Pastor Thomas Shikaan Is The Senior Pastor, Sprite Life Christian Assembly. In This Exclusive Interview With AUSTINE TULE In Makurdi, He Says Nigeria Should Not Be Allowed To Go Down Because It Is Bound To Respect ECOWAS Treaties As It Regards Freedom Of Movement. He Equally Bares His Mind On The Security Situation In The Country Submitting That, President Buhari Has Failed In Protecting The Lives Of
Nigerians And Ought To Have Taken The Path Of Honour By Resigning.
Your Take On The Rissing Wave Of Criminality By Suspected Fulani Herdsmen In Recent Times .
Bandist are fulanis, kidnappers are Fulanis, cattle rustlers are Fulanis and then one may ask, why are the Fulanis engage in all this sort of criminal activies across the entire nation? because even Boko Haram when they communicate, their language is that of the Fulanis and so I think it is time Nigerians rise up to seek for a solution to all this atrocities been pepetrated by the fulani terror group. More worrisome is the fact that our President whom we trusted and voted into power from every indication seem not to be the man we use to know when he rulled as a military Head of State and could take decisions and implement same frontally.
Can You Explain Why You Said So
Because if it were the Buhari I use to know, he would have delt with this long ago just as he did in the case of the “Metastine” uprissing in Kano why he commanded in that area but today, it is very sad that untill now , Nigerians are not safe in any part of the country owing to the activities of this bad elements among the fulamis, they occupy forest where they use as bases to commit all sorts of crime including armed robbery and my call again is that we all rise up otherwise from the posturing of those leading this country, we may be heading into a very dangerous situation, it can be said that this who thing started during the time of President Goodluck Jonathan, good and fine but that was one of the major reasons why we voted President Buhari but can you tell me from a very sincere point of reasoning that we are fairing better especially in the aspect of security? the answer is a big no! and for some of us who trusted and voted him into office, I must tell you that am very very disappointed.
On A Possible Way Out
I hold that the President and
others in positions of authority change their posturing, I have never seen a country where the lives of cattle are presumed to be more precious than those of human beings. Wether the President likes it or not, he has created a very big problem for this country, those Fulanis carrying Ak47 in the bush are not certainly the owners of those cattles, this cattles are owned by very powerful poeple in this country and like a former leader in this country said , any crises that last for 48 hours has the hand of those in government involved and so we must rise up to the reality with a view to putting all parochial sentiments aside and look into this very worrisome issue with the aim to tackling it headlong. The fulanis you see in the bush are not the ones that buy the kind of weapons you see them carry about, they are mere foot soldires executing the agenda of very powerful Nigerians to achieve whatever they want to achieve, why is so difficult to remove those Fulanis staying in the bush, because any attempt in that direction is leaked to them by those using them to execute their agenda, we hear of instances whereby some of this criminal elements among the fulanis are fed with the use of helocopters and I don’t know if such issues are investigated and so, they has to a break in the link between the executors and the planners for this issue of criminality to be cutailed, the strength of a chain gets broken at the weakest point and so once we are able to identify and bring to justice the sponsors of this heardsmen roaming about with cattles then, we would have been close to ending this who thing.To us, ranching remains the best way to go and so my advice is that we embrace it wholly. Let the fulanis embrace ranching and let those among them who are not Nigerians go back to their countries, we cannot sacrifice Nigeria because of ECOWAS treaties.
On Governor Ortom’s Call For A National Debate
Am completely in support of what the governor said, you see there seems to be a soft spot for this criminal hersdmen but because we are not in the President’s mind so cannot be very catigorical but it seems there is a soft spot, Miyetti Allah will threatened that blood will flow and blood will flow and nothing will happen and giving all this, I think there is the need for such a debate as well as the state of emergency as also been canvassed by governor Samuel Ortom. We are very insensitive in this country otherwise the President ought to have resigned, one of the cardinal objective of any responsible government is the protection of lives and property of the citizenry but here Nigerians are been killed on a daily basis yet the President who has not been able to put a stop to it still seats in his office. I ernestly pray that God help us out of this very terrible situation that we have found ourselves in.
On Sheik Gumi’s Negotiations With Kiddnappers
I remember that many years ago, the father of this same Sheik Gumi decleared that a Christian will never rule this country and this same Sheik Gumi represents what his father stood for. I don’t know what he is negotiating for but as far as am concern, he dose not represent the interest of all segments of Nigeria. That is my take on that .
