Olakunle Abimbola WAR on the Oodua front! But its not unlike that easy but macabre tease, by reggae great, Peter Tosh: everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die!In the gangling, growling, sabre-rattling mood of the season, everyone bawls war! But about everyone too, is cock-sure to live to tell the tale!The stupidity of scalding passion! The danger of wild delusion! The inevitability of ice-cold reason!It dawned with the Ondo gubernatorial diktat, the Presidencys counter riposte, and the acute danger of faulty messaging.Meeting with Hausa, Fulani and Ebira leaders in Ondo State, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu decreed that herders (who kidnappers fake), within seven days, must quit the Ondo forest reserves-turned-kidnappers den.The governors key call here was worsening insecurity. Spikes in kidnappings and killings were intolerable. The lawful majority must be protected. So, the diktat was both reasonable and popular.Also, these crimes are often associated with herders: following endless tales from the seized, that alien kidnappers have turned Ondo forests into ransom-awaiting refuge; and grim slaughter slabs for victims that couldnt pay.Yet, these forests stream with herdsmen that speak same language as these alleged criminals, thus making a perfect camouflage. It makes eminent sense, therefore, to clear the area of every noxious element.Still, under the lawand politicsof the Federal Republic, can a state governor give non-indigenes a sweeping order to vacate a precinct, without provoking similar backlashes from other governors' To every Sabo (northern conclaves) in the South, arent there Sabongeri (southern settlements) in the North'Stripped of its ethnic interpretation, that would appear the core of the Garba Shehu Presidency retort, to the Ondo gubernatorial diktat.Incidentally, the same Shehu had issued two previous but similar statements. One: to press the right of northerners in the East, against threats from some eastern elements. The other: to defend Catholic Bishop Matthew Kukahs residential right in Sokoto, again after some locals threatened to expel him.So, except you apply the most disingenuous of ad hominem fallacies, Shehu cannot be right in defending Father Kukahs right in Sokoto, yet be wrong in defending northerners rights in the East, or herders rights in Ondoparticularly law-abiding herders, not convicted of any crimejust because of accusation that the presidential spokesperson is a Fulani ethnic jingoist.But even if Shehu has, on citizen rights, been consistent, he dangerously begged the serious security question in the Ondo case.The governor didnt just rise from the wrong side of the bed to bark out quit orders. He acted from intolerable kidnapping, many of them by Northerners, plaguing his people. On that he cant be faulted.On the security question, therefore, both the Presidency and the Ondo government should be on the same page; not work at cross purposes.But as these skirmishes flared, sub-state extremists jumped into the fray.Sunday Adeyemo, aka Sunday Igboho, now styled Yoruba ethnic activist, galloped into town at Igangan, Ibarapa North in Oyo State, and ordered the resident Fulani in there to scramor else The comedy, from this brewing tragedy: the Ivy League-educated FFK goads Igboho on, as his new-found Yoruba champion. But Gani Adams warns his fellow sub-state player to beware of a suicide missionboth for himself and for the struggle they both push!For Yorubaland, however, an epochal regression: a people hitherto hoisted on the cutting intellect of the great Obafemi Awolowo, now comfy with the likes of Igboho and Adamsno thanks to some careerist-Awoists, who have morphed into neo-Samsons, ready to crash the edifice on all and everyone!In all the excitement, a scornful Igboho told Governor Seyi Makinde to go jump into the Ogunpa River, for daring to call for his arrest; when it was Igboho, and Igboho alone, that made him governor!Somewhat, that echoed a 2nd Republic brush, between the great Bola Ige and ace partisan fixer, Busari Adelakun, in same Oyo State! With that came the serenading of Igbohos alleged awesome magical powers! Enter: new atavistic champ come to save the Yoruba from the Fulani!Still, only Igboho and Igboho alone would answer to the law, if charged with any felony.Of course, intemperate outbursts weighed in from the northern divide, the craziest of which represents a cattle lobby, claiming the Fulani owned every grain of Nigerian soil; and could well do whatever they damn well liked with it!That such a lunatic could crow and make sense to anyone, in 21st century Nigeria, should bother everyone.Newspapers, of course, take predictable regional stands. Ironically, Daily Trust, which arguably had the more cautionary editorial, slapped you with a reckless and rabid headline. The Nation essayed a centrist mode, but its southern sympathies were without question. The Punch' A thunderous bombast and tirade, that only preached to the converted.No surprise at all: both the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and the rump of Afenifere, gung-ho, tore at each other, in defence of the right of own peoplea Nigerian notorious penchant, to be sure, to talk at (not with) one another.Still, all of these are the proverbial din, that begs the market question. The critical business is a failing security infrastructure, which both the Federal Government and states must partner to renew and reshape; or otherwise face looming but avoidable catastrophe.The genteelamong whom most Yoruba regard themselveswould cringe at Igbohos atavism. But they are no less riled by some cocky criminals from the North, who triggered the Ondo and Ibarapa, Oyo crises.That you have a constitutional right to roam nationwide does not equate a democratic right to free-wheeling crime. That is true of northerners in the South; as it is of southerners in the North.But all these wouldnt be issues if the security infrastructure were adequateinserting state police, for instanceand security agencies are perceived firm, fair but tough on crime, no matter the tongue, or the ethnics, of the criminals.This is where the Federal Government must show leadership; and launch critical initiatives, on which it must partner with the states to implement. Had that been the case, most of the current crisis wouldnt even occur.But the media too must play its part. You cant because of a few criminals profile the entire Fulani as felons; or demonize honest herders, as kidnappers.
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