Afenifere, on Monday, warned President Bola Tinubu, not to fail Nigerians like his predecessor in office, Muhammadu Buhari, over the national assignment.
Just as it advised the President to go after terrorists operating in some parts of the country.
The socio-political group in a statement jointly signed by its Publicity Secretary and Assistant, Mogaji Gboyega Adejumo and Justice Faloye respectively, said the time to act over Nigeria’s situation is now, by demonstrating sheer political will and courage to annihilate those behind killings and abduction of Nigerians, particularly innocent schoolchildren.
Afenifere said it would be disappointing and disastrous if Tinubu would also treat the activities of the terrorists with kid gloves.
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It said that the government must begin to work on the list of terrorists already with the government to make the criminals account for their heinous acts.
The group equally charged the President to commence the restructuring of the country to operate the regional government under a parliamentary system.
The group also bemoaned the unbearable economic hardship Nigerians are currently experiencing under President Tinubu saying that the local currency, the naira has suffered the worst trajectory of devaluation of 35 percent in just the first 9 months of his administration.
Speaking over the recent killings in Plateau as well as abduction of over 100 school children in Kaduna, Afenifere said the agents of destabilisation who have dealt a severe blow to the past administrations have just begun to test the willpower of President Tinubu and the earlier he let them know it was not going to be business as usual the better it will be for his government and Nigerians.
The group said “The recrudescence of this human tragedy is as clear to the Afẹ́nifẹ́re as the daylight is distinct from the eventide. Since this democracy took off, this pattern has remained constant, ever present; Create chaos, destabilize the government, embarrass the President, and finally, disgrace the President out of office.
“No president since 1999 has escaped this scourge, coming with the political Sharia against Obasanjo, the Niger Delta violent political Agitation of Obasanjo and Yar’Adua and cleverly solved by the duo.
“The Boko Haram religio-later-turned-political instrument to embarrass a sitting southern Christian president as it was with Jonathan, who was told to convert to Islam, followed by the kidnapping extraordinaire of the Chibok girls type, the final shuck that shocked Jonathan out of office.
“This “Àbíkús”, coming once a regime and for repeated times from as far back as the Zango Kataf crisis, come with land grabbing, human displacement, and subjugation of a people over another, often planned, aided, lauded, and prompted by those self-styled as owners of Nigeria.
“President Buhari openly displayed and practiced the FIVE “P”s: He prevaricated to them; He pampered them; He protected them; He paid them; He played along with them.
“They were terrorists; Buhari curiously preferred to call them Bandits. Their acts as aggressors, killing farmers, destroying their produce, and stealing indigenous peoples’ lands, clearly marked them as Terrorists.
“Buhari’s Government would rather term these acts as Farmers/Herders clashes. The most disturbing expository, elucidatory, explicative REALITIES about the whole saga is that these terrorists are known to the government.
“Kabiru Sokoto, the Christmas Day bomber in a church in Abuja, in 2012, was found hibernating in the guest house of the then former governor of Borno, now the Vice PRESIDENT of Nigeria. Hermeneutic.
“A former Director of the Presidential Campaign Council of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Hajia Naja’atu Mohammed, fired her former party alleging that the then vice presidential candidate, Kashim Shettima, now the vice president, is a sponsor of terrorism. The former APC chieftain said this during a television interview on Arise Television.
“Sheikh Gumi openly goes into the dense forests to meet terrorists in the company of those trained to eradicate Terror, but rather than arrest them, the Sheikh openly gives the terrorists money… For a job well done or the future jobs yet to be done in the name of Terror, for it never takes long after the monies were openly paid that yet another Terror act is carried out.
“It never served as a determent. It was always to the country’s detriment.
“Former Governor Ortom of Benue suffered the most. After hundreds of Benue Indigenes were killed and their ancestral lands were taken away from them, the terrorists had the nerve to drop a note, a promissory note that they would yet be back on New Year’s day to “finish the job”.
“The then Governor did what a sensible governor would do, took the letter to Buhari the president, and after studying the said letter, told the governor to “go and make peace with his neighbors”, only a complicit does that.
“Mr. President, you have to be brutally reminded of this recrudescence in history, a disease constant, an Àbíkú, real, clear, and present.
The group spoke of how the leaders of the Southern and MiddleBelt Leaders Forum under the leadership of Chief Ayo Adebanjo had in an open letter after 2023 Christmas Eve massacre in Plateau when over 300 were killed, told the President that he could not afford to be “another Nero who fiddled while Rome burnt”.
The group explained further that “On Christmas Eve in 2023, there was a massacre on the Plateau. Chief Ayo Adebanjo Leader of Afẹ́nifẹ́re, led other leaders that make up the four zones from the SouthWest, SouthEast, SouthSouth, and the MiddleBelt on a condolence visit to the Governor and the Gwom Gwom Jos and the entire people on the Plateau.
“About 300 humans were slaughtered like rams. An open letter written, jointly signed by the Leaders of the SMBLF, {Southern and MiddleBelt Leaders Forum} in which you were tasked, specifically to turn yourself into a Hero and not a Nero, the one who fiddled while Rome burnt.
“That letter will always be constantly ringing in your ear, never to go away. A Hero makes history, is not afraid, and does not turn a blind eye. Mr. President, Arrest these perpetrators now! No more excuses Mr President.
“You were reminded in the SMBLF letter to you of all the information available in the public domain — The elaborate discussion that took place on National Television in which Retired Commodore Olawunmi, a former intelligence officer, a product of our intense military training, specifically said that a list of all the perpetrators of Terror in Nigeria, has been submitted to the federal government.
“Many in the list he further elucidated, are/were in government high-places. As president, you have access to this list.
“Again, the former Attorney General of the Federation also alluded to the existence of such other lists of painstakingly collected names of known sponsors of terror.
“On the 7th of May, 2021, the former Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, said that ongoing investigations have revealed many highly placed Nigerians and businessmen involved in financing terrorism.
“He said the ‘strongly’ suspected financiers were already being profiled for prosecution. It is now, the 12th of March 2024, and not one of them has been brought to court, let alone, justice!
“Interestingly, a foreign Nation, The United Arab Emirate has brought to court and justice some Nigerian Known Sponsors of Terror, even allegedly, The UAE, has been reported to have diplomatically passed on certain names to the Nigerian government, up till this moment, nothing has been done under your watch!
“Nigerians woke up to yet another slaughter in the hundreds and kidnappings in the two hundreds in yet another school in Kaduna.
“It is down to you Mr. President if you would rather go the way of your predecessors, by looking the other way and letting innocent blood flow, be disgraced and set for an early exit, or find the strength, the will, and the courage to face the sponsors of Terror, with the resolve to eradicating this Àbíkú scourge from ever again taking root anywhere in our Land.
“Through your policies, fiscal and monetary, the local currency has suffered the worst trajectory of devaluation of 35% in just your very first 9 months in office, the very first massive devastation in the history of this country.
“The Nigerian naira plunged to its lowest point on record in official trading as a shortage of US dollars persisted despite promises by the government to boost supply.
“Our people are dying due to hunger. Nigeria has become the hunger capital of the world. How are the people, so impoverished be saddled with paying ransom to kidnappers right in the middle of possibly the biggest humanitarian crisis in the world that even Ukraine a country with Russia lasting two years and still counting, is now the one to be sending humanitarian aid to Nigeria!?
“Let the people begin to see a change in Mr. President — A challenge being tackled over the years with the same methods, cannot yield a different result from a certain failure.
“Change your method, Mr. President. Go after the sponsors of Terror. Restructure this country. Expedite the action towards the creation of State police.
“Return the country to the parliamentary system of the Government. Bring back Regionalism. And watch our countrymen, countrymen and our hopeless children begin to live again in Dignity, right before your very eyes,” Afẹ́nifẹ́re demanded.
