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Ex-Nigerian Chief Of Army Staff, Akinrinade, Urges President Buhari To End Killings Of Farmers By Herdsmen

September 16, 2020

Akinrinade stated that the unwillingness and inability of the President to put an end to the incessant killings by herdsmen had drawn accusation from people tagging him as an “ethnic bigot and an irredeemable religious fundamentalist”.

Lieutenant General Alani Akinrinade (retired), former Chief of Army Staff, has tasked President Muhammadu Buhari to find permanent solutions to killings by herdsmen especially in the Southern part of the country.

Akinrinade stated that the unwillingness and inability of the President to put an end to the incessant killings by herdsmen had drawn accusation from people tagging him as an “ethnic bigot and an irredeemable religious fundamentalist”.

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The ex-COAS urged Buhari to sternly tackle the insurgency in the country and also encourage soldiers to express their unalloyed cooperation to the force.

He said, “The first is this pervasive believe that he is an ethnic bigot, an irredeemable religious fundamentalist, that he firmly subscribes and promotes the possibility of his ethnic Fulani to take over the country, the reason he does not interfere in curbing the brigandage of the Fulani herdsmen, that he has performed woefully in the fight against the terrorist Boko Haram and that he cannot rise to the occasion when it comes to reflecting the heterogeneous composition of our country when it comes to appointments to sensitive positions in his government.

“These are difficult matters that cannot be addressed in abstract. The whole buck stops on his table.

“Let me suggest to him that he needs to shape up, read the riot act to our people, enlist them in unswerving cooperation to participate fully in the redemption of their country. Arms and brutal force is not sufficient to defeat an insurgency.”

The retired lieutenant general also said Buhari must take a firm stand on the reorganisation of our country, physically, politically, economically and socially. 

He added, “What we simply term as a reorganisation in the Armed Forces is what civilians call restructuring.

“It is long overdue and overflogged, as if it is such an impossibility, an attempt at which will balkanize the country. As a matter of fact, it is what is required to move our country out of the doldrums into modernity.

“He cannot afford to pass it on. We may end up without a country, as no country has been known to survive two civil wars.”

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Politics