Vincent Kalu
Prominent socio-cultural groups, Afenifere and Ohanaeze have said the EndSARS protest across the country was not in anyway meant to frustrate or remove President Muhammadu Buhari from office. They stated this while reacting to the claim by the National President of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Bello Abdullahi Bodejo, who in an interview with Saturday Sun accused Southern politicians of hijacking the protest to frustrate the president and remove him from office. He also stressed that the protest was adversely affecting Fulani herdsmen and their cattle business.
Afenifere, reacting through its spokesman, Yinka Odumakin, advised Bodejo to talk as somebody who has understanding of the Nigeria situation. According to him, “Nigeria is the poverty capital of the world; the youths are hungry and are angry, and for anybody to hold the view that somebody has to incite these young ones before they react is to take people for fools. “These young people are acting on their own, there is no one pushing them in their legitimate protest to end SARS. For the Miyetti Allah man to hold the opinion that it was hijacked to remove President Buhari shows he lacks understanding of the situation in the country. Like he said, the protest was affecting the Fulani herdsmen and their cattle business, he should also be told that it is not only cattle business that is being affected, other businesses have been grounded.”
Speaking in the same vein, the Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze, Uche Achi-Opaga, said the idea was the figment of Bodejo’s prejudiced imagination. According to him, “the EndSARS protest was spontaneous, as it sprang from all parts of the country, and suddenly, it is being given diversionary approach in order to switch off the zeal and the tenacity of the protest.
“How can somebody be talking about cow business when human lives are being lost, is this not pedestrian? It is unfortunate that a man should be talking of cow business when human lives are involved. They are just coming up with diversionary approach to begin to pit sections against each other. “Look at what is being played up to make it look like it is Igbo versus Yoruba affair; is it the Igbo that went to Apo village and burnt their own cars; the vehicles that they were selling to make a living; is it the Igbo that went and desecrated the Oba of Lagos palace, is it the Igbo that were burning houses and shops in the streets that also belong to them?
“The diversionary approach being given to the issue won’t even work because Nigerians have started to understand all these undercurrents; for everything they begin to give it another interpretation to divert from the main issue. Now they want to pit the Igbo against the Yoruba; they flooded Abuja with hoodlums who went after the protesters. Were the protesters just Igbo or Yoruba alone; Northerners, Middle Belters, Niger Deltans and others were there. “Nigerian youths from all nooks and crannies of the country, irrespective of creed and religion have been participating in the EndSARS protest. Anybody reading another meaning into this will not succeed. The opinion by the leader of Miyetti Allah that it was meant to remove Buhari is a fallacy.
“Anywhere there is crisis, there is injustice and the only solution is justice. Until we restructure Nigeria it will continue to be a stationary machine, all motion and no movement. It is noose diving and that is why we are crying for restructuring because without it we can’t have justice in Nigeria and there can’t be peace.”