Activistleader of Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of working to divide Nigeria.
Adebanjo featured on AIT morning show – Kakaaki – Wednesday morning via zoom in a 30-minute chat alleging that Buhari’s body language abets and condones sectionalism that has every reason to make Nigerians believe he gives backing to the Fulani herdsmen attacking other Nigerians.
Adebanjo was responding to a question on the attack on Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom last Saturday and why the security agencies have not declared manhunt or arrested members of the Fulani Nationalist Movement (FUNAM) that claimed responsibility for the attack.
He asked why Buhari has made it a pattern to pretend not to hear Miyetti Allah making divisive, threatening and inflammatory comments in the media about other ethnic groups but quickly clamps down on those that respond to their hateful utterances.
He challenged Buhari’s government, especially the security agencies, to explain to Nigerians why it hasn’t even said a word about the FUNAM that admitted 11 of their members attacked Ortom and boasted not to stop until they kill him.
The leader lamented that similar incidents have happened over and again and the federal government reacted the same way and they are sufficient evidence that Buhari aids and abets the insecurity in the country where some people of his ethnic group are protected when they attack others and the others haunted when they merely speak about the attack. “His body language shows clearly he is the enemy of Nigeria’s unity because he refuses to do something to stop the spate of violence of Fulani herdsmen and bandits against other Nigerians.”
He queried the confidence and fairness Buhari gives other Nigerians when in 2018 after herdsmen attacked and killed 78 people in Agatu Benue State, destroyed their farms and burnt down their homes, Buhari simply told Ortom who ran to him for help to save his people that he should learn to live in peace with his fellow Nigerians.
According to the elder, it is the compromise of the federal government and its refusal to protect the other Nigerians that breeds agitation of people who insist on leaving the Nigerian federation because they feel rightly that the state is not willing to protect their interest.
He challenged Buhari to be fair to all Nigerians and watch the agitations for separation die naturally.
Adebanjo however in answer to a question by the anchor said the Yoruba is not asking for separation or pulling out of Nigeria but will always insist on not belonging to a Nigeria that is not just to her and others and keep quiet.
“We don’t want to belong to a Nigeria that is unjust and unfair. We the Yoruba don’t want a Nigeria that operates the present constitution that is skewed in favour of some people against others. We don’t want a Nigeria that has no regard for justice and fairness because these are the things that breed agitations that make people say they want to go. They must be addressed by the federal government. Buhari should not keep quiet and expect us to like such system.”
The Afenifere leader said as long as President Buhari doesn’t want to address these issues, he is actually the enemy of the country that works against its unity and continued existence as one country.