Information minister, Labaran Maku has launched verbal attack on the governor of Adamawa state, Murtala Nyako, describing the recent memo the governor sent to his colleague governors in the Northern part of the country as grossly irresponsible and divisive.
“When people reach a certain age, they should watch their utterances and the kind of things they are suppose to say. Maybe if it is young people like you, we can say it is lack of experience, but people that have known the difficulty this country is going through and the kind of effort that is being made by the federal government to be coming out to make those statements that divide the country even at a point that we need national unity and national healing is grossly irresponsible.”
Maku was addressing newsmen today shortly after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, presided over at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, by President Goodluck Jonathan.
Maku regretted that someone who has little knowledge on how security services are rendered will just open his mouth and make statements that create panic in the country, adding that this is very unfortunate.
“To hear the kind of things being said by the governor of Adamawa State at this period is very unfortunate. Nyako is the former Chief of Naval Staff. He is someone that has worn uniform before and for him to publicly incite the people against the security forces of this country is the height of irresponsibility. It is more so for someone like him who is old enough to appreciate the kind of crisis this country is going through. We expected that he should have a greater understanding, politics aside.”
He saw Nyako’s memo as grandstanding and playing to the gallery, saying that making such inflammatory statement that divides public opinion and causes confusion shows how the governor has been turning himself into what he called “anti-Nigerian.”
The minister insisted that this is the time Nigerians should speak with one voice, and speak with a voice that give the people hope that the leaders are united in finding solution, adding: “divisive statement must be condemned at this time and I think that we all have a responsibility to this country. And for the media as well, we need to be reporting from the point of arousing public anger to support the government to support security services. One thing we must not allow is to create lack of morale for the security services because we don’t have alternative today to those services. And I know that security services are one of the best services in this continent with a lot of commitment and discipline.”
Maku is hopeful that Nigeria will overcome the current security challenges but that “we can do the job better with some people shutting up their mouths.”
