By Nwafor Sunday
A former Aviation Minister, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, criticized on Tuesday the statement credited to Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom, where he accused Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed of being part of terrorists terrorizing the country.
In reaction to Ortom’s hypothetical submission, the intrepid Femi claimed that Bala is not a racist, noting that calling him a terrorist is unacceptable and wrong.
Femi, who revealed this in a series of tweets, said he knew of one or two governors who are terrorists in Nigeria.
His words:
“We must choose our battles wisely and know who our true enemies are. I disagree with my friend and brother, Governor Bala Mohammed, at various times over the years and do not share his views on a number of issues, but to describe him as a terrorist is uncharitable and absurd.
“This is a man who defends Middle Belter southerners and Christians as much as he defends northern Muslims. It’s fair to say that if it hadn’t been for his efforts, President Goodluck Jonathan might not have become president after the death of President Yaradua.
“His role in the Senate at the time in ensuring that then-Vice President Goodluck Jonathan was declared interim President was exemplary and inspiring. Bala can sometimes say things that many in the south disagree with, but his spirit is clean and his mind is pure.
“He is not a racist, a religious fanatic or a hegemonist and supremacist. He is not the one who leads a state in which Christians are massacred or in which ethnic minorities are marginalized, humiliated and destroyed.
“If you are looking for a terrorist governor, I can name one or two, but Bala is not among them. He is a prominent member of the PDP Forum of Ministers, a group I belong to, and I assure anyone who is interested in hearing that he feels much more comfortable participating in an intellectual joust in which we can agree to disagree. than carrying weapons, dropping bombs and killing people.
“It would be more useful to our interests if we learned to separate the wheat from the chaff and stop demonizing people simply because they don’t share our views.
“Calling Bala a terrorist is unacceptable and wrong. I doubt that he has ever killed a chicken, much less a human being ”.
