Periscoping Salihu’s Wazobia interviews on herders, hate speech

Most public commentators and analysts sometimes present issues that turnout not to be facts and in turn not taken serious maybe due to non investigation of their authenticity before being voiced out or written. But the former Acting Bureau Chief of the now defunct Jakande’s Daily News newspaper, Salihu Dantata Mahmud, seems to be different, as I have watched him being featured live on Wazobia TV on the above mentioned topics and he often put the records straight which even the government afterwards issues as their defence.
Whether it is coincidence or magic, that I cannot say. His take on the causes of the cattle herders’ invasion of the Agatu Community in Benue State went like this: “I think the herdsmen, who invaded that community, are not Nigerian Fulani. Because of the porous nature of our borders, the Fulani from Mali, Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Burkina Faso have found their ways into Nigeria and got hired as mercenaries and are used to cause havoc on the farmlands of innocent Agatu people. The Nigerian Fulani herdsmen are domesticated in nature that they can hardly harm their neighbours”.
This response of Salihu was corroborated by the Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu. Then came the issue of the proclamation by the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, then in acting capacity, that people who make hate speech should be treated like terrorists. Salihu as a guest on Wazobia TV condemned the stance of the then acting president by saying that it is an infringement on the fundamental human rights of Nigerians to express their views freely. He posited that even though hate speech was responsible for genocide in Rwanda it does not make Nigeria as a giant of Africa to just because of hate speech made by one tribe or religious group go into tribal extinction or engage in genocide. He emphasized further that it is only when one commits treasonable felony that he deserves to be treated like a terrorist.
Many Nigerians agreed with Salihu’s submission. Presently, the federal government has relented in its initial fast track approach it commenced with on the hate speech brouhaha. Then came the issue of the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr Ibe Kachikwu’s, leaked letter written to express his sadness to President Muhammadu Buhari on the disobedience of the GMD of NNPC, Maikanti Baru, and the award of contracts without the approval of the NNPC board. Salihu responded by saying that he feels it was not President Buhari that approved the contracts but the then acting President Osinbajo.
Few days later, the vice president came out to say that he actually approved the securing of loans as requested by NNPC. Salihu further talked about the disunity in the APC as a party. Lest I forget, while Salihu was the personal assistant on media to the then Interior Minister Abba Moro, when the heat was on, on the immigration recruitment stampede that occurred at the national stadium, He swiftly defended his boss by saying that already employed qualified doctors, Architects, Engineers, Accountants, Teachers, Journalists, Security Agents for the wrong impression they had about every immigration officer recruited being posted to our foreign high commissions and Embassies abroad as immigration attachees and paid in hard currencies invaded the venue of the recruitment exercise, which made the number of applicants to overpower the few security agents posted to take control of the venue and this was the simple cause of the stampede. This defence became subject of discourse amongst many columnists and newspaper outfits. In conclusion, there are two different things involved tobe a guest on either Radio or TV station, (1) to be equipped with the facts, (2) to beat about the bush. It is not only on TV interviews, but his newspaper write-ups as well as radio interviews are not also an exception. We shall leave the rest for the part 2.

Joke Morgan, Esq.,
Abuja

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