Cardinal Anthony Olubunmi Okogie
Cardinal Anthony Olubunmi Okogie has written an open letter to President Buhari on the killings in Plateau state.
The Priest, in the letter titled: Dear Mr. President, Call a Spade a Spade, obtained from Punch, said that the President has failed to provide security for Nigerians.
According to Okogie, Buhari has done nothing to stop the attacks by Fulani herdsmen in different parts of the country.
Plateau killings
According to unconfirmed reports, over 200 people were killed by suspected Fulani herdsmen last week in several communities in Plateau state.
“Dear Mr. President, we must call a spade a spade. You were elected to protect the land and its people but neither is being protected under your watch.
“You therefore have the most important decision of your career to make. And that decision is this: Are you for Nigerians or not?
“The number (of Nigerians) killed under your watch, Mr. President, provides more than convincing evidence that the government you lead has failed to secure our lives. You are the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
“If more than three years into your administration, you have been unable to stop these killings, why don’t you seriously consider the option of an honourable renunciation of the presidential seat?
“One of the major factors behind the patent failure of your government is the fact that you are surrounded by men and women who fail to tell you the truth about Nigeria and who shield you from seeing what is happening to the ordinary Nigerians.
“Instead of assisting you in the governance of this country, they insult those whose dissenting opinions you need if you are to succeed.
“How does one explain the fact that under your watch as the Commander-in-Chief, agencies established to maintain law and order, instead of protecting innocent citizens of this country, dissipate their energy running after members of opposing parties? Do you call that democracy?
“No right-thinking person would advocate letting anyone off who has committed a crime. No one is above the law, not even you, Mr. President. That is why the Constitution provides for a process of removing the President.
“That is why the point must also be made that those who contravene the laws of Nigeria be brought to book, irrespective of their political, regional, ethnic or religious affiliation. But the sad reality is: under your watch, that is not what is happening.”
Miyetti Allah’s confession
Cardinal Okogie also raised the issue of the representative of cattle breeders who said that the killings in Plateau state was a revenge attack.
The chairman of north-central zone of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Danladi Ciroma had earlier alleged that the indigenous Berom youths have been stealing cows from herdsmen, with about 300 cows lost to cattle rustlers.
Okogie condemned Buhari and relevant authorities for not arresting Ciroma.
He said, “A member of the Miyetti Allah appeared on television, justifying as retaliatory the killings in Plateau State. He was not the first member of the Miyetti Allah to make the statement.
“Nigerians are baffled that he has yet to be arrested. Where were those responsible for our security at a time they were needed most?
“Dear President Buhari, I am compelled to write to you again because, since the bloodshed of the first day of this year, there has been more bloodshed in Zamfara State and in the Middle Belt.
“The latest killings in Plateau State make us wonder: where were you, Mr. President, while innocent lives were being wasted in Plateau State? Where were your service chiefs when babies were being ripped out of their mothers’ wombs by men who claim to do so because of their cows?
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“While all this happened during the national convention of your party, it would be unfair to insinuate that the latest round of killings had anything to do with your party.
“However, it was scandalous that at about the time innocent Nigerians were being slaughtered like cows in Plateau State last weekend, some members of your party were dancing and feasting at your party’s convention in Abuja, while some were throwing chairs at each other, and some others were exchanging blows.
“That, in itself, points to the absence of democracy in your party, as is the case in virtually all the political parties in Nigeria.”
Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has also called on President Buhari to make the Fulani herdsmen pay for their crimes.
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