Leader of the O’Odua People’s Congress and Aare Onakakanfo of Oyo, Gani Adams.
He said this on Thursday in a statement where he condemned killings by armed herdsmen.
“The first fundamental right of a Nigerian is the right to life. It is when you are alive that you can enjoy other rights. Once this right is taken away from you through killings and murder, you cannot enjoy any other right,” he noted.
The statement signed by his Special Assistant on Media, Kehinde Aderemi, said “Nigerians demand Right to Life. More than a thousand Nigerians have been killed in the last one year. Is Nigeria at war? There is more to all these killings.”
Mr. Adams described the killing of the officer in charge of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Saki Unit in Oyo State by suspected herdsmen on Tuesday night as “one killing too many.”
He declared that the spate of insecurity in the country was worrisome.
He said Nigerians must condemn activities of these killers “who are now bold enough to start killing security officers”, and vowed that Yorubaland would resist any conspiracy “aimed at killing our people at will.”
“The diplomacy of the Yoruba on national issues, especially when it borders on security, should not be misconstrued for cowardice. It is part of our nature to accommodate people from other ethnic nationalities. But now, our people cannot go to their farms again because of the fear of the unknown. The federal government must immediately check activities of these killers to avoid plunging the country into an avoidable war,” he said.
“There is no war in Nigeria, there is no famine, no earthquake, but the number of IDPs in the country is more than what obtains in a country where war is going on. Murder of Nigerians, including pregnant women and children continues every day. What is really going on?
Mr. Adams criticised the federal government’s handling of the herdsmen and farming communities’ violence across the country.
“Perception is everything. The federal government is not helping its own image with the belief by Nigerians that the presidency is always silent when the issue concerns Fulani herdsmen. Let me remind the government that killing and murder remain serious crimes in our law books. No level of politics can change this.”
“Nigerians are being killed and the government seems helpless. Utterances from government officials such as the Defence Minister, Brig–Gen. Mansur Dan–Ali (rtd), and the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, are not helping matters. One wonders if we are in the same country,” he noted.
Mr. Adams said he believed that the solution to the various crises in the country is a restructuring of the governance structure
“I welcome the report of the Governor Nasir El-Rufai APC Committee which also recommended restructuring but what the committee has done is not different from the position of the 2014 National confab.
“If Nigeria is going to survive as a nation, this country must be restructured. This is the time to have true federalism, state police, resource ownership and control, and an entirely new constitution deriving its legitimacy from the people,” he said.
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