Nigerians dislike President Muhammadu Buhari because of his failures in governance and not because of his tribe says former presidential aide, Reno Omokri.
Mr Omokri stated this in response to the assertion of presidential aide, Lauretta Onochie, who said her principal was being disliked because of his ethnicity.
Mr Buhari is from the Fulani tribe who are largely into rearing of cows. His kinsmen are accused of being behind rising insecurity bedeviling the nation. While his administration has claimed to have improved on insecurity, particularly the Boko Haram insurgency, much attention has not been paid to alleged criminality traced to herdsmen.
For instance, the governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu had last week ordered herders out of the state’s forest reserves. Stating his reason, he alleged that testimonials from kidnap victims indicted herdsmen who often reside in the bush to perpetuate the criminal acts.
The president’s attempt at establishing cattle colonies nationwide was roundly rejected most especially in the southern part of the nation. Critics described it as a plot to fulanise the country which, an allegation first made by former president Olusegun Obasanjo.
The Buhari administration thereafter suspended the programme despite some northern states buying the idea and willing to donate lands for the initiative.
Attacking critics on Monday Onochie said their hate for her principal was because of his ethnic group which she said amounts to fishing for trouble.
“If there is an ethnic or community clash where lives and properties are lost, we pick and choose which to attribute to community clash and which to lay on the doorsteps of the Fulanis, Buhari’s ethnic group, in order to satisfy the craving for more bitterness and hatred towards Buhari,” she said in series of tweets.
“There is no tribe that is free of bad eggs. But criminalising an ethnic group because you don’t like President Buhari’s face, is nothing short of evil and fishing for trouble,” Onochie added.
But responding, Omokri faulted the opinion of the presidential aide, urging her to reconsider her position.
The ex-presidential aide to Goodluck Jonathan who cited the late president Umaru Yaradua as an example to buttress his point added that even the president dislike Nigerians who opposed his aspiration to the highest office in the land.
“Those saying we dislike General @MBuhari because of his Fulani identity should have a rethink,” Omokri said in a tweet Monday.
“Umar Musa Yar’adua was Fulani, from the same Katsina. Yet, we supported him. We campaigned for him. We voted for him. We oppose #Buhari due to his monumental failure!
“#Buhari himself does not like some of us. This is a man who began his tenure by warning us that “constituents who gave me 97% cannot be treated same with constituencies that gave me 5%.” The man says he does not see us as equals and you want us to celebrate him?” he queried.
Mr Yaradua, from Katsina State where Buhari hails from, succeeded Obasanjo in office and admitted that the election which brought him to power had much irregularities, a rare statement from politicians in the country.
He was loved by many especially due to his handling of the militancy in the Niger Delta region but died while in office.
