…says Nigeria cannot surrender its sovereighty to aliens, criminals
By Ummi Ismaeel,
Minna
The Presidency and the federal government of Nigeria have been challenged “to come out clean and strong on the Fulani militia/ herdsmen,” whose activities are threatening the unity of the country.
Catholic Archbishop John Onayekan made the appeal in Minna, the Niger State capital, after the ordination of Auxillary Bishop of Minna Diocese.
He lamented that the Fulani militia/ herdsmen have sent many innocent Nigerians to their untimely graves, while calling on the government to stop pretending that they were the ones ruling as non-state actors had taken over the country.
His words: “From North to South, East to West what we hear every day is attacks, killings by the same Fulani herdsmen. What do they want? Who is sponsoring them? Where are they coming from and what promises are they claiming made to them that was not kept?
“It is wrong for the government to be talking about dialoguing with the armed bandits instead of talking about how to end their influx into Nigeria or finish them up or are they telling us that the armed bandits who are non-Nigerians and their sponsors are bigger than Nigeria?”
Onaiyekan, who is the former President, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria and Archbishop of Abuja Diocese said, “If that is the case then the government should honourably leave the stage for inability to secure lives and properties of Nigerian people because it has no more excuse for the continuous massacre going on in parts of the country”.
Onaiyekan, who is reacting for the first time since the kidnap and murder of Rev. Fr. John Gbakaan Yaji, cautioned of imminent danger if the federal government fails to take definite steps, adding, “There will be revolts that would be dangerous to contend with.
“The fact remains that we are not where we should be. We should not be living in a country where we are always with our hearts in our mouth when we are moving from one place to another. We should not be living in a country where the children cannot study in schools and where bandits can come and cart away students and their teachers into the bush and sit there and calling for dialogue”.
The cleric wondered why common criminals should be treated with kid gloves.
“And government agencies are talking about reaching out to them. Is it not wrong thing to do. It is about time we have a government that takes care of its people and protects its territories.
“Sadly, we have people who claim to be our leaders who during elections either forced us, begged us and cajoled us to put them in power, now that they are in power, do your work for goodness sake and they keep coming up with flimsy excuses”.
The fight against banditry and other forms of criminalities is not political, ethnical or religious, it is deeper than that. “This has nothing to do with APC or PDP, it is not political and we have also seen that it has nothing to do with Islam and Christianity, not even with our ethnical differences. We have a gang of criminals that are almost taking over our country and the government should either end their menace or allow others to do it”.
He said, “If the government cannot secure Nigerians, they should call for a kind of national cohesion. They should stop pretending that they are the one’s ruling us. In some countries when these incidents happen, they get to a stage where the government will call for national unity where everyone comes on board to try to proffer solutions.
“If the government continues this way, it will get to a stage where non-state actors will take over in self-defence. There is no excuse whatsoever for not doing the work they promised to do. No excuse that people come in from another country so easy with guns and ammunition.
“Any plans to destroy Nigeria by anybody will be resisted. If some people are planning to destroy this country so that they can take over, it cannot work. If the present government does not act, it won’t be long before reaction from Nigerians and we pray that it will be peaceful”.
Meanwhile, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Niger State chapter yesterday called on all churches in the state to embark on fervent prayers for the unhurt and unconditional release of all that are in the captivity of the armed bandits.
