By Olakunle Agboola – The legend Martin Luther King Jr once submitted that “A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice.” The great Prof. Wole Soyinka once talked on that same line of thoughts too.
It is no news that South-western part of Nigeria is no business as usual, security wise. It is currently an open secret that countless citizens, have been killed mercilessly, young and married women are being raped effortlessly, farmers are being sent out of their farms violently, kidnappings are on the increase, maiming innocent lives are on the high side, and it seems that the Fulani herders are on the prowl, and are on massive invasions.
It seems nothing can be done as we watch the invasion of ruthless killings and kidnappings across South-western region of Nigeria. It is becoming unbearable, as people cannot sleep with their eyes closed. It appears all hope lost and like a bolt from the blues, as Sunday Adeyemo, otherwise known as Sunday Igboho, emerged strongly, to putting a stop to the current insecurity mess, in the ways, best known to him.
Before he finally stormed Igangan in Oyo State, “Igboho” asked a very pertinent question from one of the traditional rulers and in his words, “Kabiyesi, do you want killers to remain in your environment or not? That was one question, which the “baba” could not reply, easily. Eventually, the king replied affirmatively. Shortly after that, Chief Sunday went on, in giving catalogues of many needless and senseless killings and destructions in the South-west. He mentioned one Dr. Adigun, who upon complaining to the then Seriki Igangan about Fulani herders’ destructions to his farm, was tied and macheted to death. He mentioned the senseless killing of a once well-established local drugs producer and seller, Oko Oloyun, about a year ago. In all these, he said, and of cause, millions of Nigerians are helpless with the security challenge at hand! The question now is, must these raw and undiluted madness continue unabated?
In our local parlance, if you are not opportune to be an eyewitness to occurrences at the war front, you can testify to happenings back home. Very recently, my elder brother, and a promising person at that, was kidnapped in his farm in Abaodo Ibadan. Ransom of 1.65 million was paid. Yet, the kidnappers/terrorists, killed my brother, Oluwole Agboola. The family is yet to wake up from the ugly experience not knowing the root cause of him been killed after collecting a ransom. Oluwole Agboola was not allowed to come back home to share the tale of his ordeal with his family. He was murdered with great potentials of contributing his quota to developments of Agriculture in Nigeria. His body was later found near his farm ten days after he was killed. There are hundreds of Nigerian citizens who have lost their life like Oluwole Agboola as death toll is on the rise.
Over the years the Fulani herders have been grazing freely, and peacefully in the South-west until a few years ago when the activities of Fulani herdsmen became popular. We could have asked what went wrong?
It is often said that once the causative factors of diseases are identified, the curing medicines for such ailments, should not be far-fetched. If Nigerians (the Yorubas) as a people must be truly free, this is not a time to politicize anything regarding security. In the words of late sage Nelson Mandela, “There is no such thing as part freedom.”
All our freedom fighters need every form of support. After all, we are all in this together. The herders should be observing very less aggressions, or totally forgoing such.
Furthermore, let our government at all strata of governance, be more proactive about issues of maintaining peace in Nigeria. The herders need constant tutorials, on the need to maintaining peace in Nigeria, as a whole. Enough of porosities of our borders. Congratulations to our newly appointed service Chiefs. However, they must realize that this is surely, not a tea or party time.
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