As Nigerians continue to react over the recent attack on the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mr. Nyesom Wike by Islamic Cleric, Sheik Ahmed Gumi over which region should produce the Minister of FCT, former Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism and Chieftain of All Progressive Congress (APC) in Niger State, Hon. Jonathan Tsado Vatsa has taken a swipe at the cleric, describing his claims on Abuja as that of a person living in the past who has lost touch with the current reality in the country, especially in northern Nigeria.
The former Commissioner in an interview with our correspondent in Minna, the Niger State capital over the weekend while reacting to Gumi’s recent outburst against Wike, said the Cleric’s engagement with Bandits in the forests has made him lose touch with the reality in the north, stressing that era of using ethnic and religious identity to attract sympathy or favour is over in the North.
According to the former Publicity Secretary of APC in Niger State, the north which Gumi is claiming to be speaking for is an extremely fragmented region in Nigeria today with the political class only interested in building dynasties for themselves and their immediate families unlike what is obtained in the southern Nigeria where politicians build their people.
Vatsa pointed out that any region that is laying claim to the ownership of Abuja is indirectly laying claim to the ownership of Nigeria, saying that Abuja as it is today was developed with resources from all over Nigeria be it from oil, cattle rearing and cocoa, and therefore wonder why anybody will claim the monopoly of Abuja.
He stated further that before now it was easier in Nigeria to hide your failure under ethnicity and religion and also gather support under ethnicity and religion, adding that all that is beginning to change because the ordinary man on the streets of North has never benefitted from anything from the leaders who have continue to use religion and ethnicity to win their support.
“When political clerics and politicians need support they remember religion and ethnicity but the moment they achieve their aim, they only remember their immediate families and begin to expand their dynasty, that is why we have extreme poverty in the north than any other region in Nigeria despite our hanging to power for over four decades ”.
He, however, expressed regrets that if Nigeria were to be a country we there is a proper means of identification of who is truly a Nigerian, some people wouldn’t have been allowed to contribute to national discourse stressing that “so whatever Gumi who is a political cleric says or is saying today, I don’t blame him because in Nigeria, we don’t have means of proper identification to know those who are genuinely Nigerians and who are immigrants.
“It is easier to claim citizenship of Nigeria through either the North or the South; your passport is just to be either a Muslim or a Christian, and if you can speak Hausa or any indigenous language. That is also why we are having this high level of security challenges all over the country.”
Vatsa expressed further regret that while the north has dominated every other region in the FCT ministerial position since its creation, this dominance, he argued has never translated to better living standards for the average northerners, as poverty headquarters has remained in the region “yet people like Gumi think that they can achieve cheap popularity or sympathy by calling for resignation of Wike. Wike is a Nigerian and has the right to be the President of Nigeria not just the FCT Minister.
“If there is any region in Nigeria today that should agitate for the Minister of the federal capital, it should be Niger state because 80 per cent of land that made up Abuja is from Niger State. But unfortunately, Niger is yet to produce an FCT Minister since the return of democracy in 1999. Up till today, Niger State is still bearing the burdens of Abuja with over 40 per cent of its population residing in Suleja, Sabon Wuse and Madalla,” said Vatsa.
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