Abuja—Malam Garba Shehu, a presidential spokesperson, has appealed to Igbo leaders to see themselves as partners with the Federal Government in promoting peace and stability in the country.

Garba Shehu

Shehu, who is the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, made the appeal while reacting to some criticisms of the President Buhari’s Independence Day speech by the Ohanaeze leadership.

The presidential aide, in a statement issued in Abuja yesterday, maintained that it was unfair for the group to blame the recent unrest in the southeast region on the federal government.

According to him, the President’s message to all community leaders, including the Ohanaeze is that they have a huge role to play in what happens in their communities and in how their youths behave.

“President Buhari was not abdicating his responsibilities. He didn’t request any political leader to do anything seminal or out of the box.

“All he says is, talk to your out-of-the-line-youth so  we can have some peace.

“Igbo leaders need not to be on the defensive for the misbehaviour of IPOB which they rightly condemned,” he said.

Shehu stated that the President was simply saying that the regional leaders also have a role to play in keeping their hot-headed youth in check.

He said that this admonition applied equally to leaders of every other regions of the country, not only the Ohanaeze from the south-East.

According to him, elders from every region must step out and speak up whenever their youth go out of line, such as when the IPOB launched unspeakable diatribes against other groups of people in other parts of the country and then began to threaten violence.

Garba Shehu said: “President Buhari was simply calling out the regional leaders to their responsibilities, making them aware of the crucial role they can play.

“This should not be seen as an attack on Ohanaeze or on any other regional leaders.”

Shehu also reacted to other criticisms of the President’s speech, particularly the declaration that all matters of restructuring or constitutional amendment are the business of the National Assembly.

The media aide reiterated the President’s line that the Parliament, as a key institution in democratic governance is the proper venue for the ventilation of, and resolution of all contentious issues.

“It beats our imagination that men claiming to be democrats or having democratic credentials are asking the government to ignore an elected parliament in preference to a committee made up of presidential appointees to debate and resolve constitutional issues.

“You are either for democracy or for its opposite. For us in this government, democracy is the country’s chosen system of government and we are determined to deepen and uphold it.

“Democracy may be slow and chaotic, but it remains the best system of government the world has got so far,” he added.

According to him, democracy in Nigeria has come to stay and the administration will deepen it, not kill it.

Shehu referred Nigerians questioning the successes being recorded by the Buhari administration so far to look at the mirror and see themselves.

“We inherited a country in tatters- its economy, its security and its social relations.

“President Buhari deserves credit for rebuilding what has been destroyed. If anyone thinks this a failure, let them talk to those millions of farmers we have empowered to create riches for themselves and the nation,” he said.