The Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has warned those threatening the unity of the country not to misuse their democratic right of freedom of speech to endanger the entire democratic enterprise.
Similarly, the Defence Headquarters has assured of safety of their lives and properties wherever they are in Nigeria, saying they would do all within their powers to ensure that.
Osinbajo, at the graduation ceremony of the 2017 class of Senior Course 39 of the Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Jaji, Kaduna, said that Nigeria could build a new nation that is based on trust, consensus and love for one another where every Nigerian is safe, live and work in any part of the country.
The acting president blamed the Nigerian elite of being behind the recent ethnic uprising in the country and the influence of the social media. He said that the great challenge and opportunity before the present generation of Nigeria elite was on how to build a new nation out of the rubble of cynicism, division and suspicions.
He said, “We can build a new nation; a new nation built on trust, consensus and love for one another and love for our country . A nation where the rulers do not steal the commonwealth, where every Nigerian is safe to live and work, where the state takes responsibility for the security of each and every Nigerian, where the state knows every Nigerian by name and can find and locate each one of us.”
Osinbajo did not mince words on his conviction that observed that the elites are largely reponsible for the festering negative narratives.
“I would like to emphasize the fact that this was essentially an elite phenomenon, unity and disunity are promoted by the elite which the vast majority of the Nigerian people are only later conscripted,” he said.
He cautioned against the misuse of democratic right of freedom of speech saying, “While we must remain irrevocably committed to freedom of expression and the tenets of a free press, we must draw the line between freedom that conduces to healthy democracy and that which threatens and endangers the entire democratic enterprise. It is an important balance that we must strike. Failure in any way will be tragic.”
On its part, the military urged Nigerians not to panic over their security wherever they reside in the country, but advised the general public to immediately report cases of threats to security of lives and property by individuals or group of persons in any part of the country.
The reassurance by the Defence Headquarters to Nigerians came over safety to their lives and property came against the backdrop of series of enquiries from some members of the general public following recent threats to the country’s corporate existence.
In a statement, released to the media by the Director, Defence Information, Major General John Enenche,the DHQ asked people to go about their normal life wherever they are living without fear or intimidation. The seven-paragraph statement read thus:”There has been so many requests in the recent past, to know from the Military about the safety of Nigerians living in parts of the country, other than their aboriginal habitats.
