Members of the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) has said that the current resistance and gang up against Fulani herdsmen in the Southern party of Nigeria has further reinforce the need for the conduct of a referendum to determine the continuous existence of the country.
The group, however issued a 30 days ultimatum to President Muhammadu Buhari to implement the contentious Ruga settlement policy of the federal government across the country.
In a communique read by its spokesperson, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, Wednesday in Abuja, said that it behoove President Buhari to go ahead and implement the policy within the period and halt what it termed the “raging madness” on the issue in the polity.
The group also warned the state governors that stand against the implementation of the RUGA policy to desist from the act and give peace a chance, urging security agencies to check and bring under control the “unbridled inflammatory remarks by the southern leaders on the issue.
The northern youths also warned the elders, political and religious leaders of southern Nigeria to urgently halt the inciting remarks that provoke hate against the North, in view of the fact that no single person or group has the sole monopoly of unguarded remarks that instigate hatred.
It noted: “Recall that two years ago, we categorically suggested that the only approach to forestalling this nasty eventuality was a referendum to determine those who genuinely and willingly wish to remain Nigerians in its present composition so as to allow for a peaceful dissolution if need be, or a candid review of the terms of the union.
“We are vindicated on this to the extent that within the said period, events have unfolded that involve the public unveiling of currencies, flags and other national insignia for a proposed Independent Oduduwa Republic by the people of the South-West which gave weight to the unceasing agitations for a Republic of Biafra by the South-East.
“The South-south has for long been agitating for the Republic of Niger Delta which leaves the North as the only region that has not advocated for the breakup of the country at the slightest of pretences.
“Recall that we also decried the impractical and unacceptable trend of certain Nigerian tribes being accorded the opportunity to enjoy more basic rights while other tribes are denied same.
“And as we appropriately foretold, the Fulani are today singled out for profiling and denied access to ordinary grazing lands and the right to thoroughfare in the South and are being hunted, expelled or slaughtered while southerners are comfortably hosted in northern cities and towns.
“Recall again that in his reaction to the Kaduna Declaration upon return from treatment abroad, President Muhammadu Buhari proclaimed that every Nigerian has the right to live and flourish in any part of the country without hindrance.
“But President Buhari and the other compromised northern leaders who were vocal against the Kaduna Declaration could not find their voices when today the Fulani are being maltreated and vilified in the South.
“For Mr President and northern leaders who were critical of the Kaduna Declaration to remain silent when the entire Fulani race is endangered regardless of the distinction that most Fulani are not cattle herders or that although most cattle herders in Nigeria are Fulani, there are others that are not; or that just because some herdsmen commit crimes must not make all cattle herders criminals, further vindicates our position.
“That the President and northern leaders are not bothered that the current purge in the South does not take into account that the vast majority of the Fulani – including those who are cattle herders – are peaceful everyday people with the same needs, anxieties and hopes as the rest of Nigerians is pathetic and a further confirmation that the northerner is an unprotected orphan in Nigeria.
“And for them to look a different way in the face of the current murderous act against the Fulani is a sealed confirmation of our prediction on the manifestation of gross inequity in a system that tends to solely protect a certain category of citizens and endanger others.
“Sadly, the consciousness is eroding that for decades, different southern Nigerian tribes have been accommodated and tolerated in northern parts without discrimination, intimidation, harassment or endangering them, their families, their properties or their trades.
“Notwithstanding testimonies to the notoriety of these settlers in the perpetration, commission, spread and promotion of various crimes and antisocial behaviours that pollute their host communities, these people who refuse to allow northern herders a little grazing space in their bushes, enjoy a comfortable monopoly of the total available activity in our region including dominance in federal and state universities, business and trade environment, financial services and landed property.”
