Three major groups, the North-East Consolidated Peoples Forum (NCPF), the Middle Belt Forum (MBF) and the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), have disagreed with renowned Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ahmed Gumi, over his recent bashing of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike.
In their separate reactions yesterday, the groups of eminent Nigerians asked Gumi to use his influence to mobilise support for Tinubu and Wike to deliver on their well thought-out policies and programmes for Nigeria to move forward.
NCPF condemned the religious and ethnic tones by those it described as “misguided elements and their sponsors in order to cause disaffection and disunity in the country.”
It said “such does not represent the collective view and interest of the North, and certainly not Nigeria’s interest”.
A statement signed by its spokesperson, Alhaji Mohammed Abba Liman, said: “Gumi’s attack was unprovoked, malicious, inciting and a deliberate misinterpretation of our history.”
Last week, Gumi, apparently taking sides in the ongoing Israeli-Hamas war, described Wike as “satanic” for receiving the Israeli ambassador who paid the minister a courtesy visit in his office.
Gumi also accused the government of President Tinubu of pursuing Christian agenda against Muslims, and that Christians cannot be trusted with power because, according to Gumi, if you empower them, they would turn around and kill you.
He asked the president to sack the FCT minister or else Muslims would rise up against President Tinubu and not allow him to finish his tenure.
The cleric added that it was Christian soldiers that killed northern political leaders in the past.
However, the northern elders made up of elder statesmen and women disagreed with the cleric, saying: “We totally condemn such unprovoked divisive statements from a divisive element who is seeking to destabilise the peace and unity of our dear county, Nigeria, for selfish reasons.
“The utterance is toxic and it should not be accepted by any decent and sound minded person who loves peace and our Nigeria”.
The constitution of the federal public of Nigeria, according to Liman, “gives power and right to any Nigerian irrespective of tribes, religion and political affiliation to be appointed to any position of power as long as that person operates within the limit of our law.
“What Nigeria needs now is a consolidation of its peace, unity and progress.We caution profiteers of religious fundamentalism and ethnicity, as well as agents of destabilisation and instability to desist henceforth.
“We therefore stand with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Chief (Barr) Nyesom Wike. We indeed stand with Nigeria and, of course, the Nigerian constitution for a better governance system for all Nigeria”, Liman stated.
On its part, MBF, which reacted to a trending video clip of Gumi, said Wike is neither representing a religion nor an ethnic group, but Nigerians.
The national president of the forum, Dr Bitrus Pogu, said they would have ignored Gumi’s outburst, but for the “cancerous interpretations deducible” from the said video clips from other clerics also rendered in Hausa:
that it is wrong for a Christian infidel (arne) to be appointed minister of the FCT; that the FCT belongs to the North, therefore the ministerial slot should be the exclusive preserve of the Muslim North; that Muslims should not be comfortable with non-Muslims appointed to head the security agencies as they can’t be trusted to be fair to all groups.
“It is noted that several other Muslim clerics have followed Sheikh Gumi in spreading this vulgarity.
“For purposes of clarity, the Middle Belt Forum, an organisation comprising the ethnic nationalities of the Middle Belt region that stretches across the middle section of Nigeria, wishes to categorically state that the FCT is a part of the Middle Belt.
“Also, the Middle Belt Forum serves the peoples of the Middle Belt who are multi-religious (Christian, Muslim and traditional worshipers) living peacefully together.
“The FCT was originally inhabited by the Gbagyi people who were dislodged from their ancestral lands by the Nigerian state to create the Federal Capital Territory that Gumi and his gang are now laying claim to,” MBF said.
Similarly, PANDEF called on Gumi to stop his attacks on the people of Southern Nigeria.
It described as absurd and subversive Gumi’s recent comments on the person and office of the minister of the FCT, Wike.
PANDEF, in a statement made available to LEADERSHIP in Port Harcourt yesterday by its national publicity secretary, Dr. Ken Robinson, said any Nigerian can be the FCT minister.
The statement reads in part: “It is most unfortunate that at a time when every well-meaning Nigerian should be concerned about the stability, peace, and unity of the country, the likes of Sheikh Gumi are further stoking the embers of discord, certainly intended to exacerbate tension in the country. It’s utterly despicable that a so-called cleric would fashion himself into a shameless promoter of parochialism and acrimony.
“We consider the call for the removal of Chief Nyesom Wike as minister of FCT, and indeed any other Niger Deltan based on wild predispositions, as an indirect poke at the people of the Niger Delta region, and the South-South geopolitical zone, in particular, to catechise our stake in the Nigerian state.”
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