Yoruba, Don’t Want War – Ooni Of Ife Tells Buhari

By Ayodele Oluwafemi

The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi Thursday told President Muhammadu Buhari that the Southwest region does not want war in the face of raging insecurity bedeviling the country.

Oba Adeyeye met with the President behind closed doors at the Presidential villa, Abuja.

The monarch while briefing State House correspondents after the meeting said the president said he was quoted out of context on the Ruga settlement controversy,  noting that he would soon make his stance known to Nigerians, in particular and the World, generally.

The Ooni lamented that the drum of war currently being beaten by some sections in the country is a time bomb that must be nipped in the bud, stressing that the Yoruba nation would defend themselves with the Federal might, if things went beyond control. 

He further affirmed that he came to the villa, on behalf of traditional rulers to strategize ways to improve on the security situations in the wake of rising insecurity challenges including banditry, kidnapping, armed robbery and insurgency in the country.

“I came to speak on behalf of other traditional rulers. The issue at hand in the south west is real. The issue of insecurity, we that live in the remote and rural areas of the south western part of the country, most of the bushes are occupied by strange people and we decided to work with the government to fish them out. 

“Everybody is beating the drum of war, we don’t want war, who can stand war, we want something better for our youths. We should better use them for something good other than shouting war and anarchy. We don’t want that. 

“We told the President that and he is on the same page with us. Politicians should be careful not to throw things out of proportion. We should make sure things are right and the President has given good directives to security chiefs including the Inspector General of Police to visit  all traditional institutions in the south west.”

When questioned on whether  the South West region should defend themselves from the Fulani herdsmen, he said, “I mentioned to you that it is real we have wrong people in our midst so when we have wrong people in our midst how are we not going to defend ourselves, that is why I came here that in terms of defending ourselves, we need more federal government apparatus to defend ourselves because we don’t want to be defenceless. 

“So  for us to defend ourselves is for me to come here to meet Mr. President for us to have reinforcement.

“We understand our territory more than anybody. We understand our territory very well.  What is important is that everybody in the South West right now, we are all on the same page. We don’t want war and we want to work with Government to defend our land.” 

On his reaction to the alleged stigmatization of the Fulanis across the whole country, he said, “Well it is not about stigmatization, it is about separating the corn from the chaff. 

” A lot of them are mixed up with the good ones. We are not saying all Fulani are bad, it’s not only about the  Fulani, it’s not only about them, it’s about the bad miscreants that are even hiding under the name of Fulani.” 

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