Fani-Kayode lambasts Senate President Lawan over comments on ethnic crisis

Former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, has lambasted the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, over his comments that the ethnic crisis that engulfed Oyo State, leading to the killings in Shasha area of Ibadan, were caused by South-West governors due to their inciting statements.

Lawan had, on Saturday, said:

“What happened in Oyo State and some states in the South-West and probably the South-East was truly a failure of leadership. I will not only blame governors, the governors have a responsibility to protect people living in their states.”

However, Fani-Kayode has disagreed with Lawan, insisting that the South-West governors, especially Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, have been very proactive and have done well in preventing the crisis from worsening.

Fani-Kayode who has been on a tour of Oyo State in the past few days where he met with the governor and self-styled Yoruba activist, Sunday Igboho, in a statement on Monday, said the Senate President does not understand the crisis that has been happening in the South-West.

READ ALSO: South-West governors fueling ethnic crisis in their states – Lawan

“I need to ask this question. Why does the Senate President not complain about the violence that northerners are inflicting on Middle Belters and Southerners in the North itself?

“Again, why does he not complain about the barbaric attacks and killing of our people in the South-West and other parts of the South and Middle Belt by killer Fulani herdsmen who are carrying arms, raping our women, occupying our land and terrorising our people?

“How come he does not complain about that? Is Northern blood more precious than Southern blood?

“It appears that he is only concerned about retaliatory attacks by the local Yoruba population who have been brutalised and traumatised by the terrorists.

“He has not complained about what those terrorists are doing to our people and he has exhibited no empathy with the victims simply because they are Southerners.

“The only way the resentment against northerners will vanish in that zone is when the killer herdsmen and terrorists stop the killings.

“Outside of that. all the self-serving and sanctimonious admonitions and lectures in the world from Northern leaders, who are clearly partial in this matter, to our leaders in the South-West will change nothing.”

“I was in Ibadan when the Shasha killings started and I went on a tour of the affected area.

“Let me assure you that many people were killed on both sides of the ethnic divide and had it not been for the efforts of the Governor of Oyo State and the tacit support and encouragement he got from the other South-West governors in terms of appealing to the people of Ibadan to show restraint, what happened in Oyo would have been a hundred times worse and far many more northerners would have been killed.

“Northern leaders should thank the South-West governors for keeping a lid on the whole thing and restraining our people rather than blame them for trying to keep the peace in the face of the most extreme provocation from the terrorists.

“The level of hate and resentment against Fulani herdsmen in the South-West is frightful and unprecedented today and the governors are having a hard time trying to calm people down and reign them is even though. They may not want to admit it publicly.

“The decisive actions of the South-West governors over the last few months saved lives and their words and utterances reflected the will of the people.”

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