A former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Dr. Obadiah Mailafia has spoken about insecurity in Nigeria under the administration of the late head of state, Gen. Sani Abacha and the present government of President Muhammadu Buhari and concluded that it is worse under the latter.
Mailafia who stated this Wednesday on Channels Television programme ‘Sunrise Daily’ was reacting to the recent attempted assassination of the governor of Benue State, Dr Samuel Ortom, by suspected herdsmen.
It would be recalled that the governor escaped death by the whiskers when some 15 armed hooded persons suspected to be herdsmen attacked him in his farm along Tyo-Mu-Abetse-Gboko Road, in Makurdi local council of the state.
Mailafia said the people of the Middle Belt condemn the assault and are not afraid of those who carried out the assault.
He further said Buhari’s government is the worst Nigeria has had since 1960 adding that some forces empower some people from a part of the country with weapons to terrorise citizens.
“This attempt on the life of an executive governor and incumbent of a state is an attempted attack on the entire people of the state. Those who are trying to do this wicked thing need to understand the implication of what they are trying to do.
“If the governor of a state cannot feel safe to go to his farm, how will the ordinary Benue people feel going to their farms? This is a very bad precedence. The circumstances in Borno are very different. Borno is a war zone, we’ve been living with these evil people for a while but what happened in Benue is totally different and diabolical. We don’t know what they are trying to do but this could affect the whole country.
“Benue people and the people of the Middle Belt will never ever accept this attempt on one of their sons. Nobody is afraid of these people but it is just that these people are given arms and allowed to move freely while the machetes that ordinary people have are being dispossessed from them, they are not even allowed to defend their homes and their families but we are glad that God saved the life of his Excellency, Governor Ortom.”
Mailafia also blamed some unnamed world powers for their resolve to destroy Nigeria by inciting one part of the country against the other.
“This is totally unprecedented. This is the worst time ever in the history of Nigeria. You can’t even compare with Abacha’s time; Abacha’s time was a golden era compare with what is happening. You think Abacha would have tolerated all these? You can’t travel on these roads, killings everywhere, destructions everywhere.
“World powers want to destroy Nigeria and what they have done is to come and meet some people and tell them, ‘You are born to rule’.
“There is an agenda (ex-President Olusegun) Obasanjo called Fulanisation and enforcement of one particular religion against the rest.
“The world powers encourage them and tell them, ‘We are behind you, go ahead’. They provide the weapons and some local people buy into that idea and they begin a campaign of genocide because if you carry a heavy weapon and go into the forests, go into the ancient savannah, you kill people, you rape women, what are you? You are committing genocide against the unarmed and defenceless.”
