Ethnic Agitations: Buhari must stop using threats – Prof Soji Adejumo

President Muhammadu Buhari has been advised to stop using threats and all forms of intimidation to deal with separation agitators in the country but should rather embrace dialogue in addition to not showing favouritism to one ethnic group.

 

He was also reminded that what is going on right now is the creation of government and that employing a wrong approach would never be the correct solution.

 

A veteran politician and Professor of Animal Science at the University of lbadan, Professor Soji Adejumo, expressed this view in Ibadan , the Oyo State capital.

 

He said the statement by the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky lrabor that there are constitutional provisions for wanting to step out the Nigerian Union, which should not involve taking up arms against the state is just an economical truth.

 

According to Professor Adejumo, ethnic agitators like Chief Sunday Adeyemo (lgboho) and Nnamdi Kanu , were not creations of the Yorubas and the lgbos but were created by leaders in government.

 

He averred that when and where justice , fairness and equity is absent, there are bound to be agitations, most especially , when a section of the country from where leaders in the corridors of power come from are being unnecessarily favoured to the detriment of others.

 

Adejumo wondered why criminal fulani herdsmen and Boko Haram are being left to operate with impunity while those who are victims were been intimidated, harrassed, maltreated and brutalised by agencies of government.

 

“Igboho is not a creation of the Yorubas. He was a creation of the Nigerian government. He is a self-elected warrior who wants to defend his people.He was not involved in politics.Before now , he has been doing his own personal business.

 

“The Chief of Defence Staff, General lrabor, was just saying what he was payed to say. The Nigerian Army is supposed to defend the country against external aggression and internally in case of terrorism, instead it is pursuing peaceful agitators while using kid gloves for Boko Haram, Bandits and terrorists.

 

“President Muhammadu Buhari as a leader is expected to show love to all irrespective of where anybody comes from. That has not been the case . We are not in China or North Korea where threats are being used to deal with the opposition or those who are not in your camp .

 

“l was born in Sokoto and l did my youth service in the East. In those days we were integrated fully into the culture and environment. Nobody was made to feel out of place. l would not want Nigeria to break, so do majority of Nigerians. President Buhari should talk to the people in order to hear their grievances and do the needful,” Adejumo noted.