By Ebele Orakpo

Dr. Obadiah Mailafia, former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has said if everyone keeps quiet about the current poor security situation in the country, especially the killings in Southern Kaduna, the country will die.

Dr. Mailafia, a development economist, and the African Democratic Congress, ADC, presidential candidate in the 2019 election said this in an exclusive interview with Vanguard, in which he noted that he was not a radical, but a seeker of peace, and that peace is impossible without justice.

He had been the guest of the Department of State Services, DSS, following his claim in another interview that a state governor was a Commander of the marauding Boko Haram terrorists.

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In the interview with Vanguard, Dr. Mailafia said: “The fact that I am outraged by all the killings and genocide doesn’t make me a radical. If we all keep quiet, Nigeria will die. Is that what we want?

“Radicals are people who carry guns and go into the forest and start killing people. I have never used violence in my life, never encouraged anyone to use violence in my life. Even my name, Mailafia, means a man of peace and there can never be peace without justice.

“These killings going on constitute an existential threat. I don’t know why for the life of me, that people tolerate the killings and think it is okay.

“And that when we speak and tell people about the reality of what we are facing now, they are more concerned about the sources, more concerned about political correctness; they have absolutely no concern about the holy martyrs that are being slaughtered.

“Why can’t we face the reality of the people being killed — the children, elderly, women, the youth being killed on a daily basis? That is my focus. Any other thing, to me, is diversionary. People have questioned my sources. They have questioned my political correctness.

“Why can’t they face the truth that our country is dying, innocent people are being killed, children are being slaughtered like little lambs, women are being raped and then killed? Is this a normal country?

“Where is the outrage? Why do people accept this profound evil, this curse on this land? I reject it with the very fibre of my soul. So, I will never tone down, I will only tone down when the killings stop.

“No religion, no culture and civilisation tolerate the killing of innocent people. To say that the killing is abhorrent, the genocide is abhorrent, is a very simple maxim of universal morality.

“All I am asking is stop the killings please,” Dr. Mailafia pleaded.

He also, recently, resigned from the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS, Kuru, Plateau State.

VANGUARD