The Presidency, on Wednesday said that Nigerians as a people had always been divided and that the country is still a work in progress in attaining unity.
Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina made this statement while speaking on a
Channels TV’s programme, Wednesday.
He said President Muhamnadu Buhari inherited a terribly divided Nigeria.
This was in response to Professor Wole Soyinka’s statement, backing former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s claim that the country was more divided under Buhari’s administration.
Adesina insisted that there was nothing special about the comments made by the Nobel Laureate and Obasanjo.
He added that not every criticism should give cause for concern.
“Nigeria had always been divided. Always. Right from amalgamation in 1914, Nigeria has always been divided. Nigeria is an inconvenient amalgamation but we have worked at it and I tell you that there is no time in the history of this country that the country was not divided but then we had kept at it and we were trying to make it work.
“As of 2015, when President Buhari came, Nigeria was terribly, terribly divided; divided along religious lines, divided along ethnic lines; divided along language, divided hopelessly, terribly and that is the division that the President had been working at. But you see that a lot of people instead of letting harmony return to this country, thrive and luxuriate in widening the gulf. They play politics with everything.”
Adesina noted that Soyinka had been a government critic for a long time yet this government would continue to respect him as a Nobel Laureate but would not accept everything he says.
He added that in 2015, Soyinka did not support Buhari but only rated him as slightly better than Jonathan.
Concerning the criticisms aimed at Buhari by Obasanjo, Adesina said it seemed the former President was still upset that Buhari won the election despite his opposition and support for Atiku to run against him.
Recall that Soyinka broke his silence in a statement released on Tuesday entitled, “Between ‘Dividers-in-chief’ and Dividers-in-law,” saying, “we’re close to extinction.”
This was after Obasanjo last Thursday in a consultative forum
said the country was slowly becoming a failed state and more divided under Buhari’s watch.
The New Diplomat had reported that in response, the presidency, in a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba Shehu described Obasanjo as a ‘Divider-in-chief.’
