The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders’ Forum (SMBLF) has asked President Bola Tinubu to not only restructure Nigeria, but “dare the powers that be by decisively deal with the perpetrators of the spate of senseless killings and lands annexation by marauders”.
The group charged the president in a statement jointly signed by Chief Edwin Clark, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Leader Afenifere; Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, President-General, Ohaneze Ndigbo Worldwide; Dr Pogu Bitrus, President, Middle Belt Forum; and Senator Emmanuel Ibok-Essien, National Chairman, PANDEF and made available to journalists on Tuesday.
In the new year message to President Tinubu, the group said it is “moved by the patriotic desire for the corporate continuity of Nigeria and, the peaceful and mutually respectful coexistence of its diverse nationalities, to strongly urge President Tinubu to do the following:
“Your government holds an honest and truthful security inquiry to determine communities wherein the original inhabitants have been displaced in the last 2 decades and enforce the immediate return and resettlement of the people in their ancestral homes.
“Further to the above, the government should, in no distant future, close all IDP camps to end the shameful and sinful policy of building such refugee camps for the indigenous peoples while their ancestral homes are allowed to be occupied by the armed invaders.
“That the Security agencies, including the police, the Civil Defence Corps, and others be specially trained and equipped to rise to the challenges as Nigeria is fast becoming a banana or pariah state of its kid-gloves treatment of terrorism.
“That the Nigerian state which fought a tribal civil war to secure its corporate existence should not allow another internecine war of diverse tribes brought about by its permissive handling of provocative activities of local Fulani militias aided by collaborators from the West African sub-region and the Sahel.
“The desire of the Fulani to be treated as an exclusive “race” cannot be allowed to continue in a free and egalitarian Nation. They should seek land for their trade in the same way other Nigerians buy and manage land and stop this sense of entitlement.
“Urgent steps be taken to restructure Nigeria in line with the tenets of true federalism, to legitimize multi-level policing such that states and communities will provide commensurate security for their people.
“That you, Mr President, should rise to the occasion and dare the powers that be; decisively deal with the perpetrators of the spate senseless of killings, end the massacre, and guarantee the safety of lives and property of citizens in all parts of our country, especially the Middle Belt Region, and restore the dignity of citizens and national pride; for which you will ever be remembered!”
SMBLF further warned that since it is “self-evident that all ethnic nationalities were and have settled in their portions of Nigeria before the amalgamation and establishment of Nigeria in 1914, the current rabid territorial ambition and quest for the alteration of the demographic structures of the federation will lead to chaos and internecine wars, the end of which may be the dismemberment of the fragile Nigerian Federation.”
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