Nigeria likely to face genocide - Obasanjo warns
According to THE EAST AFRICAN REPORTS, The Ex-President of Nigeria ,Olusegun Obasanjo has ordered the President Muhammadu Buhari to convene a national forum to discuss the run-away insecurity in the country.
The insecurity has for the past decade manifested itself in retaliatory attacks between the Fulani herdsmen and farming communities as well as through increasingly bolder Boko Haram incursions across the country.
In a rather undiplomatic open letter to President Buhari dated July 15, Obasanjo, 82, said he feared that the insecurity could spark genocide similar to that in Rwanda 25 years ago.
"Enough is enough. We are on the precipice and dangerously reaching a tipping point," Mr Obasanjo, who served Nigeria on two occasions for a combined 11 years between 1976 and 2007, said.
In compliments to the incumbent Mr Obasanjo said the President could not tackle the insecurity alone, adding a joint effort was needed to tackle insecurity.
"Collective thinking and dialoguing is the best way of finding an appropriate and adequate solution to the problem," Mr Obasanjo wrote.
The presidency did not directly respond to Mr Obasanjo but cautioned leaders to weigh the potential consequences of their utterances and not to politicise the security situation.
"Insecurity is an issue that Nigeria must face together as one nation – united. Times of tragedy like these are not the time for politics. We hope that those who stand in positions of influence recognise and understand this,” President Buhari's senior special assistant on Media and Publicity Malam Garba Shehu, said.
The tragedy Mr Shehu referred to was the killing on Friday of Funke Olakunri, the daughter of Chief Reuben Fasoranti who leads the Yoruba socio-cultural group Afenifere.
Security operatives said some people had been arrested from forests in some south-west state in connection with the murder but did not disclose details.
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