{"id":346638,"date":"2017-08-21T11:22:26","date_gmt":"2017-08-21T11:22:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=346638"},"modified":"2017-11-10T14:51:42","modified_gmt":"2017-11-10T14:51:42","slug":"president-buhari-in-plea-for-nigerian-unity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=346638","title":{"rendered":"President Buhari in plea for Nigerian unity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has addressed the nation following three months of medical leave in the UK.<\/p>\n<p>In a televised speech, Mr Buhari, 74, said he was &#8220;distressed&#8221; by calls for the dissolution of Nigeria, urging Nigerians to come together.<\/p>\n<p>But the president failed to disclose his illness. It was his second spell of medical leave this year.<\/p>\n<p>Many Nigerians had called for him to resign during his absence, saying he was unfit to run the country.<\/p>\n<p>Others have called for more transparency over his condition, as speculation grows over whether he will be fit to seek a second term in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>Vice-President&#8217;s Yemi Osinbajo has been in charge during his leave but Mr Buhari has now officially resumed his duties as president.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking two days after his return, Mr Buhari said that comments around the dissolution of Nigeria had &#8220;crossed national red lines&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Nigeria&#8217;s unity is settled and not negotiable,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We shall not allow irresponsible elements to start trouble.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The president also made reference to ethnic violence in the country, blaming &#8220;political mischief-makers&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Ethnic tensions &#8211; with some calling for a separate state in the south-east known as Biafra &#8211; surfaced during his leave, while the war against the Islamist militant group Boko Haram continued in parts of the north.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has addressed the nation following three months of medical leave in the UK. In a televised speech, Mr Buhari, 74, said he was &#8220;distressed&#8221; by calls for the dissolution of Nigeria, urging Nigerians to come together. But the president failed to disclose his illness. It was his second spell of medical [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[2945,751],"class_list":["post-346638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international","tag-buhari","tag-nigeria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=346638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346638\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=346638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=346638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=346638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}