Abuja — Senate President David Mark has said that Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi is a "mad man" for advocating the breakup of Nigeria into two as a solution to the religious and sectarian crises in the country.
In similar vein, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has described Gaddafi's statement as reckless, warning the Libyan leader to mind his business and not to dabble into the internal affairs of Nigeria.
Mark, who presided at plenary yesterday during a debate on a motion seeking to condemn the bomb explosions that rocked Warri on Monday at a post-amnesty dialogue, said Gaddafi 's inflammatory statement should not be taken seriously.
The Senate President tore Gaddafi apart when the Chair of the Committee on Aviation Anyim Ude moved to add another prayer to the motion that the Upper House should condemn inflammatory statements made by people within and outside the country.
Ude had drawn attention to a story published by a national newspaper yesterday entitled: "Split Nigeria," to underscore the need for the Upper House to also condemn inflammatory statements from outside the country.
Mark cut Ude short, saying: "Ayim Ude, with all due respect, why do you want to give a mad man that level of publicity? But I am surprised that you are giving that any publicity at all.
"A mad man who said the same thing about Switzerland; he said the same thing about England; he said the same thing about every other country and then you want to give that any other prominence at all. I don't think he deserves any mention at all. Truly, in my candid opinion, I don't think he deserves our attention."
Speaking at the end of plenary yesterday, some of the senators blasted Gaddafi for calling for the balkanization of Nigeria on account of the bloodletting in Jos due to ethnic and religious clashes between the Hausa-Fulani (Jasawa) Muslims and Berom Christians.
Senator Joel Danlami described the Libyan leader as "a reckless leader and an incurable madman who should confine his advice and energy to his country, Libya. Nigerians have lived together and we have mixed, intermarried as Christians and Muslims and I believe we need to live together.
"Even in Israel, we still have Muslims; in some places, Arabs are there and I believe he has lost his conscience and he is not a leader people should believe in. He should carry his cross and he should limit himself to Libya. Nigeria is not the only country that has crisis. What will he say of Sudan? What solution will he give to Sudan where religious crisis has been ravaging them? It is madness. He is mentally unstable. Ghaddafi is reckless and people like him should be disregarded."
Senator Otaru Ohize said: "It is not something we should give weight to. He is not wishing Nigeria well; it is the greatest disservice to Nigeria and it is condemnable and it amounts to nonsense. We should just ignore him."
The ACF, in a statement yesterday by its Publicity Secretary Mr. Anthony Sani, said Gaddafi's remarks should not be taken seriously because it ignored the nature of the Nigerian society or nation state. The group argued that it is important for feuding parties to realise that war cannot achieve anything positive.
The group added that the access to the nation's resources must be seen to be fair and just to all. All perpetrators of violence must also be brought to book irrespective of their religion or ethnicity, it added.
"The situation in Plateau State calls for purposeful leadership at all levels and for true reconciliation among the people. It is not for Gaddafi to dabble into the internal affairs of Nigeria," the ACF concluded.
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when we start telling ourselves the truth and stop living in a fools paradise , then and only then are we going to solve our problems. i am not seeing ghadaffi as a madman , most times madmen tell the truth in parables, and whether we like the bitter truth or not it will not stop the inevitable from happening. Nigeria can survive if we sincerely want it to but the way we are going about it recklessly something we never bargained for might happen ...., let us tred carefully and close up our leaking roofs before the rainy season unless we will surely be overtaken by the unforessened that is lurking very close to us . in unity and with one mind and love foeourselves not minding our tribes we will cross the seas and jump over every hurdle, but in all this happening what i see is the birth of a NEW NIGERIA , that will stand the test of time and the price is what we are paying for now. LONG LIVE NIGERIA
This is the typical reaction by Nigerian leaders who sit in Ivory towers very remote from realities ordinary people are facing. If your family has not been wiped out, your business or property not destroyed, your church not burned down over and over again, your means of livelihood not destroyed etc, by these terrorists, you can sit comfortably and curse Ghaddafi. Those at the receiving end of Islamic terrorism in Nigeria will certainly take exception. It can no longer be business as usual.
Except for suggesting who gets what capital, this is one of the most important statements, if not the most important statement, Ghaddafi has ever made. We have said this all along. See below. If the disengagement cannot be done peacefully, the Sharia states should be excised.
EXCISION
It should not be forgotten that the ultimate solution to the intransigence of the Sharia states, to removing the terrorism stigma; to saving thousands of lives perennially slaughtered by Sharia state Muslims and to moving forward and being reckoned as an emerging market along with the CIBS (China, India, Brasil and South Africa) is EXCISION. This is the only way to eradicate the culture of corruption and impunity. That is the only way forward!!!
Greetings from Copenhagen
excisionist(at)gmx.com