The Secretary General of the apex pan Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin, has predicted a “woeful defeat” for President Muhammadu Buhari and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2019 elections if the nation continues to deteriorate.
Odumakin told BusinessDay on Sunday that “Except the APC rigs the results of the election; I don’t see how APC will win this election judging from what the country is today. If the situation of the country continues as it is I can guarantee you that woe awaits them in 2019.’’ He however, urged Nigerians to rise up and demand for free and fair election.
On the question of restructuring of the federation, he said that Afenifere is in partnership with the leadership of the South East, South- South, Middle Belt and others andhave agreed to take a common stand on the question of restructuring.
“Our main focus is restructuring because if this country does not restructure we are going nowhere. In 1983, Shagari’s budget was 25 billion dollars when we were 80 million population, now that we are 198 million the budget is 23 billion dollars.We must do something different and something new,” he said.
On the question of the incessant killings allegedly perpetrated by the marauding herdsmen in parts of the country, Odumakin lamented that the killings have continued because President Muhammadu Buhari has failed to take decisive action against the marauding Fulani herdsmenbecause of what he described as “conflict of interest.”
Odumakin added that the security forces felt shy of moving against the Miyetti Allah, the umbrella body of the herdsmen because doing so will might hurt Buhari, who is the grand patron of the Fulani herders. He urged Buhari to choose between being Nigerian President and the patron of the Miyetti Allah stressing thatas long Buhari remains the grand patron of Miyetti Allah, the crisis might worsen.
“It is the cultural affinity that he shares with them but he (Buhari) should have denounced being the grand patron of Miyetti Allah, but he has not done so,” he said.
The human carnage allegedly carried out by the Fulani herdsmen, has claimed nearly 1,000 lives in Benue, Plateau, Taraba, Nasarawa, and Kogi states mostly in the central part of Nigeria since January. Farm lands have been devastated and many people have been displaced in the rampage allegedly organized by the Fulani to uproot the indigenous communities from their land.
Innocent Odoh, Abuja
