Canticles
Did you hear that Gani Adams, the Onakakanfo of Yoruba land has hinted of a possible reaction to the attacks on Yoruba land and its people?
Who is Gani Adams in the scheme of National issues?
What! You don’t know Gani Adams? You don’t know he was the former leader of the dreaded O’duduwa Peoples Congress (OPC), that reigned in terror and visited people with fire and destruction, some years ago? You don’t know that as the Onakakanfo of the Yoruba people , he is the Generalsimo of the Yoruba land? Did you not hear him boast that in three days he can mobilise over a thousand fighters from the region? Only the naïvecan ignore him, and it will be at their own risk
So, what is provoking him to start beating the drums of war?
Need you ask? Have you not been hearing of the several attacks of people in Yoruba land including the killing of Mrs Olakunrin, the daughter of the Afenifere leader, Pa Fasoranti, by people suspected to be Fulani herdsmen?
Oh, he is threatening war because the daughter of a prominent Yoruba leader became a victim of the rampant killings? Hey, have people not been killed several times in the land? Was Olu Falae not attacked a few years back and his farm burnt, just as many kidnap cases have been reported in the past? Why is this Generalsimo, or what did you call him, not raise the alarm all the while?
Look, don’t miss the point. The fact is that the country is heading to the precipice with this frequent and senseless killings everywhere. It is as if there is no leadership. How can we have all the service chiefs, security agencies and all the apparatchik of government in place and the country is simply going to seed? What’s that, if not incompetence and unacceptable degree of indifference in the face of a clear and present danger?
So what are you saying?
You don’t have brain enough to process what I have said? Ok, I am saying that it is a mark of irresponsibility and failure for all the security architecture to be in place and criminals, in whatever name and guise, are literally running us out of town. People can’t travel on the highway, poor folks can’t even go to their farms anymore, all because of the fear of some Fulani Herdsmen. Nigerians are saying Enough is Enough. QED!
But both Vice President Osinbajo and even the senate have approved of the deployment of soldiers to the highways as a way of fostering and ensuring safer highways
And you believed it will be the answer?
Why not? That’s the number 2 citizen announcing a government’s action plan.
Forget Number 2 citizen rhetoric. Did this same Number 2 citizen not go to America recently to say that the reports about the killings in Nigeria are unduly exaggerated? Now they have killed his kinswoman, and he’s talking of deployment of soldiers. What is even worse, did the very Number 1 citizen not give an order that all trailers and tankers clogging the Mile2—Apapa expressway in Lagos be cleared within 72 hours? Go there today, and see if you can smell any presidential order on that road. What is theworth of a president if mere folks like trailer drivers can defy his order without consequences?
So, what are you implying?
I am not implying anything. I am saying it loud and clear that this government is not responding to the needs and aspirations of the people. They cannot be ensconced in their government-procured havens and allow the ordinary folks to be hounded and ravaged by some rudderless criminals in the name of Fulani herdsmen, and they feel cool. No! That’s not acceptable!
I can tell you that unless Mr President rises to the occasion of reining in these criminals, it would be his undoing.. The herdsmen menace will be his nemesis. It will be the.river between him and posterity.
But he has warned that the killings should not be politicized.
Nobody is politicizing the killings. It is what Mr President does or fails to do about the dire security situation in the country that provokes the kind of reactions we are seeing, including the writing ofletter by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Mr President has directed the Police and the other security agencies to do everything to curb the incessant cases of killings and kidnappings in the land. No body is happy about it. No responsible leader will be happy with the feeling of insecurity of its citizenry.
It is not a feeling. It is reality. From Zamfara to Bayelsa, kidnapping and killings are going on everyday. It is only being escalated now because the daughter of a prominent man has fallen victim. Many have been killed and maimed unannounced. The police appear overwhelmed. The soldiers are busy in Sambisa forest, the Civil Defence crew are busy with pipeline vandals, and the citizenry are now vulnerable and defenceless. That is why the clamour for state police or Community police is gaining ground. And the government would have to consider it.We cannot continue like this, if we do not want thetotal collapse of the fibres of this country.
Already, the talks about a national security summit is being mulled. I think it is the way to go.
What is security summit? That will be a mere noisy jamboree. It will be a sheer talking forum. Let us have community police. And then stop appointing the Head of all security agencies and organisations from one geo-ethnic group. Spreading it gives a greater sense of belonging and it will foster deeper commitment to the promotion of security across the country. It does not make sense to have all the agencies in charge of security , headed by Hausa-Fulani people. Haba!
You are delving into politics now. Does it matter where they come from? Ok, how safer is the entire north, given that almost all the security agencies are headed by northerners?
