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Coalition cautions Ohanaeze, northern groups against bigotry

By Kanayo Umeh, Abuja
08 July 2019   |   4:05 am
One Nigeria Coalition (ONC) has advised Ohanaeze Ndigbo and Northern Youths Coalition to repent of bigotry before attempting to address issues of national interest.

One Nigeria Coalition (ONC) has advised Ohanaeze Ndigbo and Northern Youths Coalition to repent of bigotry before attempting to address issues of national interest.

The advice came in the light of the recent outburst by both groups over the federal government’s proposed Rural Grazing Area (RUGA) initiative.

In a statement signed by ONC president, Charles Mbani, yesterday after an emergency meeting, the coalition said “this has become imperative to avoid unnecessary heating up of the polity,” which could ultimately lead to socio-political unrest.

The Northern youths had in a televised press conference addressed by its spokesperson, Suleiman Abdul Aziz, vowed to take it out on Southerners living in the North, if Southern governors did not accept the implementation of RUGA.

This apparently irked the apex Igbo socio-cultural group, which fired back, labelling the initiative an “Islamisation and Fulanisation policy.”

“The One Nigeria Coalition, arising from its emergency meeting in light of the recent outburst by the Northern Youths Coalition and the subsequent response by Ohanaeze Ndigbo, wishes to state that both organisations have exhibited unpatriotic acts that defeat every sense of unity of heart and purpose.

“That the Northern Youths Coalition could issue an ultimatum to the federal government on the implementation of RUGA across the country, upon which action would be taken should it fail to, is quite insensitive and an affront to the heterogeneous nature of Nigeria.”

“The statement credited to the Northern Youths Coalition was issued without recourse to the fact that Nigeria, as it stands, does not need divisive and insensitive calls of this nature, given that there has been mutual suspicion among the various tribes and religions in the country.

“It is expected that Nigerians, regardless of our ethnic or religious affiliations, as a matter of necessity, see themselves as brothers and sisters in the quest for greatness,” it stated.

According to the coalition, the farmers-herders crisis in Nigeria can only be resolved through a holistic approach by stakeholders and not biased, ethnic warmongers who have clearly shown times without number that their ultimate aim is to plunge the nation into monumental crisis.

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