By Olusola Sanni
In the past few days, there has been an avalanche of concerns about the operations of the Amotekun security outfit in Oyo state. While it is expected that a wholesale cleansing operation by a security outfit would generate huge reverberation, it must be noted that a lot of the hullabaloo on Ametekun are a cacophony of voices of people whose illicit behaviours have been repressed by the work of the security outfit.
It is clear to all in the Southwest area of the country that a party of the Fulani herdsmen represent serious security risks to the peace of the region. There is a litany of reported cases of kidnapping, armed robbery and other nefarious criminal acts that are perpetrated by the so-called herdsmen. It is also clear to all that governors of Southwest states chose to take the bull by the horn with the creation of Amotekun in order to police the forests and route out all the criminal herdsmen and their local collaborators from their hideouts.
Perhaps more than any other state, however, the Amotekun in Oyo State has done extensive work in combing forests and villages in the porous parts of the state where these acts of criminality have been more rampant. Safely too, the state governor, Engineer Seyi Makinde has so far given necessary political backbone to Amotekun allowing the unit to carry out its mandate without let of hindrance. At some point, the governor pointed attention to the fact that the notorious criminal elements amongst the herdsmen enter into Oyo State through the international borders present at the Oke-Ogun area of the state.
The hopes that residents of Oyo State have in Amotekun to rid the state off notorious herdsmen and their local collaborators is very high. As a matter of fact, almost everywhere you go, the major topic on everyone’s lips is the issue of Amotekun. This is undoubtedly so because the state government has given necessary mobilization to the unit to carry out its mandate and the results are there to show for it.
It is thus preposterous that some commentators are reading counterintuitive meaning to the comment made by Governor Seyi Makinde at the Ibarapa area of state when the governor said that Fulani people are welcome in the state; that what Amotekun seeks to combat are the criminal elements amongst the herdsmen. I cannot see any reason why anyone would want to blame the governor for such a remark. As a matter of fact, it would be an act of indiscretion if the governor had kept quiet after the threats by Sunday Igboho giving a 7-day ultimatum to all Fulani in Ibarapa to leave the place.
Governor Makinde is a governor to all interests in Oyo State and even beyond that thematic notion, it is not in any way part of the agenda of the Yoruba to beat drums of war against other ethnic interests in the geo-graphical expression known as Nigeria. If anything, what the Yoruba wants is a diverse and plural society where everyone goes about their business in peaceful conduct. There is no Yoruba township that does not have at least a century old history of non-Yoruba migrants who have come to settle and taken home therein. So, how possible is it to ask all Fulani people to leave a township where they have settled over a long period of time within such a short notice?
Had Makinde not responded to the threat by Sunday Igboho, the same people who are calling him names now would still be the ones blaming the governor for not taking appropriate steps. As usual with them, they would even go on to say that ‘if it had been under Ajimobi, he would have applied maximum force to reign in Sunday Igboho.’ As if they forgot that part of the reason why they lost the Agodi Government House in the last governorship election is because of their nasty recourse recrimination rather than dialogue and persuasion.
The criminal Fulani herdsmen have constituted tremendous havoc to the social and economic lives of the people of Southwest and like the saying goes that ki sobia yoo ba d’ egbo, oluganbe ni aa kee si. The leprosy of the herdsmen needs to be treated by the physicist lest it becomes a sore open wound. The physicists in this context is Amotekun and even the Sunday Igboho of this world. Therefore, it is permissible for Sunday Igboho to issue threats to people who have continually disturbed the peace in Yorubaland. As a governor, Makinde also owes it to the law-abiding resident Fulani people in Oke-Ogun that government would protect them against any aggression. What is not permissible is our opposition politicians playing to gallery in their infertile attempt to denigrate the governor.
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