Odumakin: Nigeria must be saved from those turning it to a big mortuary.

Afenifere National Publicity Secretary and member of the 2014 National Conference, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, was among ethic nationality leaders on condolence visit to the BenueState Governor, Dr. Samuel Ortom following the Fulani herdsmen attacks. In this interview with BIYI ADEGOROYE, he gives an insight into the incident and calls on Nigerians to rise against this lawlessness

How do you describe the recent wanton killing of people by suspected Fulani herdsmen in Benue and other states?
It is primitive and barbaric that at this age and time Fulani herdsmen will be slaughtering people like rams, even animals should not be killed the way they are killing human beings. This is their land, you take your cattle to graze on their farms and you continue to kill them on their land. It is immoral and a tragedy. The greatest tragedy is that the Nigerian state is complicit to it. After writing to the authorities on the activities of these herdsmen, it is shocking that the government could not do anything except mere make-believe statements.
A large number of people are killed in cold blood in Benue State and the President did not deem it fit to go there and commensurate with them! It is pathetic. When a man is bereaved, it is his neighbours that go and commensurate with them. This tragedy is to all of us. This is why the Middle Belt leaders, Afenifere and Ohanaeze stormed Makurdi last Wednesday to commensurate with the people of the state. When we met last year we decided that any attack against one is attack against all. So, what has happened to Benue State is not just to Benue State alone but it has happened to all of us. And we feel diminished that this can happen at this age and time. It is a big tragedy of monumental proportion. We should rise to nip this in the bud.





What do you make of Miyyetti Allah’s Vice President’s claim that the Benue people have killed some of their men and the call on Benue State government to abolish the Anti-Open Grazing law?

If these people say the Benue people have killed their men, let them come and show us their graves. All the people that were killed by the herdsmen we saw their mass burial and their graves. They said one million of their cows were killed. How did they count the cows? I think it is the height of impunity that these murderers can be granting interviews and making wild claims, insisting that the state government cannot make laws. The Anti-Open Grazing Law was an Executive Bill passed by the House of Assembly and up till date no court in the country has set aside that law. So it remains the law of the state and for a group of criminals to brandish AK-47 to kill people because they have their kinsmen in power to now undermine the law and intimidate a state government is a big
And this brings us to the issue we have been talking about that we need state police, because the current police we have is in the hands of a few kinsmen in Abuja. That is why they can carry guns to brow-beat the people and government in their own land. We were glad on Wednesday during our meeting with Governor Ortom that he is not backing down on the law. Hence, we are calling on all states, except those who believe they are owned by herdsmen to put laws in place prohibiting open grazing as done in many countries like Britain and the United States. Can anyone today graze his cattle on the streets of New York? It is not possible but we see cattle here on the streets and major roads of Abuja and nobody bats an eyelid. While are we allowing this primitive practice here?
Look at the cattle colony the Federal Government is talking about that they need 10,000 hectres of land, where do they want to get that? The entire landmass of Nigeria is 952,000 square kilometers and by the time you get 10,000 hectres of land from each state and Abuja, you will have taken 370,000 hectres of land. Do you want to give about a half of Nigeria’s landmass to herders? So if fishermen now begin to carry guns, killing people and making demands, will you accede to such demands the same way? The idea of cattle colony is not any different from what happened at the Berlin Conference of 1830s. In other words, Nigeria is being partitioned for Fulani herdsmen. This is internal colonialism and the Nigerian state should reject this plan by the Fulanis to colonise us in our own land, because a colony is defined as ‘a settlement of immigrants, who settle down in a place with their own culture.’
Another point is that if cattle rearing is a business, while should the Federal Government get involved such that state governments are being compelled to allocate land to the business men? Instead, they should go to the states to buy lands and subjects themselves to the rules governing peaceful co-existence there. But to use the office of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to serve the interest of cattle business people is like saying the president is for the cattle republic of Nigeria and that the presidency is a cattle presidency, and not a presidency for the whole of Nigeria.



The Senate on Wednesday reportedly asked President Muhammed Buhari to either address the security issues or resign. How do you react to this?

Buhari himself has shown that he lacks the political will to tackle the problem on account of being the grand patron of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association. He filled it in his INEC form that he is their grand patron and the Emir of Kano has come up to also say that he is one of the patrons. To worsen matters, the entire security apparatuses are in the hands of people from that particular section of the country. Of all the 17 service chiefs in the country today, 16 of them are from the North and only one is from the South. If security meeting is held today it can be conducted in the language of the herdsmen. So clearly, Nigerians should pray to be able to survive the remaining term of this administration, and determine whether they want to have another four years of it along with its murderous activities or not. Nigerians have to decide that.

The Senate also said that with turn of events, the security chiefs are either incompetent or complicit, and that the incompetent ones should be sacked. What is your view of this?

I think it is the issue of complicity. You heard that the Inspector-General of Police said the murderous activities in Benue State were communal clashes, and that the killer herdsmen are Nigerians. He is actually saying we should go and accommodate the killers. That tells you that it is not a matter of incompetence but that of complicity. The fact is that they have continued to ignore the murderous activities of these herdsmen because of ethnic affinity.

Looking at the spread of these killings, it has happened in Enugu, Ondo, Delta, Nasarawa, Adamawa, Taraba states, what does it portend for the country?

It shows that anarchy has gained ground. We are now witnessing the reign of evil which has taken over the land and there is no one to stop it. It is frightening to this Republic and if care is not taken, it will lead to the end of Nigeria. Therefore, Nigerians should rise now and reject this kind of leadership which condones and promotes this kind of killings. They should be able to say ‘we are tired of this and we are having it no more.

How do you think they should go about this? Are you talking about 2019?

Every Nigerian adult should go and get his or her PVC with which they can vote out this leadership and bring in one that will care for all this country and practice inclusive government; government that will restructure this country; one that will not favour one section of the country above the other; that will ensure justice across the land; that will ensure that the laws of the land are enforced across the board; that will not treat some people as sacred cows, because they are having cows. That is the challenge before Nigerians. Nigerians must rise in unison to save this republic from collapse, from wickedness, from murderous activities, from those who carrying unlicensed AK-47s, and are killing people without remorse, who are turning the country to a big mortuary; who are turning it into the land of death. That is the challenge before Nigerians in 2019.

It has been said that this herdsmen menace happened in Ghana, Niger and Cameroon recently. What can we learn from the way those countries handled it and the fact that this is becoming a major security threat in West Africa?

Of course, we are aware that there are Fulani people across West Africa, but we are not saying that all Fulani people are security threat to the sub-region. Because I listened to Dr. Ahmed Gulak on television the other day and he called for justice, so we are not making a blanket labeling of Fulani people. Rather, we are referring to those herders who are killing people across West Africa are the dangerous specie and we must rise and stop their activities. It is clear that the authorities in Ghana have risen to the situation because they are not in cahoots with the herdsmen. But it is only in Nigeria that we have leaders who are encouraging these herders to cause mayhem in our land.

What do you make of the presidential directive penultimate week that the IGP should relocate to Benue until the killing was stopped?

It is very ridiculous and thoughtless. So, are we saying that if the killers relocate to Taraba, the IGP will move there and ditto if they relocate to Nasarawa? One of the best ways to handle it is to decentralize the police and allow each state to handle its security. We should give authority to each state by way of state police to handle their security. When they introduced Sharia there were Sharia courts and enforcement people who ensured compliance in line with the peculiarities of such states. Why can’t we have something like that on security now?

When there were security issues in the South-East, the Federal Government deployed soldiers to execute Operation Python Dance, in the South-South, they had Operation Crocodile Smile. Why has the Operation Safe Haven in the Middle Belt been unsuccessful?

Definitely, it is about double standards. When they deployed soldiers to the South-East, there was nothing going on in the place, but Nnamdi Kanu and his people just organised a road show. Now in the South-South, it was almost the same. Now these people are killing people every day and yet the Federal Government has not declared any operation. That shows that they are not neutral and cannot pretend that they want to enforce the law.

source-https://www.metrodailies.com/news/odumakin-nigeria-saved-big-mortuary/

Nigeria issa very biiiiiig zoo too.

Is it commensurate or commiserate. Wtf

Put it in a better perspective, Nigeria must be saved from blood sucking fulani demons

dokiOloye:
Nigeria issa very biiiiiig zoo too.

hahaha Nigeria is a very big zoo and you are still in it. Pls what animal are you? goat or cow cos you just reasoned like one

MayorofLagos:
Is it commensurate or commiserate. Wtf

English teacher wehdone sir!!! even adding Wtf. hope Wole Soyinka is your daddy or that Reps from Edo. nonsense and ingredient

MayorofLagos:
Is it commensurate or commiserate. Wtf

It just kept being repeated.

I think with the recent spate of killings and the government's reaction, it has become clear to all Nigerians that the FG is complicit in this terrorist act. In other words, the FGN has become a terrorist apparatus. And the oft-repeated and seemingly overboard statement of many aggrieved Nigerians that "Buhari is a terrorist" has in fact been shown to be true.

That said, I think for justice to be served, Buhari ought to resign or be impeached, tried at the ICC and subsequently jailed.

Let Nigerians go and get PVCs and make sure they vote the useless and clueless bigot of a president out.

This is where we need the Save Nigerian Group to come out. Nigeria needs to be saved from these APC Cancaworms ASAP.

Nobody wants murderers living amongst them . We have now gotten used to lawlessness.
At what point would we say "enough is enough".
At what point will we start catering to the whims of a backward and primitive minority in order to allow them to continue the primitive practice

Nigeria is supposed to be a secular state.
Sharia.

They said it could not happen here,
Boko haram and suicide bombers .

Educate your people nko,
We spend a lot on Nomadic education on a minority.

In spite of all , the place remains a festering sore of extreme wants and lack .
As we speak money that should be going towards the future and modernity is going towards fighting a self inflicted war .
Enough is enough.

Odumakin is a iPod yoot, he eat our yam during 16 yrs of PDP. Fulani herdsmen have right to kill anybody and occupy any land they want according to constitution. #SaiBaba

The buhari led FG has really failed

Good one. Buhari is a blood sucking murderer whose only impact on Nigeria is violence. That's the only language his body odour preaches. That's the only language he upholds. His sixth sense only works in the hour of evil.

You wonder the difference between what he is done in the past 3 years and what Charles Taylor is punished for. The annoying thing is that he is not a wolf in sheep's clothing but a wolf in wolf's clothing and the high and mighty dare not point it out to him.

http://www.mortalpoet.com/who-is-sympathetic-to-fulani-herdsmen/

Sapiosexuality:
Good one. Buhari is a blood sucking murderer whose only impact on Nigeria is violence. That's the only language his body odour preaches. That's the only language he upholds. His sixth sense only works in the hour of evil.

You wonder the difference between what he is done in the past 3 years and what Charles Taylor is punished for. The annoying thing is that he is not a wolf in sheep's clothing but a wolf in wolf's clothing and the high and mighty dare not point it out to him.

http://www.mortalpoet.com/who-is-sympathetic-to-fulani-herdsmen/

best description

aolawale025:
The buhari led FG has really failed

very well