By Najib Sani
Bauchi
Secretary of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Prof. Ango Abdullahi, said in Bauchi that the recent money laundering orchestrated by the federal government and punctured by South African authorities has vindicated him that Boko Haram has two faces.
“Illegal government to be involved in illegal purchase of arms when there are banks to transact businesses and so on, something is basically wrong, and two years ago I said there are two Boko Haram.”
He said the original Boko Haram of Mohammed Yusuf was no longer the viable Boko Haram on ground, but something bigger, “because it is disputable for such group to within two, three or four years garner the kind of armory and infrastructure running all over the place, at least not from almajiri.”
Abdullahi, who was speaking at an inaugural lecture with the theme: “National Conference: National Unity and the North” organised by the Bauchi Generational Leadership Awareness Initiative” held in Bauchi, noted that “Nigeria can only be safe when you totally replace this irresponsible administration.”
He wondered how the federal government quickly responded to say that the seized money belonged to it, which invariably means that the government is involved in illegal arms purchase, querying “When you buy arms illegally for whom? Boko Haram? These are the things Nigerian will sense to disown.
He said: “Thank God, we have been vindicated because somebody, a Non-Nigerian they brought themselves and assigned him to do specific job that has to do with this group was the one who told us in black and white the Modu Sherriff and Iherijika were promoters of Boko Haram.”
The NEF secretary wondered how a person with the rank of Chief of Army Staff be indicted without any link with the authorities, stressing that under normal circumstances a good government would distance itself from money laundering.
He said even though the APC was made up of some refuges of the PDP, it was the only alternative platform to replace the obviously failed system, “as it is also the only opportunity left for those clamouring for change to affect it.”
“It is the only opportunity left for you, as for me and Waziri Bello Kirfi we have already crossed the line, it’s only the young men who have a lot of years ahead of them that have a lot to lose; we can only make token contributions as pay back to our parents who worked and died for us.”
He commended the Bauchi Generational Leadership Awareness Initiative for organising the inaugural lecture, which he described as organisation comprising of serious minded people, pointing out that “this last train that will leave station by 2015; believe me, if you miss it, there will be no train for you.”
