People championing marginalisation want political appointments –Osinbajo

Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has said that those individuals making marginalisation charges are doing it to get political appointments.

Osinbajo stated this at a seminar of the Institute of Security Studies on Wednesday in Abuja saying that it was wrong to equate hate speech to freedom of expression.

He said that hate speech “precedes tragedies in human history”.

The Acting President also expressed concern over the rates of false narration of the nation.

“It is a false narrative that nations formed the way ours was formed is bound to fail. The term mere geographic expression is not original to Nigeria,” he said.

“It is also a false narrative that one group is more corrupt than the other. Not so. If you look at a corruption charge sheet, there is unity. You will find all ethnic and religious groups equally represented in the corruption charge. There’s complete unity in the business of corruption.

“It is also a false narrative that we are better off when ethnic groups are on their own. While different groups have strength we are better united.

“It is also not true that those who make marginalisation charges are altruistic. Often what they are saying is I am marginalised-‘appoint me’.”

Some prominent citizens have been calling for a restructuring of the country, citing the alleged marginalisation of their section of the country as a reason for the call.

Also, some groups in the south-east are demanding an independent state of Biafra on the allegation that the region has been neglected since after the civil war.