The Citizens Watch Nigeria (CWN) has decried what it called the unpatriotic, mischievous, pedestrian, biased, ill-motivated and orchestrated media statement credited to Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State on a historic national security initiative.Specifically the grups slammed Fayose’s opposition to the Governors’ Forum’s approval of $1 billion from the Excess Crude Account to equip the Nigerian military for fighting insurgency.
The group said as champions and propagators of transparency, good governance and accountability in the country, these malicious verbal diarrhoea and politically motivated campaign of calumny are intended to derail the Federal Government, distract President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration and later accuse him of achieving nothing. CWN said worries stem from the fact that this mischief hiding under the umbrella of politics to fan the embers of divisiveness in a matter that borders on national security gives a cause for concern. It is clear that:
*Mr. Ayodele Fayose goofed and missed the point because the funds approved are not for Buhari’s 2019 elections as canvassed by him but to train, equip and fund the Nigerian military so as to safeguard the territorial integrity of Nigeria in keeping with their constitutional mandate.
*That Mr. Fayose should stop drawing the country backwards as the unity of the country is sacrosanct and is bigger than any one person or group of persons. The focus now should be on the unity, peace, stability and future of Nigeria, while taking into consideration those that have put their lives on the line for us all to have a nation to call ours today. It is of paramount importance that Fayose should stop being myopic, self-serving and pedestrian when it comes to burning issues of peace and national security.
As an executive, there is always a line you cannot cross, when it comes to that point, we admonish him to always look at issues critically and holistically without primordial sentiments and political machinations.
‘Omoba Kenneth Aigbegbele Executive Secretary,CWN and Comr Faruok Umar Publicity Secretary “As an advocacy body, we condemn in strong terms, the intemperate castigation and dishonest grandstanding of Fayose on the approval of the Governors’ Forum’s funds meant to equip the Nigerian military for fighting insurgency and to safeguard the territorial integrity of the nation and the protection of lives and property. Nigerians are tired of leaders who instead of projecting national interest and aspiration promote issues that will engender division and heat the polity unnecessarily. Fayose should stop fanning the embers of crises and disunity and stop selling his parochial interest to the gullible public.
*We, therefore, find it curious that a governor would make such bogus and unauthentic claims and allegations calculated to destroy the confidence reposed on Nigerian military by Nigerians who have scored the military very high and given them favourable approval ratings for decimating and reducing the ferocity of the Boko Haram insurgents.
“No single Nigerian is happy about the lives lost by our brothers, sisters, mothers and children, and whatever should be done, must be done by those in authority to preserve the unity, peace and harmonious co-existence and security of the country. The Nigerian military needs equipments and up-to-date machinery to combat the ferocity of the insurgents. As majority of lives lost cannot be quantified or calculated against the just mere $1 billion to be appropriated to the military We, Nigerians, are in support of the funds and happy about the humanitarian efforts and nationalistic dispositions of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration towards our military. We strongly believe that anything done in tandem with best global practice must be supported by Nigerians.
*It is our position that the decision to approve the funds for the Nigerian military is legal and constitutional. This historic decision of funding the Nigerian military by the Buhari’s administration and the Governors’ Forum is well timed. It also has the endorsement of every well-meaning Nigerian, who must stand up and be counted on the side of posterity. The military has been prudent and transparent in financial management in prosecuting the war in the North East as against what Governor Fayose said.
*CWN urges the Buhari’s administration, Governors’ Forum and the Nigerian military including the general public to jettison the baseless, mischievous and politically motivated allegations of Fayose and critics of this laudable funding of the Armed Forces, who see nothing good in Buhari’s administration. They are opportunists hell-bent in pulling down the government at all costs. They are merely criticising without any logic or legality, but out of bias and prejudices.
Finally, the group said “We, therefore, pass a vote of confidence on the military leadership for its professionalism and transparency in handling the operations of the insurgency. We stand with the Nigerian military, and we know that Nigerians also stand on the side of the Nigerian military. With full accolade for the military, we urge them to remain focused on the task ahead.”
