Yemi Osinbajo, acting President, has warned against hate speeches, threatening to deal decisively with those who want to destabilise the country.
He vowed that nobody would be allowed to get away with seditious speeches. “As a government, we are determined to ensure the unity of the country along the lines of our constitution and I want to say that hate and divisive speeches or divisive behaviour where it is illegal will be met with the full force of the law,” Osinbajo said at a meeting with some elders from the North at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Osinbajo met with some members of the Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, and the Northern Elders Forum, NEF, among other groups,
as part of a series of meetings with leaders from the six geo-political zones to douse tension in the country.
The meetings became necessary when last week, the Coalition of Northern Youths, CNY, gave easterners in the North 90 days to quit. The ultimatum was issued shortly after the May 30 sit-at-home observed by the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, in the east to mark the 50th anniversary of Biafra.
Osinbajo  said those pushing for disintegration by ordering other Nigerians in their domains to quit would face the law. He said the government would not fold its arms and allow peace and order to be disrupted in any part of the country.
“Every form of violence, every form of hate speech, any stone that is thrown in the market place will hit targets that are going to be deadly. So I need us to be fully conscious of that and the Nigerian people must be made to be fully conscious of that so that we do not create a crisis that is not intended. As part of living together I know that misunderstandings and frustrations will always arise and people will always want to get the best part of the deal but we must be careful to recognise that we can only begin to talk about any part of anything if we are together in peace,” said Osinbajo.
Continuing, he said, “These days, wars do not end and I am sure that those who have seen or experienced war in any shape or form will not wish it on their worst enemies. This is not a time to retreat behind ethnic lines, moments like this are not for isolating ourselves, I want to urge all of us here and the entire Nigerian populace to come together and work together.”
The Acting President emphasised that government would take very seriously any attempts to cause violence or disrupt the peace of this country. “And that is very important because you cannot control violence once it begins,” he said.
Apart from Ibrahim Coomassie, ACF leader, Ango Abdullahi, NEF leader, Aliyu Wamakko, former Sokoto State governor, Pauline Tallen, former Plateau State deputy governor, Paul Unongo, Second Republic minister and Sam Ndah-Isaiah, publisher of Leadership Newspaper, among others, the meeting was also attended by Bukola Saraki, Senate president, Yakubu Dogara, speaker, House of Representatives and Gabriel Olanishakin, Chief of Defence Staff.
Osinbajo is scheduled to meet with leaders from the southeast today and their traditional rulers on Friday. He will on Sunday meet with traditional rulers from the North.