President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday evening refuted claims that he is an ethnic bigot.
Speaking to chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who he hosted to a dinner at the Presidential Villa, he implored them to disabuse the electorates of this mindview.
He told them they are the ones who are closer to the people unlike him who has been “locked up” in Abuja.
He said would sit and reflect on issues before he would continue with a clear conscience.
Buhari said this during a dinner he hosted in honour of chieftains of the All Progressives Congress at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
To prove his point, he pointed out that the supposedly marginalised peoples have substantial representation in his cabinet.
“There is something that hit me very hard and I am happy I hit it back at somebody.
“Seven states of the North are only represented in my cabinet by junior ministers, ministers of state.
“In South East, I got 198,000 votes but I have four substantive ministers and seven junior ministers from there.
“You are closer to the people than myself now that I have been locked up here, don’t allow anybody to talk of ethnicity. It is not true,” he said.
“There is one thing that disabused my mind in a dispassionate way about ethnicity and religion across the country. You know that tribunal for presidential election started at High Court of Appeal. The President was my classmate. I missed only four of the court sittings.
“For that first phase, 2003, we were in court for 30 months. My legal leader was Chief Ahamba (SAN), an Igbo man. He asked the panel of judges to direct INEC to produce the voters register to prove that the election was done underground.
“When they came to write the judgment, they completely omitted that. Another Igbo man, a Roman Catholic, in the panel of judges wrote a minority report.
“I went to the Supreme Court. Who was the Chief Justice? An Hausa Fulani, a Muslim from Zaria. After 27 months, Ahamba presented our case for two hours and 45 minutes. The Chief Justice got up and said they were going on break and when they returned the following day, they will deliver the judgment. They went away for three months. That was what made it 30 months.
“And when they came back, they discussed my case within 45 minutes.
“In 2007, who was the Chief Justice? A Muslim from Niger State. The third one (in 2011), who was the Chief Justice? My neighbour from Jigawa State. The same religion and the same tribe.”
