Tinubu Bargaining With Nigeria’s Future For Second Term

Tinubu Bargaining With Nigeria’s Future For Second Term

The publisher of a prominent Nigerian online tabloid, Mrs. Philomina Ngozi Christopher-Oji, has called on Nigerians to resist President Bola Tinubu’s plan to continue with the Fulani agenda of his predecessor, former President Muhammadu Buhari, in order to secure a second term in office. P.M.EXPRESS reports Mrs Ngozi Christopher-Oji is the publisher of Cornerstonenewsng.com, a subsidiary of Phil Chris Media Concepts, Lagos. In this interview, the media owner warned that, if nothing drastic is done to stem the tide of insecurity spreading across Nigeria, killer Fulani herdsmen would take over the country, especially the South East and Niger Delta regions.

Why did you say that Tinubu is already preparing for a second tenure when it is barely nine months since he took over power? 

Really, we should be thinking faster than this present administration, or it will mess us up. I have been saying that nothing good will come out of this present administration because it is a continuation of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. The North believes that power belongs to them and that was why Labour Party presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, was robbed by the cabal, who used the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, to perpetrate that open electoral robbery. Yes, I stand to be corrected, Tinubu did not win the presidential election. It is a plain fact, but power was given to him by the North, who have also promised him a second tenure in office, and that is why he is doing everything to please them. What is he doing to please the North? You remember that Buhari is the grand patron of herdsmen. He put Alhaji Bello Boyejo as the Nigerian head of the controversial cattle breeders’ cartel, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore (MAKH), who is doing everything to take over our bushes. You remember the Ruga saga, which failed woefully. Since Buhari did not succeed in grabbing our land for his kinsmen, he brought Tinubu from the West as President to help him acquire land, seeing that the West will always support him because they are neck-deep in tribalism. The North is happy with Tinubu, who, we heard, has agreed to the northern agenda to take over our land. First, he has started lobbying the Supreme Court to rule in favour of  the federal government that it has exclusive control over the nation’s inland waterways. He wants the court to state that it will be unlawful for states to impose levies on businesses operating in this sector. The game plan of the organised court ruling is to cede our inland waterways to the federal government, so it  will automatically be in favour  of Fulani herdsmen. This plan is another Ruga in disguise. Second, you have heard, on January 17, 2014, when Alhaji Boyejo, leader of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, said he would   invite the brutal most wanted terrorist, Turji, who has gruesomely killed thousands  of Nigerians, to defend herders against bandits’ attacks. This is a ploy to take over our bushes with the help of killer herdsmen whose  aims are to Islamize Nigeria and rule us by force. Remember how Sunday Igboho, who resisted the killer herdsmen in Oyo State, was hounded by the federal government. They used the Department of State Security (DSS) to do the hatchet job, and Tinubu as the political leader in the South West did not say anything, because he was part of the agenda, all towards his second tenure plan.   The federal government, under Tinubu, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, has been hearing continuous statements by Boyejo saying he was going to invite Fulani militia to form an army that will defend herdsmen in all the states of the federation and he is keeping mum. In our investigation, we discovered that the military, police, DSS and other paramilitary organisations have been asked to keep mum. If security agencies have not been briefed on what Boyejo is saying, to bring thousands of militias to defend herdsmen,

why are they not doing anything about the evil plan?

That is why I am shouting that we all should do something drastic about the issue. The moment the court rules in favour of the federal government, the government will take over our waterways, which will automatically be given to herdsmen and no state will be able to challenge the killer herdsmen who will forcefully take over the waterways, adjoining lands and bushes. I have spoken, and it will come to pass that killer herdsmen will take over our lands, if we don’t stop them now, because they will be supported by the federal government.

Why does it seem you have hatred towards Tinubu and herdsmen?

I don’t have hatred for Tinubu but I am not happy that he has no mind of his own or that he is too self-centred. He is educated, an old man, a politician who has seen it all. So, he doesn’t need to be told that the northern agenda will not favour us. Once he does all he promised the North, we are in trouble because the killing spree will continue. Herdsmen are ruthless. They love bloodshed and they are cowards who cannot face people face to face, but will invade communities at night while the people are sleeping. It is an insult to the intelligence and sensibilities of all right-thinking Nigerians, knowing that these were active players in the most brutal deaths in the last nine years who have murdered over 80,000 Nigerians in cold blood. Literally, hundreds of thousands have been kidnapped for ransom, sex and labour slavery; some were randomly massacred, violently raped, unbelievably traumatized in the most dastardly acts of terror Nigeria has ever known. Millions are internally displaced with no care whatsoever for an entire decade. We heard on the grapevine that the Nasarawa State Government has promised to support the move by Boyejo to bring thousands of militias to assist herdsmen in the name of protection. Miyetti Allah’s target is to raise 4,000, rather than the 2,140 vigilantes they claimed, to be  inaugurated in Nasarawa State. The state has been the key operational and strategic base for the past decade from where the Fulani militia have launched their bloody massacres, using the key Benue River waterway linking the River Niger waterway to the Delta.   Except for Kano and Jigawa states and the upper North East zone of Bormo, Yobe, Gombe and Bauchi, which Boko Haram marked for their main operations of death, no Nigerian state has been untouched by the attacks of the Fulani militia in the past decade. Boyejo had told Nigerians of their promise to raise 4,000 vigilantes in Nasarawa State, and then replicate it in all 36 states. That comes to an army of 144,000 men, which will exceed the current number of the Nigerian Army. The implications of this cannot be lost on the Nigerian government.  All government security agencies have full knowledge and intel of these plans. The question is, why has the federal government, especially since the Buhari regime, treated the Fulani militia with kid gloves while they have run amok, practically unrestrained, for an entire decade in the most vicious attacks on indigenous communities of this country?  What are the Nigerian state assemblies and the National Assembly (Senate and House of Representatives) doing about the whole issue? Something is quite wrong here.

Do you know the havoc these herders are committing every day?

For instance, the traditional ruler of my community, Ubulu-Uku, in Aniocha South Local Government Area, Delta State, was gruesomely murdered by Fulani herdsmen. Recently, they killed another traditional chief in my place, Mr. Chikwe Ojinji. Again, they killed a prominent medical practitioner, Mr. Dozie, and so many other victims. As we are mourning in Delta, so they are weeping in Benue, Plateau, Kaduna, etc. Once they take over our waterways, there is no remedy as they are going to be ruthless.

What is the solution?

I would rather say that we all should come together and resist Tinubu’s evil agenda for the federal government to take over our inland waterways. We should come out en masse to protest against killer herdsmen who are trying to bring thousands of their own army into Nigeria, because the killings will double, far beyond what we are witnessing now. We cannot continue to sit on the fence. Let us resist Tinubu’s plan to sell Nigeria to Fulani militias who he is planning to cede our waterways to. We are also calling on the Nigeria Police to do the needful by disarming the killer herdsmen. These herdsmen are armed with sophisticated weapons; it is quite unfortunate that the police are busy pursuing people with machetes in the South East while they allow herdsmen who are found with sophisticated machine guns moving freely in our bushes.The Inspector-General of Police (IGP) should do the needful. The police and other security agencies should go after killer herdsmen, instead of proliferating the Lagos-South East routes with roadblocks. The IGP, Comptroller-General of Customs, Chief of Defence Staff and the Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps should know that the proliferation of inter-state roads and highways with roadblocks mounted by their officers, particularly enroute Lagos to southeastern part of Nigeria, which results in obstruction of free movement on the highway and loss of travel time, is a violation of the right to free and undisrupted movement as guaranteed by Section 41 of the 1999 Constitution and other enabling laws.

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