Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, has lashed out at the presidency for its seeming inability to rein in the violent activities of herdsmen across the country.
In his address to the National Conference on
Culture and Tourism, Wednesday, Mr. Soyinka said the President Muhammadu
Buhari-led government was yet to come up with an articulate solution to tackle
the menace.
“I have yet to hear this government articulate
a firm policy of non-tolerance for the serial massacres that have become the
nation’s identification stamp,” said Mr. Soyinka.
“I have not heard an order given that any
cattle herders caught with sophisticated firearms be instantly disarmed,
arrested, placed on trial, and his cattle confiscated. The nation is treated to
an eighteen-month optimistic plan which, to make matters worse, smacks of
abject appeasement and encouragement of violence on innocents.
“Let me repeat, and of course I only ask to be
corrected if wrong: I have yet to encounter a terse, rigorous, soldierly and
uncompromising language from this leadership, one that threatens a response to
this unconscionable blood-letting that would make even Boko Haram repudiate its
founding clerics.”
Suspected Fulani herdsmen on Monday unleashed
terror on Ukpabi Nimbo, a community in Enugu State, killing dozens of people.
The attack came weeks after a similar wave of
violence by herdsmen in Agatu in Benue State.
After weeks of apparent silence on the killings
that have spread to other states, the presidency on Wednesday ordered the
police to go after the suspected herdsmen.
“When I read a short while ago, the Presidential assurance to
this nation that the current homicidal escalation between the cattle prowlers
and farming communities would soon be over, I felt mortified,” Mr. Soyinka
said.
“He had the solution, he said. Cattle ranches
were being set up, and in another 18 months, rustlings, destruction of
livelihood and killings from herdsmen would be ‘a thing of the past’. 18
months, he assured the nation. I believe his Minister of Agriculture echoed
that later, but with a less dispiriting time schema.
“Neither, however, could be considered a
message of solace and reassurance for the ordinary Nigerian farmer and the
lengthening cast of victims, much less to an intending tourist to the Forest
Retreat of Tinana in the Rivers, the Ikogosi Springs or the moslem
architectural heritage of the ancient city of Kano. In any case, the external
tourists have less hazardous options.”
Mr. Soyinka recalled with nostalgia how he – in the company of
the late Segun Olusola – journeyed across Nigeria in the pre-war 60’s, mostly
out of curiosity.
“But now, would the young adventurous set out
to visit the mystery caves of Anambra and its alleged curative pools from mere
interest?
“They would think twice about it. It is not
merely arbitrary violence that reigns across the nation but total, undisputed
impunity. Impunity evolves and becomes integrated in conduct when crime occurs
and no legal, logical and moral response is offered.”
Mr. Soyinka also said he had a personal
experience recently with the cattle herders, right at his doorstep.
”I returned from a trip outside the
country about to find that my home ground had been invaded, and a brand-new ‘Appian way’ sliced through my sanctuary,” said
Mr. Soyinka.
“That ‘motorable’ path was made by the hoofed
invaders. Both the improvised entry and exit are now blocked, but interested
journalists are invited to visit.
“In over two decades of living in that
ecological preserve, no such intrusion had ever occurred. I have no idea
whether they were Fulani or Futa Jalon herdsmen but, they were cattle herders,
and they had cut a crude swathe through my private grounds.
“I made enquiries and sent alerts around,
including through the Baale of our neighborhood village. There has been no
repeat, and hopefully it will remain the first and last of such invasion. What
it portends however is for all thinking citizens to reflect upon, and take
concerted measures against.”
Mr. Soyinka noted that herdsmen are among
humanity’s earliest known tourists and must be taught a culture of settlement
with their hosts.
“The leadership of any society cannot stand
idly and offer solutions that implicitly deem the massacres of innocents mere
incidents on the way to that learning school,” he said.
“For every crime, there is a punishment, for
every violation, there must be restitution. The nomads of the world cannot
place themselves above the law of settled humanity.”
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