Chief Mbazulike Amechi, the first Aviation Minister has blasted President Muhammadu Buhari over his describing Ndigbo as a dot-in-a-circle, saying it was the wrong choice of words to use and shows a lack of diplomacy on the part of the President.
The 92-year-old in an exclusive interview with Daily Sun said Buhari has deep-rooted hatred for Ndi Igbo.
He said: “Buhari’s deep-rooted hatred for Ndigbo is not a new thing. Buhari’s lack of diplomacy even in government and use of diplomatic language or the language that fits a president is well known in Nigeria because as of today, even though Buhari is not wearing a military uniform, he is still the same soldier who overthrew a Fulani-led government in 1983 because the constitution of the then National Party of Nigeria (NPN) said that the next president of the country will be an Igbo man and Buhari swore that an Igbo will never be a president of the country.
“So, his hatred for Ndigbo and everything Igbo is not a new thing to me. And then his poor choice of language as a president, a real president would have found better words to use than that expression that Ndigbo are a dot in a circle. That is a poor choice of words, very unpresidential. That is all I can say about it. Now, yes, he said that the Southeast, that Igbo do not have access to the sea. There are many countries of the world that have no access to the sea yet they function. I have said it personally that I believe in a bigger country, Nigeria that I fought for.
“I dedicated my entire youth to the struggle for independence of Nigeria, a big country. And up till today, I don’t believe that Nigeria should break. But if Nigeria breaks, Buhari is responsible for the breaking of the country. If this country disintegrates, Buhari should accept total responsibility for it because it is his actions and inactions that have brought the whole thing in Nigeria to the level we are now.
Speaking on Buhari’s plans to return grazing routes to herders, He said: “This question of Fulanis and cattle herders and all that is a new language and it only came up in Buhari’s regime. There have been governments in Nigeria. There were NCNC and AG in Nigeria as political parties. There have been military regimes in Nigeria. The Fulanis were bringing their cattle to the East, West and South to sell. Buhari is the only president who wants to equate Fulani economy and empire with his attempt to Fulanize Nigeria and to Islamize Nigeria. That is what is causing the whole trouble.
“That is for allowing the Fulanis to be armed and allowing his government, people inside his government to arm the herders and they come down here, they shoot people, they damage crops, they rape women, kidnap people and not one of them has been arraigned in any court of law even though those who are arrested and handed over to the police are released the following day. What kind of president is that? The younger elements who are agitating for separation, agitating for Biafra or even the Yoruba now apart from the South-south which is another question which will be dealt with later. Will the South-south talk, are they free to talk?
“Let’s leave that. Those who are free to talk are talking. Now, the younger elements say instead of being slaves to Fulanis after coming out from British imperialism to Fulani Empire, the Igbo say we don’t support that. My own case is that the younger elements who did not see how we ran the country before they were born, how there was equity and balance in the country grew up to see themselves marginalized in their own country, rendered poor in the midst of plenty in their own country, and they said no, the system has to be changed because we have never been slaves in our lifetime. Our history shows we have never been slaves, let us go.
“A human president, a president with human feelings would not have stopped them from that. All he has to do is to conduct a plebiscite and ask Igbo to come and vote whether really they should go based on what these younger elements are saying or remain. How is he (Buhari) sure, in any case that if a plebiscite is called the majority will say we will go. Igbo have so many investments in other parts of Nigeria and West Africa.
“Igbo abroad are more in population and richer than Igbo at home. And so, they would certainly want that spread to be. The only thing they want is freedom, give us equity and balance that is all they are asking for in the affairs of the country. Let us compete with others, but you cannot come and take our general wealth and deny us our fair share. That is what they are saying. So, the proper thing would have been let’s go and do the plebiscites, if the majority says we will go, let them go in peace. If the majority says we will not go, no we are not going, then they will remain and negotiate and find out what is their anger, what is the problem and all that and then solve them. That is the way I should have handled it if I were in the position of the president.
“If the man is the kind of man who would listen to advise, that is what I would have advised him to do. He doesn’t take good advice and always being misled by the cabals around him. He is not free again. Have you seen a president who has never made a speech himself except occasionally when he reads what is written for him by his speech writers and they pass it on to him, which he revises a number of times and then comes to read it? After reading it, have you ever seen him take any question from the press? You are a pressman find out”.
