Afenifere, the Yoruba socio- political group, has come out to tongue-lash the spokesman of President Muhammadu Buhari, Femi Adesina, for saying those criticising the President were doing so because he is Fulani.
The presidential spokesman was reminded that other Nigerian leaders had emerged from the Fulani ethnic group without attracting the same treatment.
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Secretary General, to the organisation, Chief Sola Ebiseni, in a statement in Akure, Ondo State capital, wondered why he would descend to such a level of playing an ethnic card when the contrary was obvious.
He spoke against Adesina’s tongue-lashing of clerics who he accused of being in the habit, assailing the President, wondering why they would not take a cue from Pastor Kumuyi of the Deeper Life Ministry, in praying for leaders instead of trying to pull them down.
Ebiseni’s statement was entitled, Buhari’s Performance And Femi Adesina’s Attack on the Clergy, said: “Femi played some odious ethnic music when he alluded that many who were criticising the lacklustre performance of his boss were only doing so because they didn’t like being ruled by a Fulani man.
“There is no need reminding him that northern Nigeria which is now rendered asunder in ethnic relationships, as a result of Buhari’s government’s clueless or permissive treatment of security matters, was once ruled as One North, by Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto and scion of the Fulani Uthman Dan Fodio caliphate.
“Buhari is not more Fulani than Shehu Shagari, the mantra of whose government, as President of Nigeria, was One Nation, One Destiny. Umaru Yar Adua, as Fulani and President of Nigeria, did not spend two years to solve the problems of agitation amongst the youths of the Niger Delta.
“His Government toured the creeks, dialogued and sought understanding. He did not hold the whole of the people of the South-South responsible for the agitation for which he would have called the territory ‘water logged’ and the people to be treated in the language they would understand, neither did he unleash state terrorism on the residence of any agitator as Buhari Government would want Sunday Igboho killed”.
Going biblical, Ebiseni said: “From the days of Prophet Samuel to Saul; Nathan to David when he killed Uriah and took his wife Bathsheba; Elijah who told Saul that he and his household were the troublers of Israel, up to modern days Martin Luther king, Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Okogie, Bishop Gbonigi, Matthew Kukah, Tunde Bakare and all, the commission of God to His prophets does not exclude speaking truth to earthly rulers.
‘Of course, while these true men of God speak truth to power, there are legions of men, like the 400 prophets of Ahab against Micaiah and of Baals who lurk around power to massage the egos of rulers and cause them to sin the more.
“Such advisers abound in this Government who make the President believe he has power over land use and some who would advise the people to choose between their lives and land and deceive the President that peaceful agitators like Sunday Igboho have capacity for territorial secession or that killing Nnamdi Kanu would stop Biafran agitation. Only God can save rulers from such counsels as He did of Ahitopheli.”
The group which noted that Adesina’s desperation for excuses appeared not to spare any institution no matter how sacred, added: “This time around, Femi has chosen to hide behind a patronising statement on Pastor Kumuyi of the Deeper Life Ministry to latch at the clergy for speaking truth to power.
“lt is absolutely within his right, for Femi to choose not to go to any church as long as he serves the Buhari’s government, but he cannot deliberately misrepresent Pastor Kumuyi to set him up as examples of prominent personalities who would see no evil or say nothing about evil in order that they may not be seen as denigrating government and men in power.
“He was particularly unkind to the Pastor of his own church which church he exited particularly because he chose not to stop criticising President Buhari after most of the abducted Dapchi schoolgirls were released.
“Power must have done some incalculable damage to the psyche of Femi Adesina that he would not remember that five of the girls were brutally murdered and that in the release negotiated by the Federal Government, Leah Sharibu was singlehandedly and permanently denied her freedom for refusal to renounce her Christian faith.
“Yet, Femi expected his own Pastor, as a leader in the same faith, to applaud Buhari for doing nothing extraordinary to bring Leah to freedom, if only to demonstrate that he is the father of all faiths despite his records of being a sharia agitator”.