Yoruba Council of Youths Worldwide (YCYW) has called on Nigerians to ignore the ranting of the coalition of the Northern Youth Groups and its spokesperson, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman in a trending online video.
They described the group as “uncivilized cowards for issuing a 30 days ultimatum to the government, especially the Southern Governors to either implement the RUGA Settlement policy or face dare consequences.”
In a Statement issued by the President of YCYW, Barr. Dotun Hassan, the group said that it is important to note that Nigeria is a sovereign country governed by law and as such no individual, no matter where they come from can openly issue threat to government and not be punished.
“We want to state categorically that the statement is an affront against the sovereignty of Nigeria and negates reasoning and sensibility of Nigerians, that some people who claimed to be representing Fulani Herdsmen publicly in the full glare of the media declared and comitted an act of treason felony, breach of public peace cum seditious hate speech, and Security operatives have not rounded them up for immediate prosecution after 24 hours. If this type of reckless statement had emanated from the South it may have been another story altogether.
“The world is watching how President Buhari and heads of relevant Security outfits will react to this ugly developments.
“Our position is that it is only unintelligent and tactless cowards that uses threat to instill fears in the mind of the people for rejecting what they don’t want, by issuing bogus statements to make them look bigger that their actual capability, no body should give in to such repugnant crude method because peaceful Nigerians are advanced beyond such tasteless method of doing things, the people are calm not because they don’t know how to react in such manner but it is naturally expected that these demented elements should have been more civilized than how they are poorly representing their ethnic group, in gross violation of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“It is also worrisome that Fulani elites have remained silent in the face of these jaundice and unhelpful provocations by some people claiming to represent their wishes and aspirations, we would not want to hurriedly conclude that their silence is a tactical endorsement for the ill motivated actions of these rogues or that they are supporting the bloody killings, kidnapping and banditry going on in the country.
The Yoruba Youths ask all Nigerians to be calm in the face of this “continuous unwarranted threat and provocation to anarchy by some people claiming to be representing the interest of the Fulanis who are minority in Nigeria.
“On our part, we would explore all possible avenues to ensure that he and his collaborators present at the shameless Press conference where the unguided, divisive, hate speech and treasony comments were made be arrested by the security agents, we shall also use legal means to ensure that their arrest is effected, this is to use them as examples to others who may want to travel through the same journey in the nearest future.
“Nobody can threaten the peace of law abiding citizens of this country and be allowed to walk free any longer. We want to call the attention of those constantly beating the war drum to note that, other tribes should not be provoked, they are calm should not be mistaken to mean that they are timid nor cowards.
The group also lauded President Muhammadu Buhari for suspending the controversial RUGA project asking him to take further step by scrapping the programme completely, saying that no matter in what form the scheme is re-presented in the future, the people are now more at alert to reject it vehemently.
The group while canvassing for peaceful coexistence amongst all the various tribes in the country expressed that only peace can bring economic growth to the country. It urged the Federal government to always ensure that all their policies are devoid of favoring one particular ethnic group over the other, noting that such is the major cause of growing distrust in the country.
“Since the President was elected in 2015, his appointments have been widely criticized due to his preference for Northerners in key positions including those manning the Security agencies, this alone is enough to embolden the people who come from such ethnic bigot group to be conducting themselves as outlaws, which is dangerous to the peace and economic development of Nigeria.”
