Farooq Kperogi, an associate professor of journalism, has said the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is actively instigating another civil war in the country following the rising ethnic tension between the Yoruba indigenes of the South-West geopolitical region and the Fulani herdsmen who reside in the area.
Kperogi made the claim in a series of posts on Twitter on Sunday in reaction to Friday’s clash between supporters of Sunday Adeyemo, a Yoruba activist popularly known as Sunday Igboho, and Fulani people in Ibarapa North Local Government Area of Oyo State.
According to the scholar, the Federal Government is escalating the tension by openly taking sides rather than douse the pension to preserve the unity of the country.
He claimed that the countenance of the current administration and President Buhari to ethnic conflicts have been partisan instead of them being neutral, warning that such stance portends great danger for the country.
“When you read the rhetoric of the honchos of the Buhari regime on the ongoing tensile stress between Fulani herders and the Yoruba, it’s hard not to come away with the conclusion that the regime is actually going out of its way to actively court and instigate a civil war. For what reason, I have no idea.
“The thieving, clueless minions of the regime don’t seem to realize that they need to have a country before they can enjoy their loot. And they can’t have a country by escalating tension, openly taking sides, and being indistinguishable from one side of the conflict.
“Responsible governments try to give at least an appearance of being neutral arbiters in conflicts. I’d feared and warned in previous columns that Buhari would be the death of Nigeria,” he tweeted.
Kperogi, who is also a columnist, said the only way for the country not to get into another civil war before 2023 is to challenge Buhari the way Americans challenged the immediate past US president, Donald Trump.
Youths said to be supporters of Sunday Igboho reportedly attacked communities occupied by the Fulanis in Iganga, situated in Ibarapa North LGA on Friday, killing three people and setting ablaze properties in the process.
The youths were allegedly executing Igboho’s order to evict all persons of Fulani extraction away from the community after a seven-day ultimatum, which expired on Friday.
The action has led to various northern groups, including Miyetti Allah and the Arewa Consultative Forum, calling for those who perpetrated the act to be held accountable and warning that retaliatory attacks could be launched by the Fulani if concrete decisions are not made by both the Federal and state governments.
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