The pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere has expressed serious concern on the upsurge in terrorism acts following the completion of the 2023 general elections.
In a statement by the organisation’s National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Jare Ajayi, Afenifere stated that the series of attacks on defenceless people and the subversion of economic activities in various parts of the country “give us a lot of concern especially as we move towards the handing over of power on 29th May 2023 by the grace of God”.
Observing that kidnapping and banditry that ebbed during the general elections in February and March, this year resumed shortly after the conclusion of the elections, Ajayi called on the authorities to ensure that the situation is quickly brought under control. Instances of kidnapping, killings and other forms of banditry were cited in Osun, Ekiti, Ondo, Ogun, Niger, Edo, Ebonyi, Nasarwa, Kaduna, Zamfara States, and a host of others.
Ajayi regretted that apart from kidnapping people on highways, “bandits now even have the effrontery to go and abduct people from their homes as happened to one Adebukola in Ondo State, to a former deputy governor of Nasarawa State, Prof. Onje Gye-Wado, to the driver of the incumbent Nasarawa State deputy governor, to one Muhammadu Jibril in Ago Igbira, Osun State and to over 100 students of Federal Government College, Yauri, Kebbi State, who were abducted from their hostels – to mention a few”.
Ajayi recalled that the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, while speaking in Katsina this month, stated that the Federal Government would soon “be deploying electronic digital technology to ensure 24/7 inch by inch surveillance of the 4,500 kilometres borderline from the eastern part to the western part including the coastlines” of the country.
The Afenifere spokesman then wondered why the President Muhammadu Buhari administration is just thinking of taking such a step when it has about one month to go. He added that the fate of those in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps is still hanging in the balance.
Noting the plea by President Buhari for those he might have hurt to pardon him, Ajayi said that it would have been better if the President had listened to various advices and pleas being made to him over the years regarding the unfriendly – if not retrogressive – steps his administration had been taken.
“The maxim has it that ‘to err is human, to forgive is divine’. Without deceiving ourselves, the Nigerian government under the outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari certainly ‘hurt’ a lot of people (to use his own word). Some of them are even no longer alive. Some who are alive have wounds that can hardly ever heal. Both physical and psycho-social wounds. Because the Almighty created many humans to have large hearts, many whom the President had hurt may forgive him. That is for those who are alive. But then, what about thousands who had died as a result of avoidable acts that can easily be traced to the government such as non-provision of security and welfare as clearly enshrined in the Constitution”?
Ajayi submitted that many more people may be inclined to forgive the President and change their notions of him if, within the remaining 34 days he has left in the office, he could effect dramatic changes in policies that are making life difficult for Nigerians. He added that that was possible if the President really wants the negative perception of his administration to ameliorate.
Among the steps Ajayi suggested were the immediate payment of the eight months salaries of university teachers, decisive action that would permanently halt banditry, kidnapping and sundry terrorism activities in the country, “allowing those who desire to import fuel to do so for the price of the commodity to come down to less than N100 per litre just as prices of other energies like electricity, gas, kerosene and diesel should come down to about the same N100 per measure instead of about N750 that a litre of diesel now costs.
“To ensure that this is permanent, government can license Nigerians who are into modular refineries to start producing even with tax moratorium while serious efforts are made to bring the four refineries in the country back into production line.
“Efforts should also be made to ensure that those in IDP camps are resettled in their ancestral homes with adequate steps taken to ensure that they are no longer worried by bandits again forever. Finally, the stranglehold on the economy, especially through unfriendly fiscal policies, be relaxed so that economic activities can quickly bounce back”, he further said.
To Ajayi, these things are possible to be done successfully before 29th May 2023 “if President Buhari and his team really desire to do them”.
