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IPOB: Presidency replies


The presidency on Monday reacted to the criticism of President Muhammadu Buhari’s Independence Day speech by the Igbo socio-political group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo.

The Ohanaeze had criticised the speech saying Mr. Buhari refused to take responsibility for the various challenges facing the country.

“The issue is that the Buhari administration has always found one excuse or the other for the challenges facing the country. They have never taken responsibility before (because) they were not prepared to rule Nigeria,” the group said in a statement by its spokesperson Uche Okpaga quoted by Vanguard newspaper.

In its response, the presidency in a statement by Mr. Buhari’s spokesperson, Garba Shehu, said the Igbo group could have done more to check the excesses of the separatist group, IPOB, which seeks an independent Biafra country.

The federal government recently declared IPOB a terrorist organisation after clashes between it and security forces.

Mr. Shehu also said, “President Buhari was not abdicating his responsibilities. He didn’t request any political leader to do anything seminal or out of the box. All he said is, talk to your out-of-the-line-youth so that we have some peace.”

Read Mr. Shehu’s full statement below:

A spokesperson for President Muhammadu Buhari has appealed to the Ohanaeze group of Igbo leaders to see themselves as partners with the federal government in promoting peace and stability in the country.

Reacting to some criticisms of the president’s Independence Day speech by the Ohanaeze leadership, Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, said that it was unfair of the group to blame the recent unrest in the southeast region on the federal government.

Throwing light on the import of the Presidential broadcast on the National Day, October 1st, the spokesman said that President Muhammadu Buhari’s message to all community leaders, and that includes the Ohanaeze is that they have a huge role to play in what happens in their communities and in how their youth behave.

“President Buhari was not abdicating his responsibilities. He didn’t request any political leader to do anything seminal or out of the box. All he said is, talk to your out-of-the-line-youth so that we have some peace.”

“Igbo leaders need not to be on the defensive for the misbehaviour of the IPOB which they rightly condemned,” Mr. Shehu said. “The President was simply saying that the regional leaders also have a role to play in keeping their hot-headed youth in check.”

This admonition, the SSA Media pointed out, applied equally to leaders of every other region of the country, not only the Ohanaeze from the southeast. According to him, elders from every region must step out and speak up whenever their youth go out of line, such as when the IPOB launched unspeakable diatribes against other groups of people in other parts of the country and then began to threaten violence.

“President Buhari was simply calling out the regional leaders to their responsibilities, making them aware of the crucial role they can play. This should not be seen as an attack on the Ohanaeze or on any other regional leaders,” he said.

Responding to other criticisms of the President’s speech, particularly the declaration that all matters of restructuring or constitutional amendment are the business of the National Assembly, Mr. Shehu reiterated the President’s line that the Parliament as a key institution in democratic governance is the proper venue for the ventilation of, and resolution of all contentious issues.

“It beats our imagination that men claiming to be democrats or having democratic credentials are asking the government to ignore an elected parliament in preference to a committee made up of presidential appointees to debate and resolve constitutional issues. You are either for democracy or for its opposite. For us in this government, democracy is the country’s chosen system of government and we are determined to deepen and uphol

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