By; ISAAC ODEH, Kaduna
A faith-based group under the aegis of Northern Minority Muslims (NMM), has thrown its weight behind President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for deeming it timely and auspicious to appoint General Christopher Gwabin Musa as the Chief of Defense Staff of Nigeria.
A communique signed by its national coordinator, Mallam Dahiru Musa Wamba, and made available to journalists at a press conference in Abuja, noted that their reaction was necessitated by a recent viral video where a so called Islamic cleric can be seen making provocatively malicious statements about the appointment of Gen C. G. Musa as the new Chief of Defense Staff.
The statement emphasized that military assignments should be purely on the basis of professionalism and not political expediency, nor religious consideration.
“The security situation in the country has become worrisome, thereby deepening our fault lines, with existential threat by separatist groups, insurgency, banditry, kidnapping, political assassinations and corruption across the country, and the need to begin to address these challenges require an urgent departure from the era of placing political patronage above meritocracy”, the statement noted.
They emphasized that, “as Muslims from the minority tribes in Nigeria, we find it not only scandalous, but unfortunately malicious and unsettling when a so called Muslim cleric views appointments from the prism of self adulation rather than the much needed professionalism”.
The group condemned the Islamic cleric for referring to Zangon Kataf as a minority tribe that is unworthy of producing a soldier that can be trusted with the headship of the country’s security architecture, noting that it’s unfair to take a swipe on a tribe that has suffered many years of unprovoked killings, land grabbing, occupation by enemies and destruction of property.
They described Gen. Christopher Gwabin Musa as a “thorough-bred professional who’s exploits as a combatant both within and outside Nigeria comes in full measure, as such, casting aspersions with a view to malign and cast a slur on his integrity will only embolden him to remain professional”.
“We’ve followed his military trajectory, and we’re fully aware that his immense contribution in tackling activities of bandits and insurgents, has brought relative peace in the northwest, northeast, and other regions of the country, and now is the auspicious time for him to consolidate as a square peg that perfectly fits the square hole”, they reiterated.
The statement urged security agencies to, without delay, arrest and investigate the cleric for his inciting comments that was made viral across social media platforms, “so that these kind of provocative and inciting comments that have the capacity to cast a slur on the hard earned integrity of patriotic Nigerians will be nipped in the bud”.
