The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of attempting to Islamize Nigeria.
HURIWA made the remark in response to the appointment of Usman Alkali Baba as the Inspector General of Police by Buhari. The rights group said the appointment of Baba has exposed Buhari as an unrepentant nepotist and bigot.
The group lamented that Buhari since assuming office has appointed Northern Muslims to head the country’s security architecture.
In a statement by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, HURIWA said: “With the recent rash, top-level appointments by the President which failed to reflect the Federal Character principle as provided for by the constitution, it is unthinkable to believe otherwise other than to conclude that President Buhari’s sole agendum is the total Northernization/Islamization of Nigeria which will continue to breed discord, National disharmony, civil conflicts, instability and insecurity.
“The recent strange announcement of a new Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Alkali Baba rapidly railroaded to the acting position of Deputy Inspector General of Police to that of an acting position of the Inspector General of Police by President Muhammadu Buhari, a Northern Moslem who has since 2015 consistently appointed only Moslem Northerners into top internal security positions, the Daura-born President Muhammadu Buhari has sadly consolidated his negative ‘milestone’ as the most nepotistic president ever in Nigeria since 1960”.
The Rights group suggested that those controlling the top echelon of government positions are executing the agenda of those Conspiracy Theorists in the west who predicted that “Nigeria will implode and collapse soon”
According to HURIWA: “Whilst the president has refused to hearken to the voice of reason and has persisted in implementing pro-Islamic and pro-Northern agenda of scheming out other major ethno-religious groups from positions in the core security, economic, administrative and defence organs of government, the restoration of normalcy, calm, tranquillity and stability may take a long time to achieve before and after 2023”.
“Since 2015, Moslem Northerners have dominated and controlled all internal security portfolios in Customs, Immigration, Civil Defence, Prisons, Police and Army. In the same vein, the Nigerian ports Authority, NIMASA, FIRS, Aviation agencies, Accountant General of the Federation are all in the hands of Northern Moslems of either Hausa/Fulani or a sprinkling of Kanuris”.
HURIWA said the president and most of his appointees, practising extreme nepotism and polarizing the fragile unity in Nigeria, are also in breach of Sections 14(3) and 42(1) of the Nigerian Constitution.