The Presidency on Saturday described as a betrayal of trust by a major beneficiary of the Nigerian nation the letter written by Gov. Murtala Nyako of Adamawa to the northern governors.
The Presidency’s reaction contained in a statement signed by the Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, in Abuja, said Nyako’s letter to the northern governors “is an unmitigated leadership disaster”.
Nyako had written to the rest 18 northern state governors, accusing the Federal Government of carrying out genocide against northern states. He had alleged that President Jonathan had no exit strategy to the problem of insurgency.
The governor had argued that whereas the Federal Government ought to have declared amnesty to the insurgents, the administration had rather behaved as if all was well.
He also accused the Federal Government of being responsible for the wanton destruction of lives and properties and kidnapping of school children in the north-east.
But, while reacting, the Presidency described the call by Nyako for the withdrawal of the military from Adamawa, Borno and Yobe as his open endorsement of the Boko Haram insurgency.
“The content of Nyako’s letter exposed him as lacking a sense of history as well as incapable of rising above parochial sentiments.
“The letter was extremely divisive and intentionally meant to incite one section of the country against the other. Nyako’s action is a pathetic embarrassment to the Nigerian military, from where he derives his career antecedents,” it said.
The statement said the Presidency further described as hypocritical Nyako’s remark that the Boko Haram terrorist group was a “phantom organisation” which does not exist.
It said Nyako’s invitation to the other northern governors to join him to sue the Federal Government “definitely defies common sense’’.
The Presidency requested the Adamawa Governor to publish his state’s yearly budget for the past five years to show how much was voted or spent to support the war on terror.
“This will also reveal how much he has spent to assist victims of insurgents’ activities in his state, if any. We can recall that the governor was publicly attacked recently by angry youths who accused him of failure to support victims of Boko Haram attacks on innocent citizens of the state,” it said.
The Presidency therefore urged Nigerians to ignore Gov. Nyako’s letter, saying its ignoble aim was to create disaffection among Nigerians and polarise the country along ethnic lines.
“It was also aimed at discrediting the Federal Government which has continued to work hard to fully eliminate insurgency and destroy their support base. The insurgency was meant to provide the perpetrators unrestricted opportunity to further unleash terror on innocent citizens.
“It is a situation which they intend to exploit to undermine the administration and truncate our growing democracy. This, Nigerians will surely not allow to happen,’’ it said.
The Presidency assured Nigerians of Federal Government’s continuous determination to defeat terror and restore peace to every part of northern Nigeria.
“This is critical to ensure that law-abiding Nigerians go about their socio-economic pursuit without hindrance in all parts of the country,’’ it said.
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