Faruk, George: Stop blaming the military

George spoke yesterday at the plenary of the National Conference while commenting on President Goodluck Jonathan’s inaugural speech.The politician, who is one of the two PDP delegates at the conference, said “military incursions are not the problem of Nigeria. Military were always invited; they didn’t just leave their barracks to come and take over power.”He […]

George spoke yesterday at the plenary of the National Conference while commenting on President Goodluck Jonathan’s inaugural speech.
The politician, who is one of the two PDP delegates at the conference, said “military incursions are not the problem of Nigeria. Military were always invited; they didn’t just leave their barracks to come and take over power.”
He said delegates are obsessed with taking all blames to the door steps of the military. “I listened to the half-truths, the lies said here. Let us tell ourselves the truth. It is time to stop all these lies,” he said.
Speaking in the same vein, former Military Governor of the defunct North-West, Alhaji Umar Faruk said the military has since become the politicians’ punching bag.
Faruk, who is a delegate from Gombe, said the military has been blamed for anything negative happening in this country. “In the last 40 years, the military has been blamed for any single problem facing the country,” he said.
He said the blame continues even after civilians took over power, saying “If the politicians can’t do it, then they should hand over to the military.”
Faruk said even though the civilians are more educated, the situation has not improved. “There are more professors in the government now, but nothing has changed,” he said.
Reacting to delegates who said the military should apologise to the country, the former governor said “those who executed the first coup in the first place should be the people to apologise.”