Incompetence, Impunity Responsible for Insecurity in Nigeria, Says Falana

By Chinedu Eze

Contrary to the allegation by the federal government that opposition politicians are responsible for the killings across the country, a human rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana, has attributed the prevailing insecurity in Nigeria to incompetence and impunity by the federal government.

Falana stated this when he addressed the Catholic community in Ekiti State at the weekend during a public lecture delivered in honour of Bishop Felix Ajakaiye.

 He said the unimaginable incompetence displayed by the federal government in preventing the massacre of innocent people had endangered the corporate existence of the country.

 He said: “President Buhari and his officials have not helped matters as their reactions have tended to give the impression that the federal government is conniving with armed herders and bandits. For instance, during his last visit to the United States last year, President Buhari blamed the killings by herders on Gaddafi’s men who had infiltrated the country through our porous borders. The federal government has since turned round to blame disgruntled politicians for the killings.”

 He said while the federal government accused the Benue State government of vicarious liability by enacting an anti-grazing law; the government did not explain the killings in states like Plateau, Kaduna, Nasarawa and Zamfara where there is no anti-grazing bill.

 Falana said the statement credited to  the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Audu Ogbeh, that the federal government was going to acquire land to establish colonies for herders “immediately fuelled the rumour of a planned annexation of certain parts of the country by Fulani people.”

 He also accused the Defence Minister, General Dan Ali (rtd), of misleading the Nigerian people by saying that herders have been moving cattle from one part of the country to another from time immemorial.

 Falana said contrary to the misleading claim of the Minister, there was no basis to move cattle all over the place because Sir Ahmadu Bello, Obafemi Awolowo had ranches at Mokwa (Niger State) and  Akunu (Ondo State), respectively, while the Obudu (Cross River State) was built by a Scottish in 1951.

 “Under the Gowon regime the Audu Bako regime in Kano State had the best ranches in the country. Owing to the destruction of the ranches, grazing routes were acquired for herders in many northern states. But the routes have since been seized by a handful of absentee farmers and other latifundists for alleged commercial farming. However, the Kano State government has since revived the collapsed local ranches. Hence, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje has offered to integrate all displaced herders in Benue and Taraba States in the ranches in Kano State,” Falana said.

He also noted that the Nigerian army has recently built a ranch in Giri in the federal capital territory and has undertaken to establish ranches in other army formations in the country.

In dismissing the allegation of persecution of Christians and ethnic cleansing in the country, Falana drew the attention of the leaders of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) to the fact that “the dreaded Boko Haram sect has continued to kill thousands of Muslims in mosques and markets under President Buhari?” and asked, “was President Jonathan, a Christian, not similarly accused by some Muslim groups of allowing the Boko Haram sect to massacre Muslims and kidnap school children?”

The senior lawyer asked if the CAN leaders had forgotten that on May 14, 2004, President Obasanjo said ‘CAN my foot’ when the body condemned the brutal killing of Christians during one of the ethno-religious violent clashes in Plateau State and state of emergency was later imposed while the then governor, Joshua Dariye was suspended for six months by President Obasanjo for his alleged negligence in containing the crisis?