The Catholic Bishop of Ondo Diocese, Bishop Jude Arogundade, on Sunday, said dialogue remains the only solution to the frequent clashes between farmers and Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria.
The Bishop who stated this during his homily to mark the 2025 edition of the World Communication Day (WCD) held at the Sacred Heart Catholic Cathedral in Akure, called on the government and stakeholders to take decisive action to end the escalation of Fulani herdsmen’s menace across the country.
According to him, Nigeria needs dialogue to resolve the farmers/herders’ clashes. There is nothing more than dialogue. They have made the country ungovernable, and all we need to ask them now is what is their purpose and their goal, what do they hope to accomplish or achieve?
“Our people can no longer go to the farm, our people can no longer fend for themselves, we travel on the roads with our hearts almost in our mouths, everybody is tensed up.
“This is not the country we want to build together and if anybody thinks one day they can decide to take over the country and the country will belong to them or their tribe, such a person is just fooling himself.
“It is better we come together and build a befitting country that we can all enjoy together, that is the purpose of why I said dialogue because I am not going to sit down for somebody to come and drag me away from my home, that would be an insult.
“I cannot drive anybody out of his own home, so everybody should just get some sense and just try to behave and let us work together instead of trying to sabotage the whole system.
“This country is so beautiful and we have the obligation to make it more beautiful and that is our commitment. I want to charge all journalists to work on this dialogue because you’re the one to initiate and sustain the dialogue.
“Media practitioners have a lot to do. What you have to do is to write about the truth, not minding who is out there, not comfortable with the truth. We need a country first, we need a nation first.
“I beg you to let us sustain a meaningful dialogue in this country. People will continue to appreciate you better when you call people to themselves.
“Let’s ask the herdsmen questions. What do they hope to achieve? They want to have a better life at my own expense, by killing me and destroying my home, what kind of better life is that?
“What I advocate for, is civilisation of love, civilisation of dialogue, of integrity but unfortunately, many people are not civilised in this country but we have to make this country beautiful, we don’t have to frustrate everybody and make the country ungovernable”
The Bishop also identified corruption as another major problem that has retarded the nation’s progress over the years, saying “corruption is the oxygen Nigeria breathes, without it, some Nigerians would suffer asphyxiation”.
He noted that corruption has become a serious problem in Nigeria, saying it is very endemic with disturbing situations everywhere, and described the situation as a shame to the Nigerian government and its people.
Arogundade said; “This country today is sustained by corruption, all we need to do is to begin to call ourselves together because we have reached the juncture at which we must reform our institutions, rid our country of corruption, or admit that we have sold out the good future of our youths.
“I wonder what you have to accomplish if you own all the money in this world and every other person is poor and you destroy the country, what do you have to accomplish?
“It gets to a point in people’s history when they will come together to say enough is enough. This country has enough resources to make everybody live comfortably and happily and with integrity.
“But when you want to extract our commonwealth and you want to take possession of the property of this country to another country to better their country, what is the purpose?
“I bet you if corruption is taken away in this country, minimised or reduced to the barest minimum, this country will be turned around.
“With the energy of the youths of this country, they excel everywhere they go across the globe but the only place Nigerians cannot excel is Nigeria and this is not acceptable.
“We are blessed with bright children, our youths are intelligent, strong, vibrant and can make this country great. They are making other countries great, so that’s what I am talking about”.
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