Afenifere faults Tinubu on herder-farmer clash

PAN-Yoruba organisation, Afenifere, on Sunday, faulted President Bola Tinubu on his thesis that re-orientation for herders and provision of land by state governments would enable the Federal Government solve farmer-herder clashes.

In its reaction to the pronouncement made by the president during a recent visit to Minna, the capital of Niger State, Afenifere said it showed that the Nigerian leader was not toeing the footpath of the last federal administration.

The organisation said this in a statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary, Mogaji Gboyega Adejumo, with the title: The Unbreakable Reality of Terror deodorized as mere farmers/herders clashes — the sad case of a nation in an implausible, unimaginable denial.

Afenifere said the position of the president had brought to the fore the views expressed by the leader of foremost pan-Yoruba group, Pa Ayo Adebanjo, in one of his interviews in support of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi in the 2023 poll that the Tinubu tenure would not be a far departure from the Buhari era.

According to Afenifere, its leader had been vindicated going by the position ventilated by the president on the solution to the perennial herders/farmers clashes.

“It now appears that our leader was right. President Tinubu recently in Minna stated, “although the intrusion on farms and destruction of crops by Fulani herdsmen is economic sabotage for farmers, reorientation for the herders and the provision of land by state governments will enable the Federal Government to solve “farmer-herder clashes.”

“The president could not have been more wrong, “ Afenifere stressed, adding that an assault by an “intruder armed with weapons, coupled with forceful ejection from one’s land and destruction of the livelihood could not be called a clash.

“Mr. President, Afenifere says that proclamation lacks equity, lacks justice and it is an insult on human dignity.

“It is a sad confirmation that the President is merely repetitive of the spurned and irritable policy of “your land or your life” policy behind the Buhari RUGA scheme which failed woefully as it demeans humanity and will fail again as the indigenous peoples of Nigeria would simply never roll over and die for invaders, terrorists to take over their ancestral lands.

“Mr. President, the whole world is watching. This is no time for political correctness as Nigeria faces huge existential threats by those feeling entitled.

“When you choose to call a disease by another name, your prescription will always be wrong,” the group warned.

It stated that a similar tragedy played out in the initial days of the emergence of Boko Haram, in spite of the criminal activities of the terrorist body, with those in authorities playing the ostrich.

“Mr. President, when the alarm was raised many years back, your predecessors were complacent, calling it mere ethnic crisis. It is now time to face our reality.

“The subtle attacks which began over a decade ago have seen native communities in many parts of the country taken over by invading herders.

“Today, Mr. President, the country’s landscape is undesirably dotted with many Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps. These herders must therefore be fought, caught, tossed to the courts and brought to justice.

“Our stand is well known to Mr. President: restructure this country. It is a season of errors and certain consequences. We must go back to the structural foundation or we continue to wallow in this mess, regime after regime.

“The present leadership must know none other is required, except in the ability to handle these important matters of security, equality, egalitarianism and must not lack in every aspect of Integrity. The citizenry/followership, must at all times, especially at these present times be completely alive to every aspect of living in dignity and in humanity.”