Coalition of Nigerians in Diaspora condemns El-Rufai’s inflammatory comment

Forum 11 months ago

Coalition of Nigerians in Diaspora condemns El-Rufai’s inflammatory comment

THE Coalition of Nigerians living in the United Kingdom has condemned in strong terms, the inciting, inflammatory and decisive statement credited to the immediate past Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, saying that the former governor should not be allowed to go scot free on the issue.

The former governor, had in a trending six-minute viral video, while addressing some Islamic clerics, caused a stir and concern when he gladly justified his choice of appointing Muslims to occupy top positions in the Kaduna State Government at the expense of Christians and other faiths.

In the video, El-Rufai told the clerics that the dominance by Muslims in the governance of Kaduna State had come to stay and assured that the trend had been successfully replicated at the national level with the election of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as President and Kashim Shettima as the Vice President.

El-Rufai’s divisive position has since drawn condemnation from Nigerians at home and in Diaspora, with many calling for his arrest for trying to set Nigeria on fire with inflammatory and inciting comments.

Joining in the condemnation, the Coalition of Nigerians living in the United Kingdom described the former governor’s comments as “inflammatory, inciting, and genocidal”, and demanded that he must not be allowed to free on the issue.

“The Nigeria’s mainstream and social media have been awash with a statement from a video clip of the former Kaduna State Governor strongly linking him to such inflammatory, inciting, and genocidal statement. Since then, the Coalition has waited to see if the former Kaduna State Governor could publicly deny or clarify himself-all to no avail.

“The Coalition of Nigerians living in UK hereby makes bold to say that former Governor El-Rufai’s inciting and genocidal statement was not surprising. The statement was also a clear confirmation of the remote and immediate causes of endless butcheries and property violence systematically targeted at defenseless Christians and their properties in Nigeria especially in Southern Kaduna and Middle-Belt. It further confirms that the butcheries have nothing to do with the so called “Farmers-Herders Clashes”.

“The inaction and conspiratorial roles of the country’s security forces in the butcheries and property violence including indiscriminate burning down or destruction of tens of thousands of churches and Christian schools were also brought to the fore and inescapably exposed as having been fully backed by leaders in Government.

“The Coalition hereby calls on the leaders of the Southern Kaduna, the Middle-Belt, and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) to go after Mallam el-Rufai and ensure that he does not go scot-free or walk the streets of Nigeria and West Democracies freely with impunity or as an outlaw. The former Governor seems to enjoy and have passion for crisis. He must be arrested to explain more.

“We are also calling on the ICC to arrest and prosecute Mallam Nasiru el-Rufai over charges of crimes against humanity and genocide in Southern Kaduna, Middle-Belt and other parts of the country where he (allegedly) conspired with others to export and instigate the Fulani Jihadists to invade, occupy, kill, rape, abduct, disappear, loot, plunder, burn, destroy and Islamize.

“The Coalition wishes to re-echo its communiqué of 15th May 2023 by urging Nigerians to stand solidly with those that want a country that works. As Nigerians in the United Kingdom who demand a better society with justice, peace, and sustainable development, we want to see a deepened true democracy that guarantees stability in our dear country– Nigeria.

“As we all know, our people have been through a most frustrating eight years under the last administration that brought us to globally embarrassing rankings in corruption, out of school children’s numbers, terrorism, insecurity, and poverty and ethno-religious divisions and radicalism. It is common knowledge that our sons and daughters are making waves and excelling in different career spheres in other parts of the world, yet our country wallows in poor indices. These unacceptable and unfortunate rankings exists not because Nigerian lacks the human capital to change this narrative, rather they are the result of exclusion of Nigerians in determining those that run the affairs of our country.

“The promises made by Nigeria’s electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), led by Professor Mahmood Yakubu to conduct a free, fair, and credible election where every vote would count, gave hope to Nigerians. These promises which stimulated maximal engagement by the Nigerian masses to participate in the electoral process were ultimately aborted and never met”.

Worried by the disturbing situation, the Coalition notes that: “Nigerians are deeply saddened by the outcomes of the 2023 Presidential elections;  particularly disheartening, were the scale of violence, severe voter intimidation, disenfranchisement, ballot box snatching and destruction in the full glare of the Nigerian security personnel, independent and international observers, resulting in serious injuries and deaths of Nigerians”, insisting that  “this rape of Nigeria’s constitution must be condemned in its entirety by all who believe and practice true Democracy especially in the free world”.

The Coalition in the communiqué signed by Dr. Loretta Oduware Ogboro-Okor and Olorogun Theodore Ochuko Araykin, further “condemns in the strongest terms, the fraudulent role of INEC. This is because despite the guarantees of INEC in the run up to the 2023 elections, which created enthusiasm for mass participation with a view to deepening Nigeria’s democracy, INEC did not allow for a credible and fair process to produce our country’s leaders”, saying “we align with the international election observers and global media reportage who stated that the 2023 election processes were fundamentally flawed and did not meet the expectations of the average Nigerian”.

The coalition restated its “desire for a country which operates on the foundations of her constitution, the rule of law, upholds justice, and respects human rights” and called “for investigations into the maiming, killing, ethnic targeted violence and ethnic profiling that took place in Lagos to bring perpetrators to book. This will serve as a deterrent to this despicable stain on our shared nationhood”.

The group further condemned “lawlessness, thuggery, voter intimidation, killing, maiming, disenfranchisement, and political rascality as instruments to capture state power go against the tenets of true democracy”, saying that. “impunity cannot replace democracy and the supremacy of our constitution must always prevail. Therefore, the breaches of citizens’ rights in grabbing power must be condemned and cannot be made to stand”.