08/05/2016

University don to Fayose: Don’t poison Ekiti rivers to punish herdsmen



Gov. FayoseDr. Sikiru Eniola, an Associate Professor in Ekiti State University, has advised Governor Ayodele Fayose against having rivers of Ekiti State poisoned to check the menace caused by Fulani herdsmen.
According to the lecturer, the threat to poison Ekiti waters for Fulani herdsmen is not and cannot be the opinion of the good people of Ekiti State.

First, Eniola argued that many towns and villages do not have access to portable water. “They still go to the streams to do majority of their domestic chores.” In actual fact, he said they had been sharing the same with their Fulani guests for years. “Poisoning our waters therefore will terminate the lives of your grassroot voters.”
Dr. Eniola
Dr. EniolaDr. Eniola

Eniola reasoned further that it is obvious Gov Fayose did not obtain proper statistics at home before that journey (to Ibadan where he issued the threat). “Even if it is an ordinary threat, we cannot afford that expensive blunder in the face of the international media,” he said.
Secondly, according to the lecturer, the upsurge of the Fulani herdsmen attack in the South East has been given a one sided coverage all along. “Cases of castle rustling have reached an all time high before now, especially in the North East. Nobody has chosen to publicize this because the Fulani herdsmen are just wanderers and mostly illiterate. This was why the mass grave, found in Abia to be full of Fulani corpses never went beyond the initial reportage. Some even said……afterall, the corpses are not more than 50 now…”
The other side of the argument, according to him, is that the Fulani president of Nigeria is supporting the herdsmen, and also that the Fulani head of DSS is aiding any massacre. The university don said, as Nigerians, “we must avoid the packaging of national problems in religious and ethnic garbs.”
Eniola wondered: “Why should this reasoning find a place in anybody’s mind? At best, we are having serious problems as a nation. What we need is not the invocation of ethnic sentiments but a holistic approach to solve rising problems before they become unmanageable. Ones beaten, twice shy.”
Fayose was said to have made the statement in Ibadan on Tuesday while attending a programme organized by the Nigerian Union of
Journalists, Oyo chapter.

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