By Bashir Mohammed
Kano
A former Chief of Army Staff, General T.Y. Danjuma (rtd), has called on the federal government to waste no time in arresting the leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, Alhaji Mujahid Asari Dukubo, for what he described as “his reckless and unguarded utterances capable of putting Nigeria asunder.”
Speaking to newsmen in Kano shortly after commissioning the newly constructed Kwankwasiyya City yesterday, Danjuma wondered why Dukubo should be making such inflammatory comments at a time peace “is badly needed in the country,” adding, “People of his ilk should be condemned and arrested to serve as a deterrent to others.”
He noted that the “unity and oneness of Nigeria is sacrosanct and must never be compromised on the proddings of any individual,” stressing that in an ideal democratic setting one should learn to speak in the spirit of human decency, respect and decorum.
Danjuma added: “The man should be arrested for his unguarded and reckless utterances. In a situation like this the issue of entrenching peace in the country is what is needed most. We should not allow some miscreants to hold us to ransom. Nigeria belongs to everybody and we must do everything possible to safeguard her unity.”
Turning to politicians, he said making unguarded utterances capable of overheating the polity was anachronistic in a democracy, adding that politicians should focus their campaign on issues, not on personalities.
He said: “As we are approa-ching election time we must strive to ensure that important issues were thoroughly discussed but not personalities. We want to have a perfect election where no one would have an axe to grind with anybody. Once the politicians campaign on issues, not personalities, and avoid anything capable of causing disaffection, I am confident that we would have foul-free elections.”
He commended Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso for establishing physical infrastructures in the last four years and described the Kwankwasiyya City as “one of the modern edifices in the history of the present democratic dispensation.”
