A former Minister of
Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, says President Muhammadu Buhari, who is a Fulani
man, is sympathetic towards Fulani herdsmen.
The former minister
said this in a Facebook post titled, ‘Herdsmen from hell’ while reacting to the
abduction of a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Olu
Falae, by suspected Fulani herdsmen.
Fani-Kayode said Buhari
had in the past referred to Fulani herdsmen as ‘my people’. He, therefore,
argued that he was not surprised that Fulani herdsmen were hardly arrested
despite their many acts of violence.
He said, “In the last
few years the Fulani herdsmen have attacked, ravaged and pillaged many rural
communities south of the River Niger and they have slaughtered and raped
thousands of innocent people in the South-South, the South-East and the
South-West.
“We recall how, after a
violent clash between them and some Yoruba farmers in Oyo State in 2000,
General Buhari (as he then was) led a strong delegation of northern leaders to
see the late Governor of Oyo State, Lam Adeshina. On arrival, Buhari put the
question to him: ‘Why are your people killing my people?’ This was a classic
case of a Freudian slip.
“The Bible says out of
the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The general had spoken his mind.
Governor Adeshina was shocked with disbelief and he responded by telling Buhari
that he was rather surprised that a former Head of State would refer to one
ethnic group as his people while referring to another as someone else’s.”
Fani-Kayode, who was
the spokesperson for former President Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign
organisation, said Buhari had never shown concern for the plight of the people of
the South.
He said this was why it
took Buhari 48 hours to react to Falae’s kidnap.
Fani-Kayode said it was
possible that Buhari knew those behind the abduction Falae because the herdsmen
released Falae 24 hours after the presidency condemned the abduction. He noted
that no one had since been arrested for Falae’s kidnap.
-Punch
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