Sallah message: Buhari did not address Nigerians – PFN

The Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN, on Wednesday faulted President Muhammadu Buhari’s Sallah message in Hausa vernacular. It also described the quit notice to Igbos in the North as “reckless and as of no consequence.” The group, which insisted that the President did not address Nigerians but his kinsmen, said such action was capable of further polarizing the country along ethnic nationalities. Enugu State Chapter of the PFN made these assertions at the end of a three-day prayer for God’s intervention over the tension in the country. Chairman of the PFN in the State and Bishop Elect of the Grace of God Mission, Rev. Dr. Godwin Madu while leading in a prayer session condemned the quit notice, urging Nigerians not to panic as God is already in control. “Nigeria is one indivisible entity; the quit notice is the finger of the enemy trying to make Nigeria like Somalia, Eritrea and other crisis-ridden countries of the world. “So, we are urging for calm because the notice is a joke. Our prayer is that God will touch the hearts of the people causing problems in this country”, Madu stated Other clerics, including the Bishop of the Rock Family Church, Dr. Obi Onubogu, the PFN secretary, Rev. Dr. Noble Idika and the secretary, PFN social security outreach, Apostle Dr. Joseph Ajujungwa, called on Nigerians to eschew hate speech and actions capable of further threatening the already fragile peace in the country. Ajujungwa and Idika accused Buhari of sectionalizing the country; an action they said was capable of worsening the already tensed situation. “A lot is happening in this country every day and those at the helm of affairs don’t seem to be helping matters. The other day the President was reported to have addressed Nigerians in Hausa language. “To us, we maintain that it is the most unfortunate thing that should happen at this point in time. Nigeria has more than 250 languages, so, how can the President address a section? We are asking him whether he is still President of the entire country. “As far as we are concerned, he did not address Nigerians but his kinsmen, the Hausas; it is an unfortunate thing and an insult to other Nigerians who do not understand Hausa language”, Ajujungwa quipped. On his part, Bishop Onubogu called for continuous dialogue in the country, even as he said the Biafra agitators should stop using insulting words on people from other zones of the country. “The answer is let us stop castigating each other; things must change; I have always said the three solutions to Nigeria problems are – dialogue, dialogue and dialogue. You can’t be calling people names and you say you are negotiating. “We should also handle this Biafra agitation carefully; the notion that they are drug addicts is wrong. Among them we have intellectuals, successful business men and industrialists. “But they should not go on abusing other regions; if God wants us to separate as a country, let us go peacefully.”

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