He
made the appeal on Tuesday, when he received in audience at his
residence in Minna, Niger State capital, the state Federal Commissioner
of the National Population Commission (NPC), Alhaji Aliyu Datti and his
management staff.
The
former military president urged Nigerians not to resort to ethnic and
religious sentiments on issues relating to population census, adding
that census was aimed at getting the accurate number of people in the
country for the purpose of national planning and development.
He,
however, expressed regrets that over the years, population census had
been subjected to controversy because “the Christians wanted to say they
were more while their Muslim counterparts were also not left out in the
unhealthy rivalry, as they also wanted to say they were more
populated.”
He
emphasised the need to remove ethnic and religion as controversial
issues in census and make it just a routine exercise that no one would
be harassed for.
The
former president urged Nigerians to live above ethnic and religious
sentiment, adding that “census should just be viewed as routine exercise
to determine the population of Nigeria and not an exercise for those
who are fanatical about religion or tribe. It should be made routine not
something to go to war about.”
Babangida
also put his weight behind the declaration by the Chief of defence
staff Air Chief Air Marshal Alex Badeh not to use military force in
rescuing the students of the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok
Borno state , adding that, “what he said is the right thing; it is only
natural that the military does not give away information about their
operations, it is part of their training”
On
the call by the Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum Dr Muazu
Babangida Aliyu that the past Nigerian leaders of Northern extraction
should join them to end insurgency in three months, the Former
Military President said “We will continue to provide such advice or
assistance whatever the case may be because we don’t have any other
country, this is our country we cant betray it”
He
said that those who were entertaining fear over the assistance of
foreign countries belong to old school of thought arguing that Nigeria
had over the years rendered same assistance to other countries.
Earlier
the Federal Commissioner of NPC , Alhaji Aliyu Datti said that they
came to pay the Former Military President courtesy visit with the view
to seek his usual counseling and benefit from his God given wisdom.
No comments:
Post a Comment