Femi Fani-Kayode, a former
Minister of Aviation, has accused the Buhari government of condoning the
activities of violent herdsmen.
According to him, the ‘images of
cows and Fulani herdsmen’ on the new Nigerian passport was a slap on those that
have suffered losses in recent years.
He, therefore, called on the
federal government to immediately adjust the design of the document.
In a statement on Friday, the
former presidential spokesman declared that Fulani herdsmen are symbols of
bloodshed, terror, mass murder, ethnic-cleansing, genocide, carnage, torment,
trauma, and evil.
He wrote: “They represent nothing
other than cruelty, suffering, land-grabbing, church-burning, home-stealing,
raping and pillaging and they are instruments of occupation, domination and
conquest.
“They have slaughtered more
Nigerians over the last 4 years than Boko Haram have done in 10 and they have
been designated as the 4th most deadly terrorist organisation in the world by
the international community.
“To dedicate a page of the
Nigerian passport to them and paste their picture on it represents the biggest
and most gratutious insult to the Nigerian people that has ever been served.
“It is like dedicating a page of
the Israeli passport to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis that slaughtered 6 million
Jews.
“It is like dedicating a page of
the Southern Sudanese passport to the Janjaweed Arab Muslims of Darfur that
slaughtered hundreds of thousands of black African Christians in the Sudan.
“It is like dedicating a page of
the Congolese passport to King Leopold 11 of Belgium and his people after they
butchered 10 million Congolese.
“It is like dedicating a page of
the Rwandan passport to the Hutu Interahamwe after they wiped out 1 million
Rwandan Tutsis.
“It is like dedicating a page of
the American passport to the rebel Confederate forces of the Amerian civil war
and to the Ku Klux Klan who slaughtered miliions of black Americans over the
years and who insisted on the perpetuation of the institution of slavery.
“It is like dedicating a page of
the Souh African passport to the white supremacist Boers and Afrikaans-speaking
Dutch settlers of South Africa who founded and established the apartheid state,
who butchered millions of black Africans over 400 years and who believed that
the black man was no better than an ape.
“Such a gesture is heartless and
unforgivable and it is unbecoming of even the Buhari regime. It is insensitive.
It is callous. It is wicked. It is uncharitable. It is unkind and it is evil.
“The worship and veneration of
cows and cow-loving is alien to the Nigerian culture and it is regarded as an
abomination.
“We are a nation of believers
that worship God and not one that worship cows. Those amongst us that regard
cows as wives and that value the life of a cow more than the life of a human
being are not Nigerians but aliens that come from a distant land outside our
shores.
“To paste such people and their
accursed cows on our international passport and compel Nigerians to carry them
all over the world with us as part of our national identity, heritage and
culture is unacceptable and too much to ask.
“We reject it in its entirety and
we insist that the Buhari administration removes that accursed page forthwith
and replace it with another symbol that truly represents the noble,
enlightened, civilised and laudable nature and heritage of the Nigerian people.
“We refuse to accept a symbol
that represents a retrograde, barbaric, blood-lusting, vampiric, malignant,
malevolent and bestial foreign heritage and culture on our passport.”
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
I have seen a copy of the passport. it's not only herdsmen that are on it. it has pictures representing various aspects of our nigerian culture and history. Yes there are herdsmen but not all herdsmen are bad.
ReplyDeleteWell, they shouldn't be there at a;;as they represent violence and evil. We should have only positive representations on the passport pages not negative ones.
Delete