Candidate of the National Republican Convention (NRC) in the annulled Nigeria’s June 12, 1993 presidential election, Bashir Othman Tofa, and 22 other Nigerians from the northern part of the country, have called on Nigerians to shun ethnic profiling and incendiary remarks capable of threatening national cohesion.
In a statement jointly signed by the 23 northerners, they called on Nigerians to not attach criminality to a particular ethnic group, especially the Fulani and Hausa.
According to the statement: “We the undersigned, are appalled by the current happenings across the country, especially as it relates to the deliberately engineered ethnic disharmony currently going on in the southern states.
“As Nigerians, we must always be ready to resist the profiling of any group as evil or the sole source of any crisis. The ongoing profiling of the Fulani and the Hausa as the causal factors of the current challenges facing the country must be condemned by all.
“The words and action of certain individuals and a section of the media reducing criminality to a particular ethnic group is a serious threat to national cohesion. In spite of the current propaganda, emerging evidence is clearly showing that kidnapping and banditry is neither restricted to one particular ethnic group or one region in Nigeria.
“Ritual killings, armed robbery and kidnappings for ransom have become an equal opportunity activity for all sections of the country and as they are being arrested and prosecuted around the country, the profiling of groups is limited to Northerners.”
The group of 23 bemoaned the silence of the Federal Government amid the ethnic crisis, describing it as “worrisome”.
The group stated that the criminalization of the Fulani had assumed dangerous dimensions.
The northerners warned that “ethnic profiling of some groups has grave consequences for the stability of Nigeria.”
The group added: “While we commend attempts by some national leaders to douse rising tensions, the silence of the Federal Government whose constitutional role it is to protect lives and property, is worrisome.
“We are concerned that the criminalization and the negative profiling of an ethnic group as bandits and kidnappers by both the conventional and social media has now taken a dangerous dimension.
“Incendiary speeches criminalizing the Fulani by some political and religious leaders and inciting articles by a section of the Nigerian press, has assumed dangerous dimensions.
“They have radicalized and transformed their youths not only into eviction mobs but also into killing machines. Quit notices and violent attacks by irate youths upon the expiry of eviction dates have become common.
“History has clearly shown that ethnic and religious profiling have grave consequences for the stability of a nation.
“They breed intolerance and fanatical hatred as typified by the break-up of India, where millions of lives were lost as it disintegrated, and in Rwanda of recent, where one million people, mainly Tutsi, were murdered in cold blood due to the bigotry of some power-hungry politicians, who are oblivious of global trends.
“We shudder at the thought that the killings of Northerners in the South are calculated to incite retaliation in the North thereby plunging the country into needless bloody conflagration.”
The group appealed to the Federal Government to wake up to its responsibilities and ensure the safety of lives and property.
Read the group: “We appeal to the Federal government to guarantee the lives, safety and property of law-abiding citizens across the country.
“We also call on our compatriots across the country to condemn in no uncertain terms, the wanton destruction of lives and property and the untenable ultimatum demanding that fellow citizens relocate. This is unacceptable.
“We equally appeal to all citizens in Nigeria to live in peace and harmony with one another as destiny has created a joint path for us towards prosperity, which can only be attained under a peaceful and stable polity.
“The solution to violence and criminality is to prosecute the persons involved not to rope in their entire community.”
The statement was signed by Tofa, Amb. Fatimah Balla, Alh. Sule Yahaya Hamma, Hubert Shaiyen, Dr. Abubakar Siddique Mohammed, Bashir Yusuf Ibrahim, Mallam Bilya Bala, Dr. Usman Bugaje, Prof. Jibrin Ibrahim, Hon. Sani Zorro, Commodore Naibaida (Rtd), Professor Mustapha Gwadabe, Professor Idris’s Sha’aban Jimada, Professor Omar Massoud, Professor Abdulkadir Adamu, and Mallam Kabir Danladi.
Others are Mallam Isa Modibbo, Engineer Hassan Hussaini, Mallam Murtala Abubakar, Mallam Aminu Musa, Muhammad Kabir Abubakar, Nasir Mohammed Abubakar, and Sunny S. Moniedafe.
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