The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said that given what the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari inherited, restructuring could not have been its priority.
The minister stated this, yesterday, when he featured on “Focus Nigeria” a current affairs programme of African Independent Television anchored by Gbenga Aruleba.
The minister assured all Nigerians to go about their lawful businesses and disregard any threat from any quarters.
He said the government would not be found wanting in the discharge of its primary responsibility of protecting lives and property of all Nigerians wherever they reside.
He added that government would deal decisively with anyone or group that disturb the peace of the nation and constitute a threat to any one or group.
Meanwhile, the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Ibrahim Idris, has ordered the Commissioner of Police (CP) in Kaduna State to investigate and arrest members of the Coalition of Northern Youth (CNY), who signed and issued the ultimatum to Ndigbo living in the North to vacate the region in three months or face physical attacks.
The Coalition of Northern Youth on June 6, at a news conference in Kaduna, gave a three-month ultimatum to South Easterners living in the North to leave.
It had also ordered Northerners living in the South Eastern part of the country to return to the North.
The group attributed the ultimatum to the constant agitation by the Igbo ethnic group to have their own independent country.
Idris gave the order at a meeting with commissioners of police and other high ranking officers, yesterday, in Abuja.
He warned that no individual or group of persons had the right to ask any individual to leave his or her place of residence in any part of the country.
Idris ordered other state commissioners of police in the North and Assistant Inspectors -General of Police in the various zonal commands to do same.
He said “as Commissioners of Police and Assistant Inspectors-General of Police, we have the responsibility to stop this group of persons from carrying out their threats.
“I want us to be at alert to ensure that such persons or group were stopped at all cost from carrying out their threats.
“No individual has the authority to stop anybody from looking for his daily bread”.
He explained that the Nigerian Constitution guarantees every citizen the right to live in any part of the country he or she chooses.
Reacting, Minister of Interior, Lt Gen Abdulrahman Bello Dambazau (rtd), warned that the Federal Government would deal ruthlessly with anyone trying to destabilise the polity and incite disintegration of the country.
The minister, who lamented the spurious and unwarranted calls for separation, called on all well-meaning Nigerians “to go about their normal activities as government would bring to bear the full weight of the law on any individual or group violating the rights of citizens of the country.”
Dambazau assured that citizens were free to go about their normal businesses and would not be harassed or deterred by any group or persons.
Dambazau advised the “various ethnic groups to desist from flaming the embers of hate, animosity, discord and disharmony and adhere strictly to the teachings of good values of religions and cultures that encourages good neighbourliness, national unity and Integration, and love for one another.”
He also advised youth to avoid being instrument of violence, animosity and disharmony and that they should rather focus their attention and energies on national unity, integration and cohesion.
However, the Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, has ordered the immediate arrest and prosecution of those behind the call for Igbos to quit the North, warning that government would not tolerate anyone who incites citizens to violence, thereby threatening the peace and unity of the country.
The governor urged the police to investigate, arrest and prosecute the signatories to the communique issued at the end of the coalition of northern youth news conference.
Similarly, leading pan-Northern group, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), have  condemned the  ultimatum on Igbos, and warned the northern youth to retrace their steps, forthwith.
It would be recalled that spokesman of the youth coalition, AbdulAziz Suleiman, who read the ‘Kaduna Declaration’ to newsmen, last Tuesday, called for mobilization “for sustained, coordinated campaigns at state Government Houses, state Houses of Assembly, Local Government Council Secretariats and Traditional Palaces to mount pressure for steps to be taken to ensure enforcement of the directives.
“The North hereby openly calls on the authorities and other national and international stakeholders to acknowledge this declaration by taking steps to facilitate the final dissolution of this hopeless union that has never been convenient to any of the parties.
“From today, June 6, 2017, when this proclamation is signed, the North, a critical player in the Nigerian project, hereby declares that it will no longer be disposed to coexisting with the Igbos and shall take definite steps to end the partnership by pulling out of the current federal arrangement,” he said.
But in a reaction to the condemnation of its call on Igbos to quit the North, the youth group, restated their position, clarifying that it was informed by recent actions of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), which violated the rights of northerners in the South-East.
Also reacting, the House of Representatives, yesterday, condemned the ultimatum by Coalition of Arewa Youth to Igbos to leave the Northern region of the country.
Consequently, the house urged security agencies to be on the alert to forestall any breakdown of law and order that may arise as a result of the threat.
The resolution was sequel to the adoption of a motion under matter of urgent public importance by Rep. Oghene Egoh (Lagos-PDP).
Moving the motion, Egoh condemned the relocation threat issued by the 16 Northern youth groups and the stand of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) on the matter.
The lawmaker stressed the need for the Federal Government to urgently intervene in order to avert a national crisis.
“As part of the campaign by the IPOB for the actualisation of Biafra Republic, Biafra agitators shut down major towns in the South-East on May 30, 2017.
“It is disturbing that 16 Northern youth groups on June 6, 2017, gave Igbos residing in their states up to October 1, 2017 to vacate the region.
“In its reaction, the Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) said it received with gladness the ‘quit notice’, and urged the Igbos to return home immediately.
“The two calls created alarming twist which is ominous and dangerous for the good health of Nigerians.
“This motion is not interested in the merit or demerit of Biafra nor is it interested in apportioning blame on those who made the two unpatriotic calls.
“Rather, this is only concern for the nation’s leaders to immediately intervene to stop these agitations from resulting in violence that may consume the entire nation,’’ Egoh said.
He also urged the National Assembly and the Presidency to initiate dialogue with the two groups to avoid damage to the nation.
“While people have the right to their views and decisions about lives, the National Assembly must rise to the occasion we find ourselves and put an end to the confusion that is brewing.
“This must be done by appealing to both parties to withdraw their demands to avoid loss of lives, especially that of innocent children, women and others who are not part of the problem,’’ Egoh warned.
Without debate on the motion, the House urged the Arewa youth and their Biafra counterpart to rescind their decisions.
The legislators called on the Federal Government to urgently wade into the crisis in order to avoid loss of lives and properties.
The National Human Rights Commission and the Committee for the Defence on Human Rights, yesterday, called on the various security agencies to bring to justice the northern youths who asked Igbo to quit the North before October 1, 2017.
The NHRC and CDHR said in separate statements that the ultimatum was a clear violation of the fundamental human rights of every Nigerian to reside, acquire and own immovable properties in any part of the country, as guaranteed under Section 43 of the Constitution.
The statement read, “The alleged quit notice, to say the least, is not only provocative and a serious threat to national peace and security, but a clear violation of the fundamental human rights of all Nigerians to reside, acquire and own immovable properties in any part of the country as guaranteed under Section 43 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended)s.”
Yakasai said this while reacting to the ultimatum given to the Igbos by some Northern youth.
He said, “the quit notice to Igbos by some people in the north and the purported denial of grazing right to Fulani herders in the south are against human rights provisions of the Nigerian constitution, which guaranteed freedom of movement to all Nigerians.”
He also described the denial of Fulani herders from grazing their animals as an infringement on the constitution.
He said, “I read the joint position paper by the Arewa Citizens Action for change. First of all, I believe there is only a Nigerian citizenship, as long as we have a Nigeria. It is a good beginning, but I think we needed a deeper and more serious extermination of our situation, which I believe is overdue.
“It does not matter whether Nigeria will continue as a single political entity or not. We in the north need to have a kind of master plan for our future and the future of our people. It is wrong for us to be living in the way we are without any plan for our development for the present and for our future.”
He, therefore, opined that a meeting should be held for a call for action and with people from different disciplines coming together to discuss how to uplift the society.
But reacting to government and other stakeholders’ condemnation of its call on Igbos to vacate the North, the coalition of Northern youth groups, yesterday, reiterated that it’s call for Igbo to leave northern Nigeria was not a call to violence but to allow Igbo achieve their ambition of having the country.
In a statement issued, yesterday, in Kaduna, and signed by Abdulazeez Suleiman, spokesman of the group carpeted governors Nasir el-Rufai and Kashim Shettima of Kaduna and Borno states, respectively, on their stand against them, saying that the governors were driven by their ambitions to be vice president.
He said the group was “nauseated” by the comments attributed to El-Rufai and Shettima, describing them as “disgruntled northern political power mongers”.
Part of their statement reads: “We restate that we have never called anybody to violence and that people should discountenance the elements of fear and threat introduced by the distortions of merchants of mischief.
“We wholeheartedly endorse the moves made variously by our leaders to allay those fears and urge people to be peaceful and law-abiding while at the same time resolutely insisting on having the right thing done by allowing the Igbo to have and move to their dream country in accordance with the universal fundamental right to self-determination.
“We restate our determination and commitment to ensuring that the North will never partake in any contrived arrangement that would still have the Biafran Igbo as a component.
“We reiterate our call on Nigerian authorities and recognized international bodies such as the ECOWAS, AU and UN to hasten the initiation of the process for the final actualization of the Biafran nation and with it the excision of the Igbo out of the present federation”.
Suleiman claimed that despite the “distortion” of their earlier statement, the feedback they got was that their message resonated with “peace-loving Nigerians who have been tormented and menaced by the irredentist proclivities of the Igbos and are overwhelmingly desirous to put an end to it”.
He said the group “are particularly disappointed by the treacherous positions assumed by Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai and Kashim Shettima, who in pursuit of their blind ambition for the vice presidency, chose to side with the secessionist Igbos against the interest of peace-loving Nigerians. “