The pan Igbo socio-political organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has berated President Muhammadu Buhari for addressing the nation in Hausa language.
Buhari in his sallah message to Muslim faithfuls had spoken to Nigerians in Hausa, a situation that has caused outrage in the country.
The Presidency had released the audio to debunk report that Buhari was suffering from speech impairment.
Reacting to the audio message by Buhari, Deputy Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chuks Ibegbu said Nigeria has descended to the level of a ‘Banana Republic.’
Addressing newsmen in Enugu, on Sunday, Ibegbu said the authenticity of the audio message should be investigated.
According to Ibegbu, if the audio was found to be authentic, then there was a big problem.
He said, “First of all, we have to ascertain the veracity of the voice because in these days of technology, a lot of things can be cloned, including human voice.
“But if it is true that Mr. President addressed Nigerians in a local language, it means something is wrong somewhere.
“I want to believe that the voice is not real, but if it is Mr. President that actually spoke, then, it means that we have descended to the level of a Banana Republic.
“The Federal Government should tell Nigerians whether it is actually Mr. President’s voice, or not.”
The Ohanaeze spokesperson stressed that the address couldn’t have been meant for Nigerians if it was delivered in Hausa.
“Which message; message to who; in what language? Is Hausa our lingua franca? If Mr. President wants to address us, he should talk to us in English, which is our lingua franca,” he said.
SPEECH DELIVERED BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, THE ACTING PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA AT OPENING OF THE VOLUNTARY ASSETS AND INCOME DECLARATION SCHEME AT THE BANQUET HALL, STATE HOUSE ON THURSDAY JUNE 29, 2017 “When people pay taxes, they pay attention to what government is doing. There’s a level of social and political consciousness which people have when they pay taxes. So when people say that this is tax payers’ money that you are spending in that way, it is evident that it’s because this money is coming from their pockets that they are able to question political authority, question people who say there’re representing them and question government programmes as well”. “According to the Federal Inland Revenue Service, the total number of tax payers in Nigeria is just 14 million. Of this number, 96% have their taxes deducted at source from their salaries under the P.A.Y.E system while just 4% comply under...
Comments
Post a Comment