Again, Nigeria’s Presidency alleges plots to wage smear campaign against Buhari

Nigeria’s Presidency on Friday said there was a compelling reason to alert the nation to another orchestrated smear campaign against President Muhammadu Buhari, using some online newspapers and blogs.

In a statement, Presidential spokesperson, Femi Adesina, said the campaign, scheduled to be launched anytime soon through editorials and purported special investigative stories, was designed to further exacerbate tension in the land, by portraying the President as pandering to ethnic and other primordial tendencies, contrary to his pledge to belong to all Nigerians.

Adesina said impeccable security findings indicated that those behind the plot had procured online blogs and newspapers, which were to launch coordinated publications, alleging subjugation and suppression of a particular religion and ethnic groups.

He said a specific medium had so far contacted some opinion leaders, especially those very critical of President Buhari.

Adesina further stated that part of the planned publication was to make unwary readers believe that the President had continually used the powers of his office to shield and protect an ethnic group against crimes of murder, kidnappings, rape and banditry in the southern, middle belt and some northern states.

He said the publication would also refer Nigerians to a 58-page document, which “chronicles purported atrocities of the ethnic group in the South since 2017, all of which it claims the Presidency has turned blind eyes to.”

According to him: “Again, the hatchet job will allege that the President has continued to place members of his ethnic nationality in sensitive positions, so as to confer undue advantage on them.

“This allegation is by no means supported with reasonable facts and figures.

“Just on Thursday, President Buhari, while meeting with the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), led by Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, restated his even-handedness on the issues of ethnicity and religion.”

He further quoted President Buhari to have said: “The Federal Government under my leadership does not, and will not, allow religious prejudice or partisanship to influence any of its decisions and policies. It is my solemn decision to be fair and just to all segments of society.”

Adesina said those who were bent on stoking ethnic and religious unrest in the country remained deaf to reason, and impervious to reality.

He said they were hell-bent on distorting reality, and Nigerians were urged to be wary of them, adding that it was all about the quest for power and filthy lucre.