Professor Wole Soyinka has observed that the ongoing
Islamisation agenda cannot be stopped by the Nigerian government. He clearly pointed
out that the Fulani Oligarchy are out with an ethnic cleansing agenda.
In Benue state Soyinka questioned the killing of Christians
by the Fulani Herdsmen. He charged the
Nigerian government to stop the hypocrisy and alert the international community
to intervene on the marauding Fulani Herdsmen.
Speaking during a courtesy call on Governor Samuel Ortom of
Benue State, Soyinka expressed regret that the administration was treating the
malaise as a ringworm itch instead of the deadly cancer it is.
Ortom, while welcoming the solidarity of the Nobel laureate,
affirmed that the threats against the state were a combination of ethnic
cleansing and jihad, even as he lamented the helplessness of the people of the
state.
The assertions, however, did not find currency with some
leading Northern leaders who decried Soyinka’s categorisation of the troubles
in Benue State as ethnic cleansing.
Among those who disagreed with him were Second Republic
lawmaker, Dr. Junaid Mohammed; former governor of old Kaduna State, Alhaji
Balarabe Musa and Second Republic presidential adviser on National Assembly
Matters, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai.
However, Soyinka insists that Nigeria must cry for help.
He said: “I don’t believe in false pride, if the government
cannot cope, it should not shy away from asking for International help.
“When human lives are concerned in their thousands and so
on, as it was observed everywhere all over the world, those nations where our
military has served before can come to our assistance. I think there should be
no business of national integrity, national pride and so on.
“People are dying, this government cannot cope, please just
ask for international help and I know they’re ready and willing to come to our
aid.
“Just like refusal to recognise, and at the critical
moment, the nature of a particular problem that has been the basis of the
massacres going on in this region, especially Benue State, there’s no other
word for it.
“Let’s not play around with the euphemisms. It’s no other
word but ethnic cleansing. There’s no other definition for what has been going
on here. And it’s very sad to me personally to see that a nation like Nigeria,
with so much human talent, has failed to learn the lesson of the history of
places like Rwanda.
“It happened in Europe, ethnic cleansing in Serbia, Bosnia
and Herzegovina and elsewhere, so it’s not a new phenomenon. And, therefore, we
should have been able to learn from the experiences of others and stopped this
thing before it became an epidemic which is what it is today.”
Governor Ortom in his response, said the recent events in
the state were a combination of ethnic cleansing and jihad.
He said: “This is not a hidden agenda, it’s known, and those
people who are perpetrating it did say it. They have not hidden it. They held
press conferences, they came out and said they were going to resist our law,
that they were going to do ethnic cleansing, it’s about Jihad, it’s about
taking over the land, it’s not about herders and farmers’ clashes.
“They said it clearly, and it’s written, and we have the
documents and have reported them to the security agencies. I agree with you,
but as law-abiding citizens, we don’t even have cutlasses to fight back.
“We cannot use any weapon to fight back; we depend on the
law enforcement agencies. Even the cutlasses that we used to have were taken
over by security agencies.
“Our dane guns, the Inspector General (of Police) said we
should surrender them, including those that were licensed. So we are left in
the hands of the security men. Those of them who are posted in Benue State are
doing their best, and they have been victims of these attacks too.
“Several policemen have been killed in the course of this
crisis. Soldiers and the Civil Defence are not spared. The State Service
(Department of State Services officials) are not also spared. They have been
killed and slaughtered like animals.
“So, like you rightly said, this is not a matter of
ringworm but real cancer. If there were any other word stronger than cancer, I
would have said what is happening in Benue State is more than cancer. And like
you rightly observed, it is our responsibility to rise to defend the unity of
this country and to defend our integrity as leaders.”
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