thing will happen in the middle of a military garrison. It was evident to me then as it is now that if anyone could attack the school where it is located and kidnap 29 students, then there was no way the NDA, the Command and Staff College, 1st Division Headquarters of the army will be safe, that is what is happening now and we have to ask ourselves where is the government?”