A former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo says Nigeria is “on the precipice and dangerously reaching a tipping point where it may no longer be possible to hold danger at bay.”
This was contained in an open letter personally signed and addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday.
The letter was made available to newsmen in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital by his Media Aide, Kehinde Akinyemi.
Obasanjo expressed worry over incessant killings in Nigeria suspected to have been carried out by herdsmen, the latest being murder of Afenifere leader’s daughter, Pa Reuben Fasoranti.
The former President equally raised the alarm over four “avoidable calamities”, including “spontaneous or planned reprisal attacks against Fulani which may inadvertently or advertently mushroom into pogrom or Rwanda-type genocide that we did not believe could happen and yet it happened.”
“To be explicit and without equivocation, Mr. President and General, I am deeply worried about four avoidable calamities: Abandoning Nigeria into the hands of criminals who are all being suspected, rightly or wrongly, as Fulani and terrorists of Boko Haram type; spontaneous or planned reprisal attacks against Fulani which may inadvertently or advertently mushroom into pogrom or Rwanda-type genocide that we did not believe could happen and yet it happened; similar attacks against any other tribe or ethnic group anywhere in the country initiated by rumours, fears, intimidation and revenge capable of leading to pogrom and violent uprising beginning from one section of the country and spreading quickly to other areas and leading to dismemberment of the country.
“The President must be seen to be addressing this issue with utmost seriousness and with maximum dispatch and getting all hands on deck to help.
“If there is failure, the principal responsibility will be that of the President and no one else. We need cohesion and concentration of effort and maximum force – political, economic, social, psychological and military – to deal successfully with the menace of criminality and terrorism separately and together.
“Blame game among own forces must be avoided. It is debilitating and only helpful to our adversary. We cannot dither anymore. It is time to confront this threat headlong and in a manner that is holistic, inclusive and purposeful.
“For the sake of Nigeria and Nigerians, I pray that God may grant you, as our President, the wisdom, the understanding, the political will and the courage to do what is right when it is right and without fear or favour.
“May God save, secure, protect and bless Nigeria. May He open to us a window of opportunity that we can still use to prevent the worst happening. As we say in my village, “May God forbid bad thing,” Obasanjo wrote in the letter.
