BY BENEDICT NWACHUKWU, ABUJA
Secretary of the Fulani umbrella body of the herders and traders, Miyetti Allah, Alhassan Saleh, has charged the Igbos, in South Eastern Nigeria, to stop distracting themselves with the “dot in the circle” comment of President Muhammadu Buhari and focus on how to actualise an Igbo Presidency in 2023.
Speaking with The Point, Saleh said since the statement by the President, many Igbos, particularly, their neighbours in the South, who would not want an Igbo President to emerge, had been using the willing tools among the Igbo people to distract the Igbo quest for the country’s Number One Citizen’s position.
He said, “The Igbo people should avoid the distractions coming from their neighbours using some of their sons to truncate their ambition to produce the next Nigerian President.
“I tell you, all the talk about the dot in the circle, which some Igbo people are now singing as a national anthem, is only a tool of distraction by those who don’t want them to produce the next president. It is meant to remove their focus from the main thing they are pursuing.”
Saleh noted that the time had come for an Igbo President to occupy the Aso Rock Villa and argued that since that seemed to be their major reason for saying they were marginalised, it would simply solve the problem and stop the agitations.
“I would suggest that the political parties should zone the presidential ticket to the South East in 2023. Since that seems to be their major reason for claiming that they are marginalised, having an Igbo President will simply solve the problem, stop the agitations and we will live happily again as one in this country,” he noted.
He, however, added that even as some Nigerians were clamouring for Igbo Presidency, the Igbo people should reach out to other Nigerians and exchange their views, making them see reason to trust the Igbo man to the extent of ceding the presidency to them.
The Miyetti Allah Secretary also noted that the destruction going on in the country should end now because “nobody benefits from violence and destruction”.
He maintained that every Nigerian was important and should be treated as such but said those working assiduously to break up the country were unpatriotic and should not be allowed to have their way.
“We are all Nigerians and must remain one. Some of those angling to break up the country are using it to achieve their political aim while some are ignorant of what they are doing. At any rate, we should propagate what unites us, not what divides us,” the Miyetti Allah Secretary said.
Saleh had, in an earlier interview, called on patriotic Nigerians to join forces to stop the excesses of those fanning the embers of disunity and calling for the disintegration of the country.
