The Pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, on Monday, kicked against the threat of US President Donald Trump to attack Nigeria over alleged killings of Christians.
While it faulted Trump’s position, the Yoruba body said the rising insecurity in Nigeria is an indictment that the Federal Government has failed to implement state police to curb insecurity, and restructuring for equity and peaceful coexistence since the 2014 Confab.
Afenifere, in a statement by its Leader and National Publicity Secretary, Oba Oladipo Olaitan and Prince Justice Faloye, respectively, urged President Bola Tinubu not to allow foreign military humanitarian intervention.
The statement reads ‘Afenifere regards the ten years delay that has wasted thousands of lives unnecessarily as culpable gross negligence by the government. Regardless of the categorisation of our insecurity as either religious or tribal genocide, the point is people are dying due to the failure to create state and local government police for efficiency, giving the people the right of self preservation in their states and localities.
‘In our recent Midterm assessment of President Tinubu administration on 29th May 2025, Afenifere once again warned that the continued overcentralised police force made him ultimately responsible for the unnecessary deaths in the Middle Belt and across the Nation. As long as policing is centralised and tied to the President, all blame of insecurity resides with his office. This is not only untenable for him but the whole country, since we are all bound to suffer the collective punishment of failure in other states, some of who allegedly bargain with terrorists’.
The statement added that ‘Also, this administration’s penchant for overcentralisation of governance is counterproductive, not only within our borders, but has now reflected in our diplomatic relations or lack of it. The lack of ambassadors in USA and other nations is deplorable. Afenifere demands that the Tinubu administration immediately appoints ambassadors to all our world embassies, because it is obvious that the Presidency is incapable of directly administering our diplomatic relations, since we suddenly face the threat of foreign intervention and war without diplomatic buffers.
‘President Tinubu should not allow foreign military humanitarian intervention to cause religious and ethnic wars due to negligence or lack of political will to restructure Nigeria for peace and equity. We must not forget our history that it was the excuse of curbing Transatlantic slavery that prompted foreign military humanitarian intervention that led to our colonization. It is ironic that the influx of terrorists that partly led to the end of the Jonathan administration and coming to power of APC is now threatening our corporate existence due to the APC failure to restructure and implement state police’.
Afenifere appeals to Nigerians to unify against foreign intervention and implores all Nigerians to look for local solutions to our sectarian and ethnic conflicts in restructuring.
Afenifere and all peace loving Nigerians hereby demand immediate implementation of state police to curb insecurity, and the implemention of the 2014 Confab restructuring resolutions to ensure peace and unity. This would not only save lives but remove the threat of foreign intervention in Nigeria’s affairs that has been conducted by the carnage and its attendant chaotic situation observed even from far-flung lands of a general absence of governance arising from insecurity or of ungoverned spaces.
