Gaddafi is a Madman, Says Mark

David Mark, the senate president, on Wednesday reacted angrily to the reported remarks of the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, saying Mr. Gaddafi is a ‘madman’ for suggesting that Nigeria can resolve its perennial violence only by separating into two nations.

Mr. Mark made his comments at Wednesday’s plenary while the Senate was discussing a motion on the bomb blast which claimed one life in the premises of Delta state government house annex in Warri.

Mr. Mark was responding to a suggestion by Ayim Ude (PDP Ebonyi state) to insert into the motion;s list of prayers, a prayer condemning inflammatory comments by both internal and international personalities.

Mr. Ude said that it was provocative comments by the Delta State governor, Emmanuel Uduaghan, that caused the bombings in his state. In a bid to get his new prayer accepted by the Senate, he brought out a newspaper showing the comments by the Libyan leader, and said such comments could cause more trouble for Nigeria.

Ignore him!

“With all due respect Mr. Ude, why do you want to give a madman that level of publicity,” the senate president replied angrily. “I don’t think he deserves attention at all. He has said the same about England, Switzerland and every other country ... and you want to give it that prominence. Truly, in my candid opinion, I don’t think his deserves any attention.”

Mr. Gaddafi, a former Africa Union chairman, was quoted by a Libyan news agency Jana on Tuesday, while addressing students in his country. The Libyan leader declared that the solution to the incessant bloodshed in Nigeria over religion would be to divide the country into two nations.

According to Mr. Gaddafi, his radical solution would stop the bloodshed associated with the burning of worship buildings in Nigeria.

Mr. Gaddafi described the recent Jos violence as a “deep conflict of religious nature” caused by the federal state, “which was made and imposed by the British, in spite of the people’s resistance to it.” He described the partition of India as a “historic and radical solution.”

The old Indian nation split in 1947 into a Muslim Pakistan and Hindu-India.

However, members of the House of Representatives avoided individual comments on Mr. Gaddafi’s remark, after the House confirmed that the issue will be considered during a plenary session on Thursday Usman Nafada, the Deputy Speaker, approved a notification by a member, Halims Agoda, who urged his colleagues to allow for a uniform deliberation and likely condemnation of the utterances during a general assembly tomorrow.

Excellent truth?

But a Yoruba social political group, Egbe Irapada Oodua, has said that it is pleased with Mr. Gaddafi’s call.

In a press release signed by its media director, Adeleke Akingbade, the group said Mr. Gaddafi should be praised for saying what it called “the excellent truth about the reality of Nigeria’s future.”

It added that “the statement credited to the Libyan leader is the absolute truth about Nigeria, a country created by the wishful thinking of imperial powers, which has not known the prior, free, informed consent of the people that live in it.”