Fulani have done a lot of havoc in Oke Ogun —Archbishop Abegunrin

The Catholic Archbishop of Ibadan, Most Reverend Gabriel Ojeleke Abegunrin, is a son of Oke-Ogun. He was born in Iwere-Ile, headquarters of Iwajowa Local Government Area of Oyo State. Abegunrin, who is the President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Ibadan EcclesiasticalProvince, spoke with newsmen after a meeting of the Bishops of the province, recently. SAM NWAOKO brings excerpts of the interview:

 

Your Grace, you are from Oke Ogun area of Oyo State, beleaguered by the herdsmen trouble for some time now. Before the escalation of the herdsmen crisis as we know it today, what was it like before now? What are you hearing from home in Iwere-Ile?

Let me take the entire Oke Ogun generally, let me not single out my village. In Oke-Ogun as a whole, I will say that the Fulani have done a lot of havoc in Oke-Ogun. And it’s not just now, even long before I became a Bishop.

There was a man who was a Forest Guard; he was killed by the Fulanis while he was doing his job. They were stealing; they fell trees and were selling them in Oke Ogun, around Iseyin. His job was to tend the forest. That was what he was employed to do in a particular forest in Oke-Ogun, around Iseyin. That was what he was doing; no offence at all.

They shot him and killed him and at that time, his children were so young. So, people had to rally round them. Anyway, the children are grown now. Some of them are married while some are in the university. They just killed him anyhow. Even in Shaki, Igboho and others, things are happening so much. It may not happen in my village but that is not an excuse. I have a feeling for the whole of Oke-Ogun, even where I don’t know. I have a feeling for them. These are simple people, peasant farmers although some of them do government work. Some are teachers in the schools, some work at the Local Government Areas and per chance, some of them work at the state level or federal level or in the university.

Most of them are just simple people. They don’t hurt people. So, why should you be killing such people just because you have a godfather? I think that is too bad, to live like that in a nation that has government.

And the worst of it is that all those things that are happening are being reported to the government and this is what is really annoying and why people are getting angry and beginning to retaliate. This is because this thing has been happening for years and they will say we are on top of it, we are doing something about it. When? When people are already finished? You are ruling people, when they have killed everybody, who will you rule again, is it cows or what? It is annoying that government is not doing anything about what is happening.

Look at the governor of Borno State, two times he escaped being killed. Such a person who speaks out, and is a progressive man developing his state and this is his first term. He has been shouting and I don’t think the government has done anything about it. Why is it that people who suffer, government doesn’t pay attention to them? They are now bringing foreigners into the country to come and take advantage of our lives? That is what is annoying really. It is annoying.

So, government must sit up and make things even for people and protect them; make jobs available so that people can work and put food on their tables and we feel at home anywhere in this country where we are. Okay, they are saying that God gave the land and that nobody owns the land; if everybody owns the land here in Ibadan why can’t they own the land like that in Sokoto? Why is it not the same?

Our churches in the North right now don’t find it easy to build a new church. They don’t even sell land to them. If somebody has land, who is a member, and he gives the land and they build there, they will go and pull it down. It is happening like that. Are they not Nigerians? Is it only the southern piece of land that should be shared and not that of the north? Where do we have rights? It is in every part of Nigeria, but some parts of Nigeria have better rights more than the others, that is what I can see.

They are more Nigerians than we are. We now live like foreigners in our own country, we are not free to move anymore. We have no rights in this place anymore. Why are people not free in their country anymore? We don’t really feel like we belong. That is not right. There are some states or towns I cannot go anytime. If I am in Ibadan now, I can go to anywhere anytime but when I am going to the north, my life is in danger. Why is it so? This is what the government has to think about. If the life of every citizen is important to them, they should protect everybody. That is what we are saying. We don’t hate any government, but we want the government to behave.

Actually, we are partners in progress with every progressive government. When they say ‘our government’ it is actually supposed to be the people’s government, our government, but they don’t give proper interpretation of their positions anymore. Those in government have taken over the throne and we are now their slaves. That is an aberration.

 

What is your disposition to the intervention of Mr Sunday Adeyemo better known as Sunday Igboho in this development?

A proverb says if you push a goat to the wall, it will turn back and bite. That is what happened. He belongs to Oke Ogun and he has heard so many stories about how they are killing people in Oke Ogun, particularly the area he came from. I was told that when he came to Igangan, by the way he is not from there… Igagan belongs to Ibarapa; Ibarapa and Oke Ogun are just the same – go and look at their vegetation, language and lifestyle other things – when he came to the place he was worried about it.

I was told that Igangan people are just fed up. They can’t go to the farm anymore, they can’t go out, and their children cannot go to school. That is too bad. They want them out and so that they can take over their town. I think the people of Igangan called Sunday Igboho when they heard what he had done in Saki and Igboho area. They called on him to come and help them to clean the place up. I think that is what happened. Left to me, he didn’t mean to do havoc but he was responding to what the people are saying.

He was also responding to what the Fulanis were saying. I learnt that the Seriki was boastful. Okay, why not stay there in peace? Why must there be killing and maiming of people; rape and robbery? It’s because they don’t have the force and when they saw who has the force, they said come and help us out. That is what Sunday Igboho did. He was sympathetic to the cause of the Igagan people.

 

There was a time calls for Oduduwa Republic rose to a noticeable height. Do you think the creation of Oduduwa state would solve the current issues?

That call for creation of Oduduwa state was not a general opinion. It came as a result of misbehaviour of this nature, when people are no longer feeling safe in their own country. They would say ‘well let us have our own area and call it this name’, just like Biafra. I don’t see it as something that is profitable or good because we are now deeply interwoven.

We are enjoying ourselves together. Even right from my primary school, Igbo girls were in my class and I even had a Fulani boy as a junior in my school; those Fulanis who had settled. That was good. But because people are now taking it over to say that ‘we are the owner of everywhere, Nigeria is our colony’ that is why those type of thoughts came in. People are saying okay, let them man their place, we man our place. It is not a general; opinion as such, it is just a group of people saying that. In my own opinion, we have stayed together for so long. For me it is not too late to come together to discuss. That we are living together means a lot.

We are human beings and we are all building this place together. So, if we live together, the better. If we can beautify our country, the better for us instead of running overseas for every little thing that is good. We can make those things here if we are better coordinated. Go to Nnewi, it is just like some towns in Germany, where they are just so productive, producing items, building machinery and so on which they sell all over the world. Such a group of people can make life comfortable by creating jobs. But government, because of insincerity, would not support such people. They oppress them so much that they reduce their productivity because there is no good will. So, there is nothing wrong in our living together if those leading us are honest.

 

Many people say truth does not thrive in Nigeria as a culture. Can Nigerians ever rise to the level of truth where it would become a culture?

If you take Nigeria as a whole as one, you can say it is true. But the fact is that there are many sectors of Nigeria. You and I are Nigerians and I have met so many Nigerians, in and outside the country who are good people. If you want to judge a people by stereotype, Nigeria is good. But when some people come together and connive to deprive others, that is when there is conflict and this is not good. When people continue to suffer, there would be a time when they would say enough is enough.

And that is when they would say that they are bad. Nigerians are good, the bad ones are the ones not making things to happen. The first thing they did was to destroy education and come round to say ‘they are unemployable’. Students are suffering. An instance is the many students that use the borehole provided by the Catholic Chaplaincy there.

Many of the students use the security light provided in the church to see and study at night, on bare floor, in the cold. Students go through that, in hunger and in the cold and you say ‘love Nigeria’. When you say love Nigeria and be patriotic, Nigeria must have done something good for you, Nigeria must have supported you growing, Nigeria must have made you. If nothing like that happens, then Nigeria is not to be loved by many people.

There are many people like that because of their horrible experiences. When people suffer too much they take their own lives. This happens. It was such experiences that brought EndSARS protests. They were organised and were peaceful until the authorities sent hoodlums to scatter them, because the government was threatened. They felt so threatened that they had to scatter them because the way they were going, they could peacefully overthrow any government. That is why they ended up killing some of them. So, we need to pray in this country that justice should prevail. If there is no justice, we cannot be happy with each other. You cannot be eating and leave me hungry, that is what we are saying.

YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

INEC Lists Five Challenges Ahead Of 2023 Elections

AS politicians step up horse-trading ahead of subsequent elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has listed five main areas of likely challenges…

Who Succeeds IGP Mohammed Adamu?

As the February retirement date of the incumbent Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu draws near, there are varying permutations on who steps in as the new police boss. SUNDAY ADEPOJU writes on the suspense over the…

After Two Years, Daddy Freeze Apologises To Bishop Oyedepo
Daddy Freeze whose real name is Ifedayo Olarinde has apologised to Bishop Oyedepo who is the presiding bishop and founder of Living Faith Church aka Winners Chapel…