Sheikh Muhammad Nuru Khalid who is the Chief Imam, Legislative Quaters, Apo, Abuja, said he stands by his warning to President Muhammadu Buhari, where he told the president to either fix the damages caused or allowed to happen under his watch, or return the country back to its original state before he took over from Jonathan in 2015.
Khalid who made the statement in an interview with TRIBUNE, had in a viral video, swore that Allah (God) will deal with the President if he doesn’t return Nigeria “united and without bandits”.
The Imam, who spoke in Hausa, said, “Go and tell the President that under his government some groups of people are issuing threats to local communities, demanding that they should be paid some amounts of money or face attack.
“And they would gather the money and announce publicly on the BBC that they (bandits) would be paid this Friday [to avoid attack].
“Tell the president that there is a country we pay allegiance to, and there is a part of the country we do not know, which is governed by bandits.
“The president should either return the country as one nation where bandits are not killing people anyhow — just the way he took over, or Allah (God) will deal with him."
While responding to question on why he issued the warning, and whether or not it was right to do so, said the warning was necessary because the situation in the country speaks for itself.
He said, "I am not the one saying it. The situation is speaking to everybody in Nigeria. Even the blind can feel it. The common man that was ready to die for him is feeling it now. People are feeling the impact of the failure. Nigeria is not moving in the right direction.
"The unity of Nigeria was kept at a manageable level before he came and our assumption was that he was going to cement the unity; that he was going to deal with insecurity. But what we have today is that some people have hijacked some parts of the country.
"Bandits have hijacked some local government areas in Zamfara State. They are also doing what they like in parts of Sokoto State. Look at the killings going on in Kaduna, in Taraba, in Adamawa, in Plateau and in Benue. We have a situation whereby a serving governor is telling the citizens to protect themselves and a state House of Assembly calling on the citizens to protect themselves. What is the situation telling us? I am not the one saying it; it is the situation on the ground."
On how the country got to its current state, he said, "We moved in the wrong direction for a long time and when we realised that there was trouble, we decided to move in another wrong direction.
"What I mean by this is that the way we have been managing our differences is wrong. And now that we have realised that we are in trouble, instead of starting attitudinal and behavioural change, we decide to limit our concern to political change.
"That is what brought us to where we are. If we want to improve our standard, we need total change, and by that, I mean, attitudinal, behavioural and political change," he added.
On whether politicians are to blame for the problems bedeviling the country, he said "Even they affirm it. You find them telling Nigerians from time to time, directly or indirectly, that they are the problem of the country.
"The ruling party will be accusing the opposition and the opposition will be counter-accusing the ruling party of negligence or directly or indirectly sponsoring or helping insecurity. So, who do we blame? Politicians."