Huriwa To President Buhari: Nigeria May Need To Convoke A Year National Conference To Re-unify Nigeria After 2023;

The Prominent Civil Rights Advocacy group-: HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has expressed apprehensions that due to deep seated Northern Moslems domination of all strategic federal appointments under President Muhammadu Buhari including the skewed appointments in the Nigerian National Petroleum corporation (NNPC) and the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS), the next government may need to CONVOKE a year long National Constitutional Conference to try to mend the deeply broken fences. The Rights group said in the last five years, the current administration has planted animosity between different Ethnic nationalities than even the civil war created and that it will take the Grace of God and the will to overpower our differences for Nigeria to rebuild the bridge of unity that the selective administrative style of President Muhammadu Buhari has destroyed in the last five years.

HURIWA in a media Statement by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf said that it is regrettable that even within the core Moslem North which enjoys the topmost juicy federal appointments made so far since the last five years of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration, there is a widening chasm between the few elite who have cornered all the juicy positions on the offer but are controlling over ninety percent of the national wealth and the mass of poor street Children and discontented but restive YOUTHS who out of frustration of being left behind in the apparent bazaar and sharing of national wealth by a few of their educated elites, have launched large scale social upheavals/violent skirmishes in the forms of armed banditry and outright unleashing of blood cuddling violence on soft targets in the North leading to destruction of many towns and communities and the massive migration from Nigeria to Niger Republic in search of security by millions of ordinary Northerners.

HURIWA noted thus: " The current Government under President Muhammadu Buhari has skewed all strategic appointments to favour his cronies and political affiliates in the Core Moslem North and a sprinkling of some Christian Northerners but millions of Northerners are left marginalised just like the heavily marginalised Southerners under the current administration. However the impact is felt more in the far North whereby due to a large-scale state of wars by armed hoodlums Many poor individuals in places like Sokoto and Katsina States have since the last two years migrated into Niger Republic for SUCCOUR and security whilst only a few Northern elites with assets offshore are the few controlling the national assets under the watch of the selective administration of President Muhammadu Buhari".

HURIWA stated that: "Last year the Daily Trust reported that Many Nigerians residing in Katsina State have fled to neighbouring Niger Republic to escape persistent attacks by kidnappers and bandits. In addition to evacuating their family members, the Nigerians are also acquiring plots and building houses in Niger Republic’s towns of Maradi and Dan Issa.This is even as some of them have obtained residence permit, allowing them to stay in the West African country."

HURIWA blamed the unequal redistribution of national wealth for the total state of anarchy in the North even as the criminal activities of kidnappers heightened recently in Katsina State, with many residents falling victims or being forced to pay large sums of money to secure the release of loved ones. In December 2018, the state Governor, Aminu Masari, raised alarm that the state was under the siege of kidnappers. Katsina’s neighbour, Zamfara State, has similarly seen a spike in kidnapping and banditry over the years, with hundreds of lives lost in 2018 alone. Most of the residents fleeing Katsina State are from Jibia Local Government Area, a community sitting on the border between Nigeria and Niger Republic. A Senator representing Sokoto East Senator Gobir had only few hours ago told Nigerians that due to insecurity his constituents have mostly left for Niger Republic where they are assured of protection. This should tell President Muhammadu Buhari that his selective appointments of only Moslem Northerners into high profile appointments is worsening the state of insecurity in his region because these few elites only carry their family members along and since the masses are aware that their own people are running the show but the resources are not trickling down to the downtrodden so he who is on the ground marginalised has nothing more to fear than to fight to the finish to see if he can grab anything for himself. There is the need for social justice and fairness and federal character in appointments otherwise the mass uprising in the North may even be expanded to other parts of Nigeria ".

HURIWA CONDEMNS the exclusive appointments of Northerners into KEY MANAMEGENT POSITIONS IN NNPC as follows: 1. Mele Kolo Kyari – Group Managing Director, GMD; 2. Umar Isa Ajiya – Chief Finance Officer, Finance & Account; 3. Yusuf Usman – Chief Operating Officer, Gas & Power; 4. Farouk Garba Sa’id – Chief Operating Officer, Corporate Services; 5. Mustapha Y. Yakubu – Chief Operating Officer, Refining and Petrochemicals; 6. Hadiza Y. Coomassie – Corporate Secretary/Legal Adviser to the Corporation; 7. Omar Farouk Ibrahim – GGM, International Energy Relations, IER; 8. Kallamu Abdullahi – GGM, Renewable Energy; 9. Ibrahim Birma – GGM, Governance Risk and Compliance; 10. Bala Wunti – GGM, NAPIMS; 11. Inuwa Waya – MD, NNPC Shipping; 12. Musa Lawan – MD, Pipelines & Product Marketing, PPMC; 13. Mansur Sambo – MD, Nigeria Petroleum Development Company, NPDC; 14. Lawal Sade – MD, Duke Oil/NNPC Trading Company; 15. Malami Shehu – MD, Port Harcourt Refining Company; 16. Muhammed Abah – MD, Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company; 17. Abdulkadir Ahmed – MD, Nigeria Gas Marketing Company; 18. Salihu Jamari – MD, Nigeria Gas and Power Investment Company Limited; 19. Mohammed Zango – MD, NNPC Medical Services; 20. Sarki Auwalu – Director, Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR

HURIWA recalled that the Oil Producing zones of South-South, South East and South West are left with one Chief Operating Officer Position each, and a few senior and middle level positions which the group believed is not just only the cause of the widespread discontent across board in Nigeria but is a violation of chapter 2, Section 14 (3) of the Nation’s Constitution, which Mr. President swore on oath to uphold and defend, provides that “the composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few State or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that Government or in any of its agencies.”

HURIWA similarly protested the lopsided dismissal and appointments at the Federal Inland Revenue Services even as the Rights group said the exercise of Retirements and New Appointment of Directors of FIRS as Reported by Sahara Reporters was done in such a way as to favour the core Moslem North as follows: "The affected retired directors were Victor Ekundayo (Career and Skills Development); Mrs Kemi Odusanya (Facility); Emmanuel Obeta (Chairman’s Office); Chiaka Okoye (Programme Office Non-Tax); Mr Kola Okunola (ICT); Dr Asheik Maidugu (Planning and Statistics); Mr Innocent Ohagwa (Human Capital Development); Mr Ezra Zubair (Programmes and Policy Monitoring) and Mr Olufemi Faniyi (Team Lead Tax Operations Group).

HURIWA quoting media reports said that a few days later, the FIRS chairman issued another memo to announce the appointment of new directors and a special assistant as follows: the new appointees included Director, Finance and Accounts, Ahmed Musa; Special Assistant Technical to the Executive Chairman, Mustapha Ndajumo; Director, Internal Affairs and Efficiency, Ahmed Ndannusa; Director, Communication and Liaison Department, Abdulahi Ismaila; and Acting Director, Executive Chairman’s Office, Aisha Mohammed.Aside from the new appointees not being members of staff of the FIRS, they were reported to be Nupes, the same ethnic group with the Niger-State born Nami.who heads the tax agency".