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| Minister of Defence, Brig. Gen. Munir Dan-Ali (retd.). |
A pro-democracy group, Human Right Writers Association of Nigeria has blamed the imbalance in the composition of the National Defence Council for the pro-killer herdsmen comments made by the Minister of Defence, Brig. Gen. Munir Dan-Ali (retd.).
The National Coordinator of the group, Emmanuel Onwubiko, said this in Abuja, on Sunday.
He was reacting to Dan-Ali’s comments about the immediate and remote causes of attacks on farming communities by suspected armed herdsmen.
Dan-Ali was quoted as saying “You see, whenever a crisis happens at any time, there are remote and immediate causes. Since the nation’s independence, we know there used to be routes whereby the cattle rearers took because they are all over the nation.
“You go to Bayelsa, Ogun, you will see them. If those routes are blocked, what do you expect will happen?
“These people are Nigerians. It is just like going to block the shoreline; does that make sense to you? These are the remote causes of the crisis. But the immediate cause is the grazing law.”
Onwubiko, however, expressed HURIWA’s disappointment with the minister’s position which he said was akin to providing subtle justification for the criminal attacks by suspected armed herdsmen on farming communities.
The association noted that Dan-Ali’s simplistic assessment which reduced the problem to the proliferation of anti-open grazing laws in different states of the federation and blockade of grazing routes were responsible for the killings by herdsmen was to say the least “unpatriotic and unbecoming of a statesman.”
HURIWA equally noted that it appeared that those at the helm of affairs were pampering the suspected armed herdsmen because of some ethno-religious affiliations with heads of internal security agencies under President Muhammadu Buhari.
The group urged President Buhari to, as a matter of urgency, respect the provisions of the Nigerian constitution with regards to the federal character principle by immediately reconstituting the national security team to reflect Nigeria’s diversity.
Specifically, the group quoted Section 42 (1) (2) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) to buttress its point.
Onwubiko said, “HURIWA insists that the lopsided domination of the security forces by Hausa/Fulani ethnicity is a grave breach of the extant provision as cited above even as the selective appointments of persons from one section of Nigeria amounted to discrimination which is absolutely illegal and unconstitutional.
“Nigerians expect the holder of the high office of Defence minister to be patriotic enough to denounce blood-cuddling terror attacks orchestrated by suspected armed Fulani herdsmen, but what has come out from the meeting of President Buhari’s security council as relayed by the Defence minister shows that the current administration has no intention to arrest, prosecute and where possible punish the perpetrators of the killings in Benue, Southern Kaduna, Plateau, Taraba, Adamawa and Enugu states.”
The group urged the President Buhari-led administration to rise up to its responsibility of protecting the lives and property of Nigerians irrespective of ethno-religious bias or political affiliation.
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