NIGERIA SLIDING FROM ETHNIC CLEANSING TO GENOCIDE – SOYINKA
NIGERIA SLIDING FROM
ETHNIC CLEANSING TO GENOCIDE – SOYINKA
Wole Soyinka [Photo: dailytimes.com.ng]
Nigeria’s
Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, has warned that the ongoing “ethnic cleansing” in
some parts of the country could degenerate into a genocide if the government
fails to take a decisive action.
In a
statement to commemorate this year’s May Day, Mr Soyinka called on President
Muhammadu Buhari to issue a nationwide order to all land-usurpers in affected
towns and villages across the nation to quit those forcefully occupied lands
within 48 hours.
“Issue
orders to the military and police that, wherever illegal occupiers are found,
they should be meted the same treatment as are accorded terrorists. Instruct
all agencies that, once cleared of usurpers, the rightful occupants should be
escorted back to their farmsteads and villages and provided maximum protection,”
said Mr Soyinka, a professor of Literature.
“We
must go beyond arresting a token handful of herders caught with arms – there
are still hundreds of them in the forests. It is not enough to back the anti-
open grazing laws, so late in the day, but we shall leave that for later.
“Right
now, the violated and dispossessed demand restitution, and with no further
delay or subterfuge. All available forces should be deployed to right a
hideous, unprecedented wrong that has left the nation drowning in blood – we
simply cannot continue one day longer to endure this forceful feeding of human
blood.
“The
plain expression is ‘ethnic cleansing’ and we must not beat around the bush.
The shade of Rwanda hangs over the nation.”
Mr.
Soyinka likened Nigeria to an aircraft that is about to crash because its
captain is missing, and “strangers are in control in the cockpit.”
He
urged the government to conduct a meticulous investigation to identify the
sponsors of the killer-herdsmen some of whom, according to Mr Soyinka, have
launched mercenary units to intensify carnage and chaos in order to avoid
nemesis catching up with them.
“We
shall move into questions, such as: what is a Minister of Defence, who openly
justified the homicidal rampage of nomadic herdsmen, still doing in government?
And there are other pressing and disturbing questions, some of which are held
back for now, simply in order not to impede the pressing imperatives and humane
priorities of the current crisis.
“Right
now however, the agenda has to be restitution. Restitution to the displaced,
the maimed, the traumatised survivors and the nation’s suppurating psyche.
“The
torrent of Internally Displaced Persons is a national shame, and the growing
number of the kidnapped, an embarrassment. The plane cannot remain on
auto-pilot as hitherto, while the pilot strolls up and down the aisle, assuring
passengers that all is well.”