2019 elections: International community that intervenes would go back in body bags ~ El-rRuofai

Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State says foreign powers planning to interfere in next week’s elections will “leave Nigeria in body bags.”

El-Rufai said this in a live interview on NTA on Tuesday.

The governor was responding to questions on the criticisms made by the United States, European Union and the United Kingdom on the credibility of the election following President Muhammadu Buhari’s controversial suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen.

El-Rufai, who is a staunch supporter of Buhari and a major critique of Onnoghen, said, “Those that are calling for anyone to come and intervene in Nigeria, we are waiting for the person that would come and intervene, they would go back in body bags.”

The governor admitted that Nigeria played a role in the elections in Liberia and Sierra Leone many years ago, but added that it was done in collaboration with the international community and for the enthronement of democracy.

He said the foreign countries criticising Nigeria did not become stable democracies overnight but were given the opportunity to grow at their own pace without any interference.

El-Rufai added, “Nobody will come to Nigeria and tell us how to run our country. We have got our independence and we are trying to run our country as decently as possible and we know the history of those countries that are trying to teach us.

“We know their history, we also know their own stages of development and they went through these challenges. So, please, let us work together, let us challenge one another, but don’t lecture us.”

The Peoples Democratic Party had, last week, called on western powers to ensure that elections are free and fair, adding that the ruling All Progressives Congress was planning to rig the polls.

The US and the UK had, a few weeks ago, threatened to place a visa ban on any Nigerian politician who rigs elections or promotes violence.

PN

BREAKING: 'He Cost Us Our Dignity' — Northeast Miyetti Allah Disowns Buhari, Endorses Atiku

Mafinda Umaru Danburam, leader of the Miyetti Allah group in the North-East, has dissociated his colleagues from the endorsement of President Muhammadu Buhari credited to the national body.

The group also endorsed the candidature of Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Danburam recently resigned his position as the North-East chairman of the group following the group’s endorsement of Buhari.

Speaking in Yola on Sunday, he said: "Miyetti Allah had, at no time, sat to decide which presidential candidate to support.

"I resigned my office as Mortheast leader of Miyetti Allah since news broke about the purported endorsement of President Buhari by our national body. So we're here to tell the world that if someone is priding himself as a Fulani man, Atiku is more, because he occupies the revered stool of the second in command at Adamawa emirate as the Waziri.

"If someone prides himself as a Fulani herder, Atiku is more, because he owns more than 1,000 heads of cattle, compared to 150.”

Also speaking at the event, Mohammed Ango, a chieftain of the group, criticised the present administration of the All Progressives Congress (APC), saying: "Fulani people have lost more dignity under the Buhari administration than any other in history.

"Today, our people are branded as killers, branded as kidnappers or robbers, just because some people are misrepresenting us. Before now, the relationship between herders and farmers was not this bad; we can all attest to this. Our people, for instance, could pass the night in the house of say, a Bachama man in Numan, but now all that has been eroded."

Ahmed Umar Fintiri, Adamawa governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who received the group on behalf of Atiku, thanked the group for clearing the air.

He admonished them not to buy into the deceptive tendencies of the APC, stressing that "only the PDP government, led by Atiku, will reunite Nigeria".

A traditional symbolic Fulani ritual of distribution of kolanuts, to signal irrevocable bonding into the Atiku project, was one of the highlights at the event.

SR