Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, warned that the country is at the risk of Genocide if the Federal Government fails to put an end to these killings.
He also asked the Federal Government to take a decisive action to end what he describes as the ongoing ethnic cleansing in some parts of the country.
Professor Soyinka made the call in a statement issued in commemoration of this year’s workers day.
He likened Nigeria to an aircraft whose pilot had gone missing, leaving the controls in the hands of his family members.
“Where was the Captain, Somewhere along the aisle, saluting the passengers, all quite proper, and indeed encouraged by regulations.
“He had placed the plane on auto-pilot, just as this nation has been for some time, so he walked between the seats, dispensing and acknowledging greetings, it was a long flight to Hong Kong, after all.
“The plane went into a sharp turn after the wrong lever was pulled, and the autopilot disengaged.
“The original flight pattern was annulled -does that echo a campaign manifesto and the plane was now in unqualified hands”.
He noted that the country is in a terminal nosedive, and urgently requires the intervention of the international community.
On the killings witnessed across the country, Professor Soyinka asked President Buhari to order all land usurpers in the affected towns and villages to vacate the forcefully occupied lands within 48 hours.
“Issue orders to the military and police that, wherever illegal occupiers are found, they should be meted the same treatment as are accorded terrorists.
“Instruct all agencies that, once cleared of usurpers, the rightful occupants should be escorted back to their farmsteads and villages and provided maximum protection”.
He says the President must order the military and the police to enforce the instruction.
“It is not enough to back the anti-open grazing laws, so late in the day, but we shall leave that for later. Right now, the violated and dispossessed demand restitution, and with no further delay or subterfuge.
“All available forces should be deployed to right a hideous, unprecedented wrong that has left the nation drowning in blood, we simply cannot continue one day longer to endure this forceful feeding of human blood”.
For the renowned playwright, the spectre of the Rwanda genocide looms over Nigeria and the situation cannot be termed as anything else.
Study @ Achievers University
