A coalition of pro-President Muhammadu Buhari civil society organizations have gathered under the umbrella of Coalition for Nigeria Movement, CNM.
The CNM is the same name that was adopted by the third force being promoted by former president Olusegun Obasanjo.
The former president had last month registered for the Coalition for Nigeria Movement, after he had written a blistering letter to President Muhammadu Buhari entitled, “The Way Out: A Clarion Call for Coalition for Nigeria Movement.”
While registering for the movement, Obasanjo had expressed optimism that the coalition is on course to defeat the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, and the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in 2019 general elections.
But while calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to seek second term in office “since it has become a bitter pill for those who want Nigeria to fail”, another group which identified itself as the CNM advised those calling for Buhari’s resignation to go back in time and appreciate where the country had been coming from as a nation prior to the advent of the new administration.
This was contained in a statement issued on Wednesday and signed by the CNM’s National Convener, Sabo Ode, which reads in full:
Gentlemen of the press, the Coalition for Nigeria Movement has learnt with amusement the call for President Muhammadu Buhari to resign as proof that he is a man of integrity. The call for President Buhari to resign is comical for the very fact that it came from the Nigeria Intervention Movement (NIM), a subsidiary of the “3rd Force” Movement.
You may wish to recall that the 3rd Force is that movement that became deceased before it could even properly take off for the singular reason that not one man of honour or integrity was found in its ranks prompting Nigerians to discountenance its formation. This failure of Nigerians to identify with the 3rd Force has consigned it to the dustbin of infamy and irrelevance so it is no surprise that a phony Nigerian Intervention Movement is struggling to revive interest in it by dramatically asking Mr. President to resign.
We invite you to note that the so-called Nigeria Intervention Movement made no attempt to obscure the hands pulling its strings by issuing their statement from Ekiti state where Emperor Ayodele Fayose reigns in his schizophrenic absoluteness under conditions that have left citizens between either being too catatonic to objectively challenge bad governance or too traumatized to discern truth from fiction. That is one state whose governor had openly wished death on Mr. President so the statement calling for his resignation is well understood as the rantings of manic depressives who simply cannot fathom why President Buhari is succeeding where they are wishing him dead.
The Nigeria Intervention Movement is citing the missing Dapchi Girls and the security situation in the country as reasons for demanding that President Buhari resigns and allow Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to run as the All Progressives Congress’ candidate in the 2019 General Elections. First, this group is not in tune with the reality in Nigeria. They and their sponsors have forgotten what was before God blessed Nigeria with the present administration. The security situation had degenerated to a point where even those in the coastal cities no longer felt safe from Boko Haram attacks; today critics seat in the safety midwifed by Mr. President to lament about phantom security situations. They also conveniently skip the fact that the state sponsorship of terrorism by their patrons was responsible for Boko Haram’s feral nature.
Secondly, the attempt by the Nigeria Intervention Movement to present itself as a surrogate for professor Yemi Osinbajo falls flat because it was glaring they are trying to create a schism in the government by creating the impression that the Vice President is sponsoring the group as part of a plot to usurp his boss. The same Professor Osinbajo they are trying to cast as their preferred candidate has impressively defended President Buhari’s sterling performance. If they had as much as listened to the Vice President they would have realized that there was no need to be asking the President to resign.
The assignment we have for those calling on Mr. President to resign is that they should go back in time to appreciate where we have been and where we are coming from as a nation. They would realize that we have collectively climbed out of the morass and dungeon that some people past had cast us into. That we have crept out of a pit unto rough grounds is no justification for trying to sink back into the pit because we miss the cushion effect of the debris at the bottom of that pit. What is needed is for us to dust ourselves up and progress to a better level. But some people are allergic to confronting this reality.
They have rather become desperate to destabilize the country so that they can continue getting easy money to the detriment of the larger population.
The desperation that could drive citizens to engage in this kind of destabilization agenda being implemented by the so called 3rd Force calls for deeper introspection on the part of that group’s members and vigilance on the part of the rest of us. The path they are treading is a continuation of the politics of do or die; only that this time, as opposed to seeking the death of their perceived opponents they are willing to implement the demise of Nigeria if they cannot have their wish of resuming the pillaging of the country’s finances.
It is therefore the responsibility of Nigerians to put the kind of characters behind the Nigeria Intervention Movement and 3rd Force where they belong. This is best achieved when citizens become the bulwark against their assault on President Muhammadu Buhari. This is why the Coalition for Nigeria Movement is asking Nigerians to condemn the activities of these kind of groups that want to feed fat from crises they created.
We urge President Buhari to stand strong and save the nation from the kind of collapse that the 3rd Force is working to bring upon us. We have seen Mr. President rescue the country from countless other disasters plotted by the patrons of the 3rd Force so we are confident that he can again put these people where they belong. If running for a second term in office will further address the challenges facing Nigeria, since we already see results from his almost three years in office, then we appeal to President Buhari to seek that second term in office. Nigerians will not allow Mr. President to deny the country of his leadership simply because some urchins think their corrupt lifestyles are being threatened.
The Nigerian civil society will no longer fold its arms to allow some selfish elements to dictate the future of our country in ways and manners that suit their selfish interests. It is a crime for good men of conscience to keep quiet in the face of the kind of danger that dissident elements in the 3rd Force want to expose Nigeria to.
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