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General News of Thursday, 4 March 2021

Source: www.mynigeria.com

This video proves ex-president Obasanjo can handle banditry better than President Buhari

President Olusegun Obasanjo was president from 1999 to 2007 play videoPresident Olusegun Obasanjo was president from 1999 to 2007

A throwback video of former President Olusegun Obasanjo calling on the police force to shoot any member of the Yoruba nationalist organization in Nigeria, Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) has resurfaced.

The video which was recorded in a media chat during his presidency was necessitated by deadly clashes between the country's biggest ethnic groups - Yoruba and Hausa in Lagos.

The clashes reportedly left 27 people dead.

The Independent reports the bodies of the victims, some of them burned, lay on the streets of the Ketu suburb where Hausas and militants from the Yoruba Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) continued to fight after armed riot police moved in to quell disturbances.

Owing to this, the former president said, 'The police have instructions that any criminal should be shot on sight."

"Anyone who calls himself OPC should be arrested and if he doesn't agree he will be shot on sight," he said.

"We cannot allow this country to be overtaken by hoodlums and criminals," he said on television.

"When people decide to behave like animals then they must be treated like animals."

That particular clash was the latest in a chain of violent inter-tribal incidents since Mr. Obasanjo took office in May to end 15 years of debilitating military rule, The Independent reports.

Many Nigerians through this video have been compelled to compare the resolve of both presidents in the issues of tribal incidents.

President Obasanjo's proactiveness in trying to quell the tension in Lagos at the time despite it originating from a group within his ethnic setup shows the boldness and courage needed to actualize the dream of a unified Nigeria.

However, the same cannot be said of President Buhari.

Time and time again, President Buhari has displayed cowardice in prosecuting cronies of his ethnic group. He also has also shown bias towards them.

Buhari, who many Nigerians said tricked them on the message of fighting corruption in 2015, is heavily tipped to occupy the position as most corrupt and incompetent the country has seen in the fourth republic.. The facts and figures are all there for us to see.

President Buhari has on many occasions, failed to condemn several acts of violence against several groups tied to his ethnic alienation in the North.

Despite the kidnapping of several school boys and girls by 'known' armed bandits, the president, to date has yet to address the nations publicly to show public sympathy.

Watch the video of President Obasanjo speaking during his time at Aso Rock