Calling on Mr President

With the rampant acts of lawlessness, kidnapping and killings being perpetrated by mostly Fulani herdsmen all over the place, and the irresponsible and provocative statements coming from the various groups, and the morbid attacks and horrific vilification and demonization of the Fulbe people by other ethnic nationalities across the country, President Muhammadu Buhari needs to […]

With the rampant acts of lawlessness, kidnapping and killings being perpetrated by mostly Fulani herdsmen all over the place, and the irresponsible and provocative statements coming from the various groups, and the morbid attacks and horrific vilification and demonization of the Fulbe people by other ethnic nationalities across the country, President Muhammadu Buhari needs to immediately convene a meeting of the National Council of State, and then an all-encompassing national conference to discuss and conclusively resolve a looming catastrophe, if Nigeria is to survive as an entity.

All over the country, videoclips are appearing blaming, castigating, threatening and even attacking the Fulani as the villains and enemies of the nation. While it is a fact that some Fulani herdsmen have over the years constituted themselves into societal danger as kidnappers, robbers and rapists,  however, traditional political opponents of the Fulani and ethnic extremists have also seized this unfortunate situation to set the nation against the Fulani ethnic group and the caliphate as a whole to achieve their iniquitous political objectives.

Steadily, they are getting the noose tighter around the necks of the Fulani. The situation is going beyond kidnappings, robberies and murders, to ethnic cleansing and genocide. With the latest happenings in the South West and the South East, the situation of the country is reaching a tipping point.

The silence and apparent inaction of government on this simmering calamity is itself disastrous, and therefore no longer tolerable.

I call on President Buhari, and all Nigerians of good standing, to act immediately and call everyone to order or there will soon be massive mobilizations of militias of all major ethnic nationalities, including the Fulani, for a war of mutual attrition. While we all pray to God Almighty against that happening, it is however the sole duty of government to act proactively to prevent such a situation. For President Buhari and his government, silence and inaction are no longer golden.

 

Dr. Umar Ardo wrote from Abuja