Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka
has given President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration till the end of July to
stop killer herdsmen and return displaced persons to their homes.
Soyinka warned that the federal
government would be described as a total failure if it failed to stop the
killings by the end of July.
He made the statement during the
inauguration of the 2018 OAU Ife Festival of Foods and Identity at the Obafemi
Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun state.
Soyinka warned that Nigeria’s
food security could be jeopardized by the rampant killings, pointing out that
farmersweare the most affected victims of the herdsmen and Boko Haram attacks.
He said: “Our mission in life is
to beat the sword into ploughshare. This means that machetes, hoes, the
instruments of cultivation, planting, and creating sustenance we must fashion
out of the instruments of destruction; we must overcome the instruments of
destruction.
“And my message to all those who
are concerned is that between the launching of this logo and festival today and
the outward manifestation of the festival itself (end of July), we should have
seen signs that this battle between the sword and the ploughshare is reversed.
“Nigerians would be given
fulfillment as a people of culture, peace and harmony, if the instruments of
war and destruction are transformed into instruments of production and
creativity.
“Between the annunciation of this
festival and the manifestation of the festival itself, we want to see from this
government a reversal of a seeming triumph of the gun; and if that has not
taken place, let us not lie to ourselves, it means we have no government.
“If those who had been displaced,
the farmers who have been displaced in their hundreds from various parts of
this nation, especially the North, if those farmers have not been taken back
and restored to their productive environment, then it means we have no
government.
“Let us all join hands to beat
the sword, the guns into ploughshares.”
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