 President Mohammad Buhari talks tough, threatens to deal with promoters of insurrection, while Twitter takes down his Twitch. And what is the effect of Nigeria's insecurity challenge on humanitarianism in the country? Or this and more on Plus Politics? I'm Marianna Korn. President Mohammad Buhari has warned those promoting crime and insurrection in the country, noting that his regime will treat them in the language they understand. The president also said that many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and the loss of lives that occurred during the Nigerian civil war. Some Nigerians, however, expressed their anger and warnings, at the warnings, by the way, by Mr. President, as the statements did not go down well with them. What's running us to have this conversation is Monday Ubani, legal practitioner, former president Ohanese Indigo, Odozi Umodozi and Muritala Abubaka. But before we get to our guests, thank you gentlemen for joining us. Let's take a look at a clip of Mr. President speaking about the insecurity in Nigeria. So whoever wanted diversion or destruction of the system and at this point I think we'll soon have their shock of their lives. I think we have given them enough latitude. They have made their case. They just wanted to destroy the country. Simple. Because what do they want? And we are concentrating on infrastructure because no country or institution can be developed without infrastructure. What is happening in the southeast are taking police stations, killing the police, taking away arms and ammunition. Now, for those of us who are unfortunately in the field for the 30 months of the civil war, to see the carnage of how we kill ourselves, at least a million people. I think those that are misbehaving, they were either too young, they didn't know what happened. But for those of us who went through all these things, we can't understand. So we will treat them in the language they understand. So I feel for your understanding and so on, we are going to be very hard sooner than later. We have done our best to change the service chiefs in the IG. We allow them time to go around to make necessary changes for them to be firmly in charge. We'll try and give them the resources they require and we will demand security. Well, I'm sure that my guests have listened or watched this video over and over again. But I'm going to start with Barstow-Bani. Barstow-Bani, we all obviously have seen Mr. President's tweets. We have heard him speak. You listen to that video. He started by saying that his government is concentrating on infrastructure and that without infrastructure, you can't really build or develop a country. And I also watched the part of the video where the presidents were asking a question more like, am I not leading the country according to the Constitution? So let's start from there. You are a lawyer, obviously. Do Nigerians have a problem with the president's leadership style or the fact that he does not lead us according to the law? Or could the president be misconstruing what Nigerians are asking for, to him not leading according to the Constitution? Yeah, thank you for having me. We must admit the fact that there are issues with us as a nation. In terms of insecurity, Nigeria is no longer a safe place for anyone at this juncture because virtually every day you hear about people being killed. The economic situation also is not ingested. People are unemployed. There is hunger in the land. Economically, people are not happy with the style of governance and the kind of hardship people are facing currently. Apart from that, there are so other issues. People have been complaining about the issue of our structure as a nation that we need to actually think out with the structure that the defective system is affecting governance and people are not effectively getting work they ought to get as citizens of Nigeria. We elected a leader who will address some of the issues that we're complaining about of the previous government. But those issues are still reoccurring. And so people are complaining. But the president and some of his aides do not feel what Nigerians are feeling. They think that they are doing their best. But I don't think that their best is good enough and people are reacting. Now, the president has a right to be angry and feel frustrated, especially when basic infrastructures or structures in place like high-neigh offices have been bought anywhere. But the manner of communication is what people are complaining about. And that is actually what had led to Twitter pulling down his statement from his account. That it was clearly a trait by president of a country that at this juncture should be employing some level of language that will actually unite us rather than further divide the country. You don't use traits to govern people. There are some certain things you need to say, especially with reference to the Civil War he made mention and then referring to a particular region. I'd say it without any fear of contradiction that virtually everywhere in the country is unsafe now. And there are lives that have been lost, that there are destruction all over the place, that we will need a president that will be clearly impartial and talk to all the criminal elements all over the country, whether they're in the North, whether they're in the South, whether they're in the South East or in the Southwest. The president should be talking, say, look, we need to really have peace for us to move as a nation and speak in such a manner that shows that he's a father. But when you now begin to speak a specific region and make reference and do it as if there is only place where there are issues, where there are issues all over the country, then of course people have the right to complain and they have complained to the Twitter and naturally Twitter has reacted and said, look, the statement itself are falling below the standard they require, especially of a leader of a nation and that's why they have pulled it out. So I think that the president must be properly advised to now look at the strategy, look at the way of communication, look at the language he's employed in matters like this in order to ensure that we unite ourselves, run a country that all of us shall be happy. If there are any area people are complaining, then let him actually address those areas in such a manner that he shows that he's a father of the entire nation. That would be my advice to the president rather than the threat. The threat would rather polarize us the more. Okay, let me go to Murutala. Murutala, I'm going to quote the president because in this statement he did say in some parts of that video, what do they want me to do that I'm not doing? This is the president saying it. He asked a lot of questions and like I said to Baris Albani, he asked, am I not leading the country according to the constitution? Now I want to follow up from what Baris Albani said. We have been asking the president to speak. Nigerians have been saying we need the president to speak. We want him to address the issues. We want him to send shock waves through the spines of these terrorists and people who are trying to divide the country or cost mayhem. And now the president has spoken. What do Nigerians really want? Well, thank you very much for having me. My name is Murutala Abaker. I'm the joint, I'm the convener joint action committee of Northern Utah Associations. And then I will align myself strongly with the presentation by my colleague. And then I also wish to commend your program because even from the tune, the selection of the topic you want us to discuss is not meant to polarize, but rather to profile solution to our many problems. And then just like he said, as a president, it's supposed not to seem to be overwhelmed by whatever challenge and even resort to threat and the use of other languages. For instance, if you said the language the iPop understood, which is many of us is just anarchy. Are you saying that the federal government as a constituted authority is going to resort to anarchy as well? This I think is a wrong choice of ways. So the president have all the constitutional power to deal with any challenges within the constitutional arrangement. So what we expected to hear from the president at this trial moment is to inspire Nigeria and to convince us what they are doing within their possible power to bring sanity, to bring law and order and to restore peace in all the troubled area in the country. And just like you asked, the president you can see he was acting frustrated that am I leading the country according to the constitution? Yeah, he may be to his own, from his own perspective, and then people around him, maybe they think they are doing their best or they're doing well. They're like, Mr. Wally said, the president did say, Mr. Bobokat, the president did say expressly, I'm sorry, Mr. Bobokat, the president did say expressly that they are doing their best. He said it again and again. He said he's fired the service chiefs, he brought new service chiefs, he's given us a new IGP. So our response is that the best is not enough. And at the same time, the president has the constitutional right. That is why his commander in chief of the armed forces, he has all the coercive apparatus to utilize, to bring about any situation that would threaten the corporate existence of this country. So we are not expecting him to use the kind of language he used. But making reference to South East, we also have to look at the context. So because the people that came are from the INE, and they came to report to the president that their facilities, their offices, and all these things are built at heart in the South East. And that is why he's making reference to this particular system. So we have to look at it and let us be very honest with ourselves because promoting sentiment and then ethnic hatred will not help at this matter. So what is required is people, is for all of us to join hand and bring about a restore piece in that trouble area. Okay, back to you Baistalpani. He just made mention of the fact that the Southeast was being referred to by Mr. President. And there's been an uproar on social media. People are reacting. And I have seen a couple of those reactions. But there are people who have also said that when it comes to the issues in the Southeast, the president seems to have double standards. There seems to be more action and more aggressiveness in terms of security and going after people who cost mayhem. Now, nobody's saying that it's okay to have the kind of disturbances that we've seen, especially in emo states. And of course, the fact that INEC officers have been targeted. There have been theories that have been propounded, of course, conspiracy theories that this is because elections do not want or they do not want elections to be held in the Southeast. But let's look at the body language of Mr. President when it comes to the Southeast. Do these people have a reason to say that he has double standards when it comes to the Southeast? And if, for example, I were to buy into that theory, if the president is not using the same form of powers in other parts of the country, must he sit back and watch what is happening in the Southeast so that he doesn't look like he's biased? No, I am not happy with what is actually present playing out in the Southeast. The level of destruction that is going on, the attack on security agents, and even the destruction of INEC officers that is presently taking place in the Southeast is something that any sane person should condemn. That is not how to go about agitating for a better country all of us, climate, life, and property is all in. You are creating anarchy, you are a region. You are even attracting some of these army and policemen to invade your region and begin to do things that are clearly, clearly not convenient. So I condemn in totality what is playing out presently in the Southeast and we don't want it. But having said that, it is also imperative and important that a president should be very impartial in his approach to anything that happened, other criminally anywhere in the entire country. That same day that the president was talking about the Southeast and making reference to the Civil War, there was a kidnap that took place by the bandits in Niger State, how many students were kidnapped, that same day. And we didn't hear the president in the language in one in the bandits in such a moment. We also did not see the president, the president presidency was very angry with the governance of the South when they came out to ban open grazing and said no, that they have no right to do all that. But I didn't see the president say, look, these bandits and the hazemen that are killing and causing so much mayhem in the Southern region that these things should stop. So what I need is clearly impartiality. If anyone knows who I am and the role I played for the emergence of the president of this country, that is President Bueri. I mean, people who know what I did in 2014 and 2015. To the extent that the president himself has spoken to me on phone two times through Mr. Femi Adesino. He arranged it for the president to appreciate what I did. I didn't care who he, you know, that was coming. I've minded of who is coming to make this country to be a better country, to run Nigeria as a father of the nation and not to show impartiality in his governance. But my president specifically, while in America was saying that he's gonna show favor to those who gave him 95% and of course to those who gave him only 5%, he's gonna, no, he said it openly. And from one of his body language every time that is any issue in the South, he comes and talks tough. But it doesn't do the same when other regions are involved. So that impartiality is actually what has become very provocative in most instances when the president speak. Yeah, we want the president to speak to us. But we want the president that will speak a language of peace. We want the president that will speak a language now of unity. We want the president now that will talk to Nigeria in such a manner to show look. I care for all of you. Whatever problems and situation that is happening in the country I care about and I'm gonna solve it. That language is what we make everyone to give his best in order to, but when you are threatening people who are already frustrated and doing something that are very, very, not convenient, then you are pushing them to the age again and they will begin to think that are not convenient and then dividing and polarizing the nation and all that. So the language of peace, the language of reputation, the language of reconciliation, the language of what is it that you guys are going, I would deal with it. I will solve it. It's a language that a president should employ and not language of trade because the more you keep on threatening these guys who to me, you know, are behaving like people are insane. I mean, somebody going to attack policemen we call going to release prisoners shows that there is the level of insanity with no certain behavior. So it is no longer normal. So it requires a higher understanding of a president to now speak to these people. What is the issue? Whatever is the issue, let's come to the table and discuss it and I'm here to solve it as a father of the nation. So the language now will be different from the language of threat because these guys, no matter what you threaten them they already, they already given up themselves. They don't even mind about their lives anymore. So that is why I think that the president should be a bit more mindful in the kind of language he will employ in addressing some of these hitting problem that is threatening this nation. The language of trade at this point in time, I think it clearly, clearly he conceived and will not help in reconciliation and bringing and unifying us as a nation because we really need peace. You know, the president himself said it that we need peace in order for us to give good governance. We need peace for those basic infrastructures to be built. But the moment that is anarchy, the moment that is war, the moment there is no peace then those things that we desire for our nation will not come to fruition. So I think that the language must be said in such a manner to bring a community and all that. That is my take. The president is clearly, clearly impartial. You know what I mean? I mean impartial in most of the actions or any time you speak, you know anything that happens about the South is I see the president sometime, you know speak with so much vehemence and so much hatred in him and other and he may be wrong, you know but I also want him to use such vehemence and anger when other crime, you know all other people from other region commit such a crime in such a manner. Let him show that vehemence. When people see it, they will now say, okay, the president is right because he doesn't show any level of partiality. But when you see him always, you know coming so high on people who may have committed crime and he doesn't hide it anywhere, you know it occurs, you know it shows that there is something that is fundamentally wrong in his style of governance and he needs to change. And as I said earlier some of us played a very major role in his imagines and we still love him as a president but he should at this point in time try to be a bit more talkative. Let me go back to Mr. Abu Bakar. Mr. Abu Bakar just to pick up from where by stop and he stopped. He kept emphasizing on the fact that we need peace and the president also said so. But if the president is saying in one breath that we need peace and then he's saying that he's going to go all out to deal with those who are perpetrating evil in a manner that they understand which means of course it's going to be a fire for fire thing. And we had a point in Nigeria's life where we need I mean because we've seen soldiers, we've seen all kinds of force being put out but then the reactions we get is not a ceasefire. We don't see people stepping back. We still see more and more happening. Is it true for those who are saying that the president is biased, for those who are saying that the president's body language is not that of unity even though he says it with his mouth? Do you think that the president really wants the unity of this country if in one breath he's saying one thing and in another he's saying something else? How do we not? Because you said that we need to band together as Nigerians but if the leader of the country is not pointing us in that direction what do we do? You see, sometime I get confused when people are equating the entire region with the action of some pocket of criminals. From the response, Mr. Obani is giving the impression I see Mr. President is threatening the entire South Israel region. So you don't think the president is threatening the entire South region? The entirety of the people of the South East, how I wish the president would be very decisive on the criminal that are making life difficult for us in the North. So if somebody should talk about bias, it should be us because when it comes to life, something that affect our life in the North, we don't see the president to be very decisive in deploying the military, in deploying the police to tackle it. How do you think that is? Why do you think the president is not that decisive? Mr. Abu Bakar, why do you think the president is not decisive when it comes to what's happening in the North because a lot is happening and it's not just the North East where we're dealing with Boko Haram. We have the North Central, we have the middle belts. There's a lot going on and you have said that the president is not decisive. So I'm asking you, I'm putting the question back to you. Why do you think he's not as decisive as he is when it comes to other matters in the South East especially, but then he's very decisive, well, rather, he's not decisive in the North but he's very decisive in the South East. Why do you think so? But do you know one of the responsibility of every government is to maintain law and order? And then within the constitution, it's only the government that has monopoly of use of force. And when some people took up arms against the government and committing crime and causing anarchy and you expect the government to fold his arm, you remember government legitimately have the right to deploy and use force against any criminal element that are trying to disturb the peace of the country. So what I cannot understand and how somebody with activities of criminals who are attacking police stations, who are attacking in high-level offices and all federal government facilities with the entire interests of the region, are we saying that what the iPop are doing is in the best interests of the South East? Are we saying that what the bandits are doing to the North, what is happening in the North? Is it in the best interest of Nigeria and Nigerians, Mr. Buboka? The point, I'm sorry, I wanna ask that same question to you. So let's get this picture clear. Mr. Buboka, are you saying that what is happening in the North, in the Middle East, in the Middle Belt, what's happening in Kaduna, what's happened in Niger a few days ago, is in the best interest of Nigeria and Nigerians? That is why we are saying that we expected the president to be decisive and bring an end to that. And if today we see the same president rolling out all the power behind him to go and stop the kindness that is taking place in the South East. So we should be the one to be complaining that when it affects our own land, we don't see the president doing that. Bringing the military, bringing all the coercive apparatus behind him to give us peace. So we see this as a failure of the president, but not as an agenda to put some certain section of this country at a very difficult period. We wish that this threat that is given to IEPOC should be given to the rural bandits who have made rural area in the Northern Nigeria difficult. And we wish he's using this same threat and deploying the capacity and all the forces against the Boko Haram, because we want peace in the North. So we are not, our interest is to see that there is peace in the entire Northern country which we are expecting the president to do. And it is not doing that. We see it as a big failure. But I'm beginning to be surprised when the president is taking steps to arrest the degeneration that is about to remove the entire Eastern region and some people are complaining. Would they rather prefer that the government just sit by and allow the criminal to continue perpetuating the carnage and annihilate their perpetuating? I wonder, so I just want to be clear. I hope the same thing as the South East, or they are two different things. So that's two different things for them. So probably it's threatening the criminal. So I wonder how some people just have headache about that. Okay. I'm going to throw this back to Barista Obani because we're out of time. But I want to quickly, let's examine Mr. President's tweet because the information minister, Mr. Lai Mohamed has come up to say that Twitter has already taken sides in this matter, especially was the fact that the president was threatening on the issue of civil war. And people said that there are many other ways the president could have put out this statement, especially on social media. And let's not forget, the president of a free world was also banned from social media. I'm talking about former president Donald Trump. So our president is not going to be the first, but our president has not been banned. His tweets has been deleted because it somewhat infringes on the rights of rather it violates the rules and regulations of posting on that social media platform, Twitter. So Barista Obani, let's quickly look at that and the concerns that have been raised and of course, Mr. Lai Mohamed's response to Twitter. Okay, he's contradicting himself. We said it earlier that what the president should employ now is the language of unity. He said it, but he's contradicting himself now by the statement is nobody's supporting crime and I said it earlier that what is going on in the South is something that is condemned never is level of insanity. It's something that we should not in any way tolerate. We all need peace to develop our environment. So the issue of going to burn down police and then keep policemen. Now, what is going on in the East? I just read a report. I don't know how true it is given by one credible agency that a lot of boys now are being arrested and most of them are being killed and they level them as terrorists, as a high-pub, armed wing, ECN, and eliminate them and they give names of those men that have been arrested and killed and all that. I don't know how true that is and all that. That's the kind of thing that happened when the president is not employing the approach that seems to actually bring peace. But once you go about it by way of threatening people and if you keep on threatening people and unleash army on the public, we are creating more confusion and then they begin to remind us of the world. Are you praying for a full-scale war so that we go back to 1916 where you guys were 13 months in the bush and all that? That is not the kind of language and that's why that language was pulled down because it fell short of standard, allowed in a modern age. It fell that standard and that's why it has been pulled down. What we want to say is that what is happening in Nigeria is not a normal thing. And it came as a result of series of years of misgovernance and not paying attention to basic things we're supposed to do. One, we're supposed to address the issue of education. We fail to address the issue of basic infrastructure that's supposed to be in place that would generate employment. I'll speak to you today, the number of people that are unemployed in Nigeria is more than 40% of the population. Now that brings frustration because then economic inequality brings frustration and all that. So people are really, really frustrated. People are really, really angry. Are the slightest provocation? They take up arms and then issue of politicians also who have armed these guys and after using them, they just dump them. Meanwhile, those guns are not taking away from them. So they have now created an army of disgruntled people who are armed and they're using them now in a manner that is actually putting all of us in a state of un-safety. So it is important we understand this. So the approach now, we'll be the present to address some of the things that people are complaining about, unemployment, economic equality, justice and fairness. By the time you begin to enthrone all this kind of principle in governance, it's not by gun. Nations do not win by gun. The number of guns you have, the number of arms you have, the number of plates and empty notes, without any real or threat, you may, it is by way of heroes' governance that have affected the lives of the people that will make people to say, oh, I am gonna give my support to this government. By the moment you begin to threaten people. By the time we have to go, unfortunately, we're out of time. I wanna thank you, by Stalbani and of course, Mauritiala Abubakar. Thank you very much for being part of this conversation but time is not our friend right now. So thank you so much for speaking with us. We appreciate it. Okay, very good. All right. It's a pleasure. Thank you. We'll take the short break now and when we return, how do Nigeria's security challenges affect humanitarianism in Nigeria? Well, we'll be right back because we'll be talking with the ICRC, especially with the regions in where we have IDPs. These people are going to be sharing the experience with us and how all of this insecurity in this country has displaced people, stay with us.