Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka has questioned the Muhammadu Buhari administration’s handling of the farmer-herdsmen crisis.
Speaking recently on Channels TV’s NewsNight, monitored by Newsbreak.ng, the literary icon wondered why the government was yet to ban the Fulani socio-cultural group, Miyetti Allah, while it had outlawed the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a group pushing for the break up of Nigeria and creation of a sovereign nation in the Eastern region.
IPOB was proscribed in 2017.
“When the incursion of the Fulani herdsmen began, and the Miyetti Allah. Their spokesman said, I think it was in Borno, we once ruled this place, and we can take back our land anytime we want. I remember that statement; I’ve never forgotten,” Prof. Soyinka said.
“In the midst of the trauma of these people, somebody comes gloating and then citing selective portions of history. I said this person should be arrested and locked up, who says he wants to repeat his history of conquest – he’s admitting either knowledge, before or after, or support, anyway.
“Isn’t there anything like hate speech anymore? Why are you proscribing IPOB without proscribing Miyetti Allah?”
This is not the first time that Soyinka has sided with separatists. Recently, he spoke glowingly of Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Igboho, when the two met in Benin Republic.
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