The recent directive by the Governor of Ondo state, Chief Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN, to Fulani herdsmen in the state to come out and specially get registered is shocking and should be considered by all well-meaning citizens as inappropriate, unacceptable and condemnable. The directive smacks of selectiveness and discriminatory use of executive powers that does not augur well for peace, harmony and unity of the country in the short and long run.
It is particularly worrisome, disturbing and curious that the directive came from a governor, the chief security officer of a state and one, who is celebrated as a legal luminary with the status of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. In his position as one of the outstanding political leaders in the country, the Ondo state governor is expected to have known the political implications potentially resulting from such a decision. As a chief security officer of a state, Akeredolu is expected to be more cautious and circumspect in the knowledge of the likely repercussions on social interaction, cohesion and security among the divergent communities in the state. Given his background as a legal practitioner of eminence, should Akeredolu not know better than the ordinary citizens of the legal implications and constitutional correctness or otherwise of a patently discriminatory law that has all the tendencies of denying a Nigerian the right to free movement and residence in any part of the country? Is the situation in Ondo state so peculiar and intricate that no other way out but this hasty and simplistic sweeping approach?
The Action Democratic Party (ADP) along with discerning courageous Nigerians have since been warning of the dangers posed to collective peace and amity of the country by the festering phenomenon of kidnapping and incessant clashes between herdsmen and farmers, in which the perpetrators/offenders have been identified as criminal elements among the Fulani herdsmen. The ADP, for instance, has consistently and severally called on the APC-led federal government to think out of the box by devising the appropriate, effective even if informal panacea to tame the dangerous monster before it becomes too monstrous to handle. It will appear that we have now got to that point.
The ADP had pointed to some of the imminent and likely consequences if the quagmire was allowed to linger. Our observations have been centred on the danger of citizens resorting to self-help as a result of failure of the state to provide needed protection and security; the tendency of escalation due to over-confidence and sense of invincibility by those criminal elements arising from the lack of action by the state through diligent investigation, detection, arrest, prosecution and application of appropriate sanctions.
We have repeatedly cautioned against the danger of a large number of our youth, unemployed and poor as majority of them are, swelling up the budding army of the criminals as well as, opportunistic criminals and certain politicians that hijack crisis situations to advance their unpatriotic and unholy agenda of causing violence and civil unrest. Very pertinently, the ADP had also called attention to the palpable, discernable shadowy politicians with eyes on 2023 manipulating the imbroglio to advance narrow goals of ascendancy and control of power.
Recent developments related to the crises have clearly vindicated the perception, prognosis and concern long expressed by the ADP. We have seen in the preceding weeks, the emergence of the Eastern Security Network, the creation of the secessionist IPOB in the South-east geopolitical zone. The regional, ethnic militia has since begun to unleash mayhem specifically targeted at the Fulani Herdsmen.The reported sacking of a Fulani settlement in Isuikwuato in Abia state and the general blanket quit order given to Fulani in the entire South-East by IPOB, is one of such instances of the spread and escalation of the smoldering inferno. From the South-west, individuals such as a Sunday Igbohohave lately embarked on burning Fulani settlements in pursuance of a declared mission to “rid Yoruba land of criminal Fulani elements”. The wildfire has since spread to the South-South state of Edo where youths in the state capital and women in Uromi took to the street in protests against the presence of all people of Fulani ethnicity in the state.
The above instances illustrate the ADP’s strident and repeated warnings that rogue and unpatriotic elements would opportunistically seize on the crises to advance their nefarious agenda of hoisting anomieon the country. Indeed, it is delusory for anyone to pretend that all is well with Nigeria at the moment.
The ADP wishes to call on the governor of Ondo state to as a matter of urgency and in the interest of peace and security, magnanimously adopt measures to diffuse the emerging ominous dark cloud gathering in the firmament of the state and which, appears to be dangerously fanning out to other parts of the country. That, to us, is not a show of cowardice or inconsistency of character but, the path and wisest choice for a leader, a statesman and a man of towering education and experience in such a critical situation. One of the feasible options in the circumstance, the ADP will suggest, is for the Ondo State governor to engage the state and national leaderships of the Fulani in a dialogue, extracting assurances of collaboration and support of law-abiding members of the community (Fulani) with the government in the prevention, detection, arrest and legal action against criminal elements who apparently inhabit the forests with them and who, camouflage as herders.
Akeredolu should be well aware that as a leader, his words and actions can have great influence on his followers some of who regard such words and actions as sacrosanct.The January 6th, 2021 assault on USA Capitol by a mob essentially spurred by the words or body language of their leader, then President Donald Trump, should be a lesson so recent to guide our political leaders in Nigeria at this moment that the country is going through delicate moment of insecurity.
The ADP acknowledges the fact that the Ondo state government and any other state governments can only do as much as they can within the ambits of the law and obviously limited resources available to them. The onus as far as securing the citizens is concerned, rests squarely and constitutionally with the federal government. Unfortunately, the unflattering verdict on this subject is that, the APC government under President Buhari is tardy, wobblyand hazy. With President Buhari, clearly, Nigerians have little reasons to hope that the security can be better.
Be that as it may however, the Action Democratic Party is constrained to once again reiterate its suspicion that Nigerians should not rule out the evil hands of over-ambitious politicians who cannot be bothered with the consequences of their evil machinations. With the game plan of intimidation, blackmail and brinkmanship, the shadowy hands manipulating Nigerians against each other are hoping to gaining political windfalls in 2023.
They MUST be resisted!
Engineer Sani is the National Chairman, ADP
