Why Tinubu is afraid to speak on herdsmen crisis, Adebanjo, Afenifere leader

The leader of Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, has said a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, is afraid to speak on the Fulani herdsmen crisis in the South West region because he does not want to offend President Muhammadu Buhari.

Adebanjo, who spoke on Wednesday while featuring on a Punch Online programme, The Roundtable, said Tinubu has not condemned the attacks by Fulani herdsmen on the Yoruba people because of his presidential ambition in 2023.

The Afenifere leader said the former Lagos State governor believes that Buhari will help him become the next president of the country.

Of late, Fulani herdsmen have been accused of perpetrating crimes ranging from kidnappings, killings, rape, invasion of farmlands with their cattle in the Sout-West region especially in Oyo, Ondo, Ekiti and Ogun States.

Adebanjo said instead of Buhari to protect all Nigerians, he has taken to defending the Fulani herdsmen despite sundry evidence that they are culpable of the heinous crimes.‌

“I don’t buy the propaganda of the Buhari government that how do you know they are Fulani? And when they are caught, they will say, they are foreign Fulani. If you are a competent defender of the Nigerian people, the Fulani herdsmen won’t be committing all forms of atrocities unabated,” he said.

Adebanjo said the 2023 presidential election is not feasible until there is a change in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“I don’t see the practicability of an election in 2023 without a change of the constitution with all the inequities and iniquities in it,” he said when asked of the criteria for Afenifere to back any presidential candidate in the coming election.

He argued that no good thing can come from the government of President Muhammadu Buhari until the restructuring of the country.

The Afenifere chieftain said the president has his personal agenda for not wanting to restructure the country despite overwhelming clamour for it by the people of the South West, South East and SouthSouth geopolitical zones.