Afenifere, a Yoruba socio-cultural group, has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of initiating the Visa Free Policy to allow Fulani herdsmen invade the country.
The policy kicked off on Sunday, despite concerns that had been raised against in some quarters.
Miyetti Allah, the umbrella body of herdsmen in the country, on Saturday, boasted that the Fulani ethnic group is the largest in the world, and do not need Visa to enter the country.
However, Afenifere, while reacting to the boastful claims by Miyethi Allah, warned that such “grandstanding in the face of the proposed visa on arrival policy of the federal government can only worsen the security challenges currently faced by the country.”
Responding through Yinka Odumakin, its National Publicity Secretary, the group said:
“They are just confirming what we knew all along that the visa-free entry into Nigeria is a policy for Fulani herdsmen all over Africa to invade Nigeria. The government is shutting border in the western part of the country while leaving it open in the north shows it all. Who are the Africans the government is opening its borders for, is it not the Fulani that is coming to Nigeria.
“We knew but kept quiet and now they are confirming a secret we all knew that it is a policy for the Fulani herdsmen, to invade Nigeria, to change our demography and carry out their plan without let or hindrance because we have what people are calling ‘Fulani government of Nigeria.’
“Some might think there is confusion here; there is no confusion on the agenda. Shutting the border in the southern part of the country is to promote the rice being grown in the north. Asking people to come into Nigeria without a visa is a Fulanization policy; to allow herdsmen to invade and use Miyethi Allah against the rest of us.”
Also, Femi Fani-Kayode, former minister of aviation, in a post on Facebook, described the new development as “dangerous, self-serving and self-seeking”.
He said the policy if allowed to stand, will spell doom for a country already on a life-support.
“It is a dangerous, self-serving and self-seeking policy which will ultimately result in great conflict, carnage, racial and religious strife and total catastrophy,” Kayode said in a facebook post.
“With this irresponsible, unpatriotic, dangerous and self-serving policy, I repeat, we are playing with fire and sitting on a keg of gunpowder which will eventually explode. It will be the final nail in the coffin of a united Nigeria,” he added.
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