BEVERLY HILLS, March 01, (THEWILL) – Chief Bode George is the former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party. He is also the Atona Oodua of Yorubaland. In this interview with AYO ESAN, he speaks on the security crisis rocking the nation especially the killing, kidnapping and raping of the indigenous Yoruba people by the rampaging herdsmen in the South West and the state of PDP in Lagos and South West.
You said earlier that Nigeria is on the brink. How do you mean?
I have observed critically over the last three months and have watched with disbelief, with despair and with dismay the gradual hurling of our country to the precipice.
The widening spread of banditry, the reckless shedding of innocent blood, the bitter murderous clashes between farmers and herdsmen, the loose brigandry – have virtually made all corners of our society insecure, vulnerable to the rule of the cudgel and machete.
Governance everywhere is fast losing its grip on the First Principles of protecting lives and properties. From Sokoto to Lagos, from Ebonyi to Borno, from Katsina to Ogun and from the Savanah to the rain forest, lives are daily cut down without the culprits being brought to pay for their crimes. Road users are kidnapped, brutalized, exposed to all un-imaginable kinds of cruelty and then forced to pay ransom.
Even the homesteads are no longer safe as all kinds of criminals descend upon the rich and poor, breaking into private hearths, breaching our collective security, inflicting the most sadistic venom on their victims as they are brutalized and their properties stripped bare.
And even in the streets, various warlords declare their own turf wars, wielding cudgels, guns and all kinds of available missiles in pitch battles.
All over the country lives are no longer being treasured. Nothing is sacred. There are no Holy of Holies anymore. Everything is a free game. Gradually, we are slipping into the rule of the mob, in form of the Hobbesian state of nature where the rule of the strong and the cudgel prevails.
When lives are neither treasured nor safe, and ordinary citizens cannot carry out their legitimate businesses without being hindered and molested, what then is the purpose of governance? What then is the responsibility of leadership?
The primary responsibility of government, among other things, are to preserve, protect and defend her citizens from both internal and external threats.
Governments are elected to guarantee the pursuit of happiness, to ensure the protection of personal liberties, to create an atmosphere where all citizens can carry out their economic livelihoods without being subjected to oppression or being savaged by the lawlessness of incendiary actors.
Sadly, we are living in an increasingly dysfunctional society, where the structures of power are un-representative, skewed in unitary bias, devoid of democratic balance.
There are so many aberrations thwarting equitable governance in our country. The centre is too encumbered with many responsibilities. It is overburdened, stressed with unnecessary functions that ought to be devolved to the states.
Our federation is only a federation in name. It is more of a unitary system, barking out command and control like a military hierarchy.
This is not how democracies operate. This is not how true federating units function.
We must loosen the overarching power at the centre and return more responsibilities to the states.
This is the normative pattern all over the world. And why should our own be different? We must re-evaluate and remodel our structures of governance to be more representative of the will of the people.
Another contributory malady in the composition of governance is the inordinate greed and the unconscionable conducts of some of those who are elected to represent and protect the interests of the people. But they often act like overlords, distant and indifferent to the will of the people
As a General, are you not worried about the level of arms proliferation in the country? You see herdsmen carrying AK 47 all over the place and you begin to wonder how they get these arms?
There are laws in this country, the agencies that are supposed to monitor the movement of arms are not there for fun. But you know, and tribalism is the greatest drug in any nation. It is worse than taking cocaine and we have over empowered tribalism. But this ought not to be, like I asked who decided which family he was born into and when you die and you are coming back, do you have the right to say that I want to go to China. Do you know there is only one being, the one who was, who is and will forever be. He is the only one who determines where you are to be born and when you die and you want to come back, where you will go. We all need to calm down, take a step back and revisit our relationship. You know what I have interpreted this to mean, and that is why I said what the role of the media is? The media’s role is to point out all the mistakes being made by government and the governed. It is like asking who the national conscience of this country is. Who is the President? Is it good the way we are running the country? So, if a Yoruba man now becomes the president again, Yoruba people would start doing whatever they want with complete disregard to the laws that are there. As a young man in this Lagos Island, I have seen Fulani people driven their cows for fifty, sixty years but they never disrupted anybody’s farm. They knew their routes, but why now, the people are not saying, don’t drive your cows but you are damaging our crops. And then after damaging the crops, you now went the extra miles by fighting. The government must intervene, the government must ensure they have a committee to look into this. There are two types of Fulani’s, the Town Fulani, they don’t roam around, then the cow Fulani. The cow Fulani that cow is his God, he will die because of the Malu. And you think he would abandon the Malu to go and rape. So the question is who are these characters causing problem, killing and raping women? Something like a devil has entered the country. The town Fulanis are elegant, and we stayed together. But suddenly, things have changed, if you see anybody that look like Fulani now , people will shout, he is a criminal, a killer. That is the interpretation now, so we are losing grip. It is only one person who can stand up and say enough and that person is the president. Because he is from the tribe of Fulani and when he talks, they will listen. Most of our colleagues in the north, even governors from the north are saying enough is enough. What is all these? Look at Shasa in Ibadan, since I have been going there, I know that is the area of the Hausa people. They speak Yoruba, their children go to the same school with Yoruba children. Go to Agege Central Mosque on Friday, you won’t even know them, they will be speaking Yoruba with you. The same with our people in the North. So don’t let them politicize this matter. Something is definitely wrong and the national conscience of our country should rise up and put a stop to it. If he doesn’t, we will not be at the brink that I said we are, we will go to the gutter. And if we go into that hole, God knows what.
It is a very serious matter. Look at the story in Ibarapa, how a young man, Aborode, a doctor, well-educated was murdered as if life is nothing. I met my best friend in the navy, he is a thorough bred Fulani man. He is a young man, I didn’t have a car, and I just came back from a course, so I stood in front of the road, waiting for anybody to give me a ride. And you know what? He passed and said where are you going? And I said to the base sir. He picked me up. From that day till today, when he sees me, he would say my only brother south of Sahara. He would do things that I required that is lawful for me. The same with me. I want to plead especially during this period and the Muslims would also soon have their Ramadan. That is the period of atonement. Let us calm down. Nobody is your enemy, except the person that breaks the law. Why would the police run away and not take charge. Every Nigerian from the North Pole to the South Pole, are waiting for the statement from the President because it is going to be weighty as a Fulani man.
How do we solve the problem between the farmers and the herdsmen?
I made a suggestion here. Why don’t we see in Brazil, the same cow people driving their cows from Rio de Janeiro to Brasilia or in Argentina to start going from one village to another with your cows? Ranch is the answer. Let us embrace the modern way of keeping the cows. It can be done. If you want land to do ranches in Ogun, Oke Ogun in Oyo and in Ondo, I was once governor in Ondo, they have lands. They can give you areas where you pay and you have a ranch. People still eat the cows, they will go there and buy. Driving them all the way, destroying the farms of the people, God himself will be annoyed. So let’s holistically take few steps back to look at this issue and resolve it. This is because it can lead to unimaginable crisis which we don’t need now, avoidable crisis.
Do you nurse any fear for this country, Nigeria?
We should resolve this crisis. We are still battling with COVID-19 and I learnt COVID-19 is no respecter of anybody. And it doesn’t respect weather. That one is on the ground and we still want to create more problem for ourselves. And this is why we are talking about restructuring of this country. The system we are running is not working, it is so military in its concept and operation. Let the will of the people prevail. And this system has an apex. Somebody sits there as a president and dictates to everybody. If the state is empowered, won’t you sort yourself out? We copied American system, it is bottom up and not up down. The system is not working, we must restructure before 2023. Those who are angling for positions, we must restructure first. Lets sit down and talk. They can take the report of the constitutional conference of 2014. Everything that could be done is there, and they were approved at the plenary sessions. Jonathan gave the report to Oga. If I see him, that is what I will tell him, if you want peace, implement the report.
Of recent some of your party members/leaders in South West decamped to the APC. What is the cause of this?
Was it not two days ago that I was sitting down in the office here and the issue of Gbenga Daniel came up? And I said to them, those who were with me, that I learnt that they invited Gbenga Daniel to come and lead Ogun PDP, I said how? For over an hour here, we discussed the matter. I said don’t waste your time. For instance, the problem we have in Lagos especially, you have people who would grandstand, and they would say they are with you, but they are not with you. They are with Bola Tinubu because of the pittance they get from him. They pretend that they are here, Olorun a de foju gbogbo won han (God will expose all of them). They don’t know the meaning of Atona Odua, my chieftaincy title. The pathfinder of our progenitor. God will expose them and shame them. Gbenga Daniel has gone to APC long time. There is a reason why he left for APC but I won’t say it here. He has gone there a long time. Fayose , that is making noise when he was governor, who did he consult? You don’t know what he did , the National Treasurer is from Ekiti, Eddy Olafeso is also from Ondo. So one wing from the three wings in the South West got very prominent positions in the National Working Committee of our party. What I mean is, we have Ondo/ Ekiti, Oyo/Osun , then Lagos/Ogun. Only Ondo/Ekiti got two positions in the NWC when he was the only governor in the South West. It is not done like that. Who did he listen to that time? He is now saying one young person is rude to him. He said Seyi Makinde is junior to him. And that one junior person was insulting him, when you were insulting the elders, you didn’t remember.
You too, you are now saying some of our people left for APC. Anybody can go anywhere, there is nothing that has a beginning that will not have an end. And Yoruba people say when the time has come, it has come, I won’t say more than that•
About the Author
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.
