By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
South South leaders have criticised President Muhammadu Buhari for referring to Igbos as a “dot in a circle” and for falsely claiming that South South leaders assured him they would not let Ndigbo access Niger Delta waters in a splintered Nigeria.
In his interview on Arise Television on June 10, Buhari described Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) agitators as “a dot in a circle” and said South South youths and elders told him they have distanced themselves from South Easterners.
The Guardian (Nigeria) reports that notable South South leaders such as Annkio Briggs, Don Obaseki, Tony Nnadi, Geoffrey Yanga (retired Real Admiral), and Tony Nyiam (retired Colonel) all knocked Buhari’s comment at a conference organised by Njenje Media TV.
The Zoom conference, titled “Addressing ‘The dot in the circle’ in Buhari’s interview, A return to 1966?”, was anchored by Tochukwu Ezeoke.
The South South leaders rejected what they called “the divide and rule” tactics of Buhari, a ploy to cause disaffection between the South East and their South South siblings.
Buhari’s divide and rule tactics explained
Briggs, popularly called ‘the Amazon of the Niger Delta’, said it is offensive for Buhari to refer to a people as ‘a dot in a circle’.
“It doesn’t matter if the Igbo, Ijaw or the Itsekiri are only 10 people or 100,000 people. You don’t refer to them as a dot in a circle. That already shows very clearly the mindset of the person of … Buhari,” she said.
On Buhari’s claim that some South South leaders assured him they would not align with the Igbos, Briggs said: “First of all, I don’t even recall any access or non-access to the sea during the onslaught of the Civil War.
“It was the federal government that came through the sea and the creeks. There are millions of elders and there are millions of youths in the Niger Delta, and there are ethnic nationalities in the Niger Delta that make up the South South.”
Briggs insisted that those who told Buhari such cannot represent the South South and only spoke to give him pleasure because he is attempting to divide and rule the South South and the South East.
She argued that IPOB and the Igbos are not the same, and affirmed that the ties between the Niger Delta and the South East remain ever strong.
Existential threat
Obaseki, former Managing Director of DAAR Communications, said the South South and the South East are united in the struggle for survival against the existential threat of the administration led by Buhari.
“The president himself has posed himself as an existential threat to the Nigerian nation and ethnic nationalities that populate the space.
“There are 65 ethnic nationalities as defined by some of our leaders in the entire South South and the man comes on public television and says he speaks to two elders, and some youths. It is laughable,” Obaseki said.
Other Nigerians knock Buhari
Commenters on the story on The Guardian website also criticised Buhari.
One, who called himself Naija_Conscience, wrote:
“Much as I would respect the Fulani for having outwitted the entire Nigerians for so long even though they are just a minority group, but it is so annoying that they now so disrespect the intellect of all other Nigerians such that they still expect to confuse them with their poorly veiled schemes and intrigues.
“Well, if Nigerians are outwitted once more, I will have no option but to accept the Fulanis’ pitiable assessment of their intelligence.”
A commenter under ‘New Nigeria is possible’ wrote:
“If the Fulani terrorists are in love with the South South as they claim, how many SS [South South] indigenes are on the board of NNPC? The North has about 8 out of 11 members on the board.
“How many SS citizens are at the commanding heights of the oil and gas industry compared to the North? How much of the oil and gas wealth has been invested in the SS compared to the North and SW [South West]? How many oil related infrastructure has been built in the SS?
“Northern states and citizens are allowed to continue to tap and sell the minerals resources in the North, why are the North so furious anytime they see South South indigenes tap the crude oil?
“Only fools from the SS will allow demented desert urchins to keep deceiving [them] while looting [South South] resources and using [them] to develop deserts and Niger Republic and Chad.”
Another one wrote:
“This Buhari and his Fulani gang are very, very funny people, it is convenient for them to regard the North of more than 200 ethnic nationalities who have no cultural and religious similarities as ONE North, but to champion a dichotomy between Igbos and their siblings, uncles, brothers and in-laws in the Old Eastern and Midwestern Nigeria.
“Only a daft will allow Fulanis to migrate from Futa Jalon to come and keep dividing them and their neighbors, brothers and sisters in their bid to continue to use the instrument of divide and rule to continue to loot the mineral resources in the old East and Midwest.
“Just check for example how a Fulani who has no drop of hydrocarbon, has appropriated the oil and gas industry to the exclusion of both the SS and the SE [South East], while planting discord between them so that while the East and South South continue to bicker, the Fulani will continue to enjoy the resources of the East and South South without any challenge.”
Okojie Ne Ewatto wrote:
“Everybody should not be in the political train before contributing to the discussion on how to make a new Nigeria of our dreams. I have presented my thoughts on how to go about it, please let’s have your own contributions instead of always making yourself a betrayal and a traitor to the progress and good development of Nigeria.”
Another commenter wrote:
“If Nigeria gets the geopolitical structural groupings right, upon which the foundation of the NEW Nigeria should be built, we shall then move on to the next step of allowing every geopolitical zone, to make their own internal constitution on how they desire to relate and govern themselves in line with the desires and aspirations of the indigenous nationalities of the geopolitical zones, how many provinces or states they prefer to have and the system of government they prefer for themselves.
“Every zone should be given 6 months to prepare, agree to conduct referendum and come up with their zone’s own internal constitution.
“At the end of the 6 months, all the geopolitical zones, say 6 or 8 geopolitical zones, which shall be the federating units, shall elect their representatives to now proceed to the center at Abuja, to fashion out and agree on the constitution of Nigeria’s federal central government.
“Every geopolitical zone should elect 30 citizens to represent them at the constitutional conference, in accordance with their internal zonal constitution.
“E.g, those who prefer Sharia constitution, should follow the prescription of their Sharia to elect or appoint or nominate their own delegates. The time frame for the federal government constitution making should last for three months.
“At the end of the exercise, the new agreement should be taken to every zone for a referendum to be conducted for the federation’s new constitution to be effectively domiciled in all the geopolitical zones of the federation.”
