Why Proscribe IPOB and Not Miyetti Allah?’ Soyinka Queries FG’s Handling of Farmer-Herder Crisis
- Wole Soyinka has called on the federal government to take seriously the nation's history in other to understand properly the fight against insecurity
- The Nigerian literary icon, while stating his position on the Farner-Herder crisis, noted that the federal government's way of handling the matter is troubling
- According to Soyinka, if the government can tag IPOB as a terrorist group, what stops them from tagging the Miyetti Allah too
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Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka has queried the federal government’s approach to the farmer-herder crisis.
Speaking exclusively to Channels Television’s Newsnight programme, which airs on Monday, August 22, the literary icon wondered why the government was yet to ban the cattle group, Miyetti Allah while it had proscribed the Indigenous People of Biafra(IPOB), a group seeking the secession of the South-East from Nigeria.
Source: UGC
He said Nigeria must always put the country’s history in perspective in order to understand security challenges.
Soyinka said:
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“My temperament does not accept that anyone should chase me out of my God-given earth. So, it’s a temperamental thing as well.
“The idea that you can unleash terror on me because you want my little patch of territory or you want my soul, that is you want to subjugate me, you want to turn me into a slave. Well, I would sort that out first.
“Many people just either do not know history or do not understand the purpose of history. And then there’s a different group also who are very selective about history; they know how to distort or misuse history.
“Take for instance when the incursion of the Fulani herdsmen began, and the Miyetti Allah. Their spokesman said, I think it was in Borno, we once ruled this place, and we can take back our land anytime we want. I remember that statement; I’ve never forgotten.
"In the midst of the trauma of these people, somebody comes gloating and then citing selective portions of history. I said this person should be arrested and locked up, who says he wants to repeat his history of conquest – he’s admitting either knowledge, before or after, or support, anyway. Isn’t there anything like hate speech anymore? Why are you proscribing IPOB without proscribing Miyetti Allah?”
2023: After supporting call for Buhari's impeachment, Soyinka speaks on Muslim-Muslim ticket
For Nigeria's Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, the religious upheaval brought about by the All Pprogressives Congress (APC)'s Muslim-Muslim ticket is both unnecessary and dangerous.
During a lecture in Abeokuta on Ogun on Tuesday, August 2, the southwest literary icon noted that this kind of unrest one way or the other affects the coming generation.
In his view, Soyinka stated that this religious difference in the political arena makes children not see themselves as equals that they actually are.
Trouble as Professor Soyinka drops bombshell over lawmakers' move for Buhari's impeachment
Recall that the move by lawmakers to impeach President Muhammadu Buhari over the growing insecurity in Nigeria, especially in the Federal Capital Territory has received a major boost as Soyinka gave his two pence.
Speaking at an interactive session to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Abeokuta Club on Tuesday, August 2, Soyinka said good governance or misgovernance, the contract called democracy, indicated a contract on which a candidate is either accepted or rejected due to his manifesto.
Soyinka added that misgovernance is one of the ways a democratic contract is broken and thus possible impeachment.
Source: Legit.ng
