Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole
Soyinka has stated that President Muhammadu Buhari was acting like former
President, Goodluck Jonathan in his handling of the activities of Fulani
herdsmen across Nigeria.
While insisting that the
President is handling the continued killings of farmers with kids’-glove, the
poet pointed out that Jonathan did same with Boko Haram, leading to its
subsequent escalation.
The Playwright wondered why the
Buhari-led government had not considered some of the suggestions which
stakeholders recommended as a solution to the crisis.
In an article on Wednesday,
titled ‘Impunity rides again through killer herdsmen’, Soyinka stated that the
herdsmen have declared war against Nigeria.
He recalled that afte,r “a
hideous massacre” perpetrated by the herdsmen in 2016, a security meeting was
called and the cattle rearers “attended the meeting — according to reports —
with AK47s and other weapons of mass intimidation visible under their garments”.
“They were neither disarmed nor
turned back. They freely admitted the killings but justified them by claims
that they had lost their cattle to the host community,” he said.
“Such are the monstrous
beginnings of the culture of impunity. We are reaping, yet again, the
consequences of such tolerance of the intolerable. Yes, there indeed the
government is culpable, definitely guilty of ‘looking the other way’. Indeed,
it must be held complicit.”
“I am not aware that IPOB came
anywhere close to this homicidal propensity and will to dominance before it was
declared a terrorist organization.
“The international community
rightly refused to go along with such an absurdity. The conduct of that
movement, even at its most extreme, could by no means be reckoned as terrorism.
By contrast, how do we categorize Myeti?”
Reacting to a statement that
herdsmen were in defence of their stolen cows, the nobel laureate, said, “How
do we assess a mental state that cannot distinguish between a stolen cow –
which is always recoverable – and human life, which is not.
“Villages have been depopulated
far wider than those outside their operational zones can conceive. They swoop
on sleeping settlements, kill and strut. They glory in their seeming
supremacy.”
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Finally! At least you have spoken the truth. Let those that have ears listen to the voice of reason.
ReplyDeleteThe tingling sounds of Soyinka's words may touch on hearing ears this time around. One loudly wonders what Akin Oyebode of International law University of Lagos is willing to say on the mass killings of these criminals. Oyebode was quick to call the Nigerian Army on IPOB but simply buries his head in the sand like an ostrich regarding fulani herdsmen's activities. The self-celebrated law professor is unable to recognize the fact that the assault rifles these fulani herdsmen flagrantly carry around, with impunity, are illegally acquired. Yet Oyebode is such a great law teacher! Shame, shame on him.
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