A chieftain of the All Progressive Congress, Jonathan Vatsa, has knocked the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), after the latter begged for the forgiveness of Nigerians.
Naija News reported that the APC chieftain expressed his opinion while addressing pressmen in Minna, the Niger State capital, over the weekend.
According to him, it is easy for the president to ask for forgiveness since he doesn’t understand the pain his administration had caused many Nigerians, even as he foresaw Buhari being the first president in Nigeria to be taken to international criminal court.
The former commissioner for Information, Culture, and Tourism in Niger State’s reaction is coming days after the President played host to guests who paid him Sallah homage, at the villa, where he asked Nigerians for forgiveness over his administration’s hurtful policies in the last eight years, saying: “Those that think that I have hurt them so much, please pardon me.”
Vatsa also asserted that for the president to publicly ask for forgiveness, it means the blood of innocent Nigerians, including women and children spilled across the country by killer herdsmen were hunting him.
Vatsa stated, “Unfortunately he met a very sophisticated Nigeria and it was difficult to implement his agenda.
“Is it the women whose husbands have been killed by armed bandits or men that their wives were raped and in some cases killed by bandits or children that have been turned to orphans because his government failed to discharge its primary responsibility of protecting innocent Nigerians, or is it parents of female students and married women that have been abducted by bandits, raped and impregnated, given birth and sent back to their parents because his government failed to protect them?
“When you stayed in the villa and enjoyed the protection of security as the Nigerian president and gave out your daughters hands in marriage both in Abuja and in Kano at a luxury wedding, the daughters of poor and innocent Nigerians were being raped by bandits in the jungle, some of them came back with unwanted pregnancies and babies, some of them did not have the luxury of giving their daughters hands in marriage even if it was in a low-key ceremony…Your last project of currency re-design, up till now I don’t know if we made gain or loss, but I know common Nigerians suffered dearly for it, and are still suffering, some even died…
“When he was a military officer, he fought the civil war to keep Nigeria one, when he became civilian president he divided Nigeria along ethnic lines, he was only concerned with his brothers and nephews in Niger Republic and even took a rail line to them.
“It is easy to say forgive me but whether Nigerians can forgive you is another matter and I think that will not happen because Nigerians are in pain. I foresee you being the first president of Nigeria to be taken to the international criminal court. Be ready in case it happens.”
