*As Sultan insists armed herdsmen are criminals

By Chris Ochayi

ABUJA—Prominent religious leaders in the country, yesterday, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to soft-pedal on the use of force against the dreaded Boko Haram sect, Niger Delta militants and other agitating ethnic nationalities, advising that dialogue was the panacea to return the nation to the path of peace and progress.

The religious leaders spoke in Abuja at the opening of a three-day conference organised by the International Dialogue Centre, KAICIID, based in Vienna, Austria, aimed at creating effective platforms for the promotion of inter-religious understanding among Muslim and Christian communities in Nigeria.

Speakers, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, and President of Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Rev. Supo Ayokunle, agreed that applying force alone cannot solve the agitations rocking the soul of the country.

In his remarks, Cardinal Onaiyekan, said: “We have had challenges and we should be able to face them. Our relationship as Christians and Muslims depends on what goes on in the various faiths.

Armed herdsmen are criminals —Sultan
Sultan Abubakar, on his part, reiterated the call he earlier made to the security agencies to arrest AK 47 assault riffles wielding Fulani herdsmen, insisting that they are criminals and therefore, must be treated as such.

The Sultan, while lamenting the poverty and the teeming youth population, warned that except a drastic step was taken to address them, “We are definitely sitting on a time bomb much bigger than Boko Haram.”

According to him, “There must be open dialogue on the variety of national issues, including the perennial power rotation, if not, we are definitely sitting on a time bomb.

“Secondly, government at all levels must translate into tangible benefits for all Nigerians regardless of their ethnic or religious affiliations. Nigeria has all the resources to make life more pleasant for the people.

“It is also imperative to address the poverty problem as well as the need of the youth population both in the Northern states and the rest of the country, especially in a situation where half of the population is under 19 years of age, we are definitely sitting on a time bomb bigger than Boko Haram unless we take further actions to defuse it.

“Thirdly, there is the need for renewed determination to address the various crises in our country especially the Boko Haram crisis. The Federal Government must take very seriously, its security responsibility and effectively contain these crises but beyond that, dialogue must be initiated to begin healings to bring genuine understanding and reconciliation amongst the entire people.

“The Fulani herdsmen we all know since we were children, are not the same as the ones we see carrying AK47 and killing people because we see people go around killing innocent villagers in their houses and we don’t see cattle. The Fulanis we see in our villages, markets and other places, we only see them with sticks and cattle, we don’t see them with Ak 47.

“Any Fulani man that you see carrying AK47, killing people instead of carrying sticks and cattle, treat him as a terrorist and not as a herdsman. The government must wake up to its responsibility and turn this tide of incessant killings of people in their villages.”