Coup against Tinubu, threat to national stability

• Condemns northern military extraction’s involvement

From John Adams Minna

Former Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Niger State, Jonathan Vatsa has said the aborted coup against President Bola Tinubu by a group of military officers was a huge threat to national stability.

The APC chieftain, who was reacting to the alleged coup for the first time after the defence headquarters confirmed it, condemned the military officers who were mostly of the northern extraction.

Speaking with journalists in Minna, the former publicity secretary of APC in the state, pointed out that had the coup succeeded, it would have destroyed the unity of the country forever, stressing that, “it would have been the end of Nigeria, because it has the semblance of the 1966 bloody coup.

“The event of 1966 would have repeated itself which would have been disastrous for the unity of the country called Nigeria,” he added.

Vatsa maintained that Nigeria is more sophisticated, and the people are more enlightened now than in 1966, warning that any bloody coup will end the country called Nigeria.

While expressing dismay over the involvement of the military officers, mostly of northern extraction, he maintained that whatever is the sin of President Tinubu, the late president Muhammadu Buhari administration committed more sins against Nigerians.

“I believe that the current situation in the country is worse than what we witnessed under eight years of Buhari. As a matter of fact, it is the garbage littered everywhere in the country by the Buhari administration that Tinubu is trying to clear.

“My question is: where were the coup plotters when the late former President Buhari’s administration brought the country to its knees with his clueless policies?

“Are they saying that everything was fine under the eight years of Buhari because he is from the north, but everything is now wrong under President Tinubu’s three years? I think the north should be careful,” he warned.

Vatsa, who insisted that the unity of Nigeria is sacrosanct and is more important than any region’s selfish political interest, however, reminded the north that “the South does not need the North as much as the North needs the South except we are deceiving ourselves.”

According to him, “We can see the level of poverty in the North compared to the South. Poverty is steering on our faces here in the North with thousands of northern youths migrating to the South everyday for meaner jobs just to earn a living.

“The current security situation in the North has further worsened the plight of the average northerner, therefore we must remind ourselves that any political instability in the country will not be good for the North.

“Our political leaders have been irresponsible in the past and the region is paying greatly for the irresponsible leadership. The current insecurity in the North has taken the region back 30 years,” he said.

He blamed politicians in the country for what is happening today in the military, stressing that politicians have killed the military, forcing the institution to throw away professionalism.

“Now the same politicians want to do the same thing to the judiciary. The money bags amongst them have hijacked the judiciary and you hear conflicting court judgements and injunction here and there.

“Every moneybag politician is now running to the court with dollars to get a backyard injunction. Right now the judiciary has taken over the affairs of political parties and political parties’ constitutions have been thrown to the dustbin.

“You see tribunals installing governors, senators, house of representative members and other elected officers. Elections are no longer won at the polling units but at the election tribunals,” he submitted.