Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has expressed sadness at how Nigeria is fast losing her status as the big brother to other West African countries as a result of the menace of insecurity ravaging the country.
Obasanjo said other West African countries are worried and concerned about the high level of insecurity in Nigeria.
The former President spoke at a meeting he held with the leaders of Fulani in South-west region of the country.
The Fulani, under the aegis of Gan Allah Fulani Development Association of Nigeria (GAFDAN) were led by their National Chairman, Alhaji Sale Bayari.
Among the delegation that visited Obasanjo were the spokesman of Afenifere, Yinka Odunmakin, Fulani leaders from Osun, Oyo Lagos, Ekiti, Ogun, Ondo, Kwara and Kogi states.
Obasanjo while addressing the delegation appealed to Nigerians to stop blaming the attacks, killings and kidnappings on a particular ethnic group in the country, saying everyone is to be blamed.
The former President stressed the need for the dissemination of factual and accurate information on the perpetrators of attacks, killings and kidnappings in the country.
Obasanjo said: “Our brothers and sisters in West Africa are worried about our situation. They are wondering if Nigeria cannot manage her security, if Nigeria’s security is endangered. How can they look up to Nigeria who they normally see as big brother, that can be called upon to come and help them if they are in any type of problem. So they are worried and we are here to assure them, to assuage their worry to be able to say, ‘yes, we are Nigerians, we can deal and we will deal with our security problem and any other problem that we need to deal with’.”
There is criminality, there is insecurity and it has not been like that before. If this is what we have, what we want to do at this meeting is find solutions to stop it.
Explaining the reasons for the meeting, Obasanjo said there was urgent need for the Fulani leaders to educate and enlighten their members across the country, adding: “We don’t want what used to Nigeria before again. We want to discuss and we want to have realistic solutions to our problems.”
Obasanjo said, “I was born in a village and grew up among all tribes that were in that area: Igbira, Egun, Igbo, Igala, we don’t even called them Hausa or Fulani, we called them Mallams because that is what we knew them as. We knew them as Mallams and we grew up friendly. Peace was reigning but what has now changed?
“From my own knowledge, when I joined the Army, I came back from training in 1959 to Kaduna, my interaction with the North and particularly with Hausa/Fulani is a different experience from the one that I hear and see today.
“We must be able to have what I will call ‘take away’ from meeting. We will have positive measures that are measurable which we will put timeline to and which will be actions by individuals and groups and which we can follow and see what progress we are making and maybe before long, we can then have what I will call progress meeting to discuss what we have achieved, what is left to be achieved, where do we move to next? But we must have take away that will work for us individually and collectively”, the former President affirmed.
A communiqué jointly signed by Obasanjo and Bayari at the end of the meeting, indicated, “Criminal Fulani herdsman and non-herdsmen must be identified, exposed and brought to book, to serve as a deterrent to others. There must be punishment for lawbreakers. The same must apply to other criminals from other ethnic groups.”
