A Third Republic Senator and erstwhile Minister, Prof. Iyorwuese Hagher has said that there was nothing like herdsmen/farmers clash going on in the Middle Belt.
He insisted that President Muhammadu Buhari should step down for a person from the Middle Belt.
According to him, what was happening was genocide against farmers.
The former lawmaker said this while fielding questions from Sun, where he also gave reasons the Middle Belt should produce the next president.
The former ambassador, who recently wrote a memo to Buhari, maintained that Nigeria was a failed nation.
He said, “The first time in this country by all standard, globally what we have is an agenda against the Middle Belt.
“There is nothing like herdsmen/farmers clashes over lands. There is genocide against farmers in the Middle Belt and in one instance or two there is a counter attack against the Fulani ethnic group.
“If genocide is bad, we should not accept it. There has been genocide in our country. This is not the first time people are killing themselves. But with the speed that this one came, it’s a clear indication that we have a government that cannot defend its people.
“Even if those videos are not true, Nigeria is a failed state, or a failing state. We have the highest number of IDP camps in the world apart from Syria which is in a full blown war.
“We have ethnic genocide and the President, who is to rein the killer herdsmen in, is unable to categorise them as terrorists and all he says is that ‘there is nothing I can do, only pray.’
“We didn’t elect an Imam as President ,we are not in a theocracy, we elected the President of a federal republic and not a kingdom. No matter the pretence of anyone in power to become a king, this is not a kingdom, it is not theocracy it is democracy.
“Therefore , if it is failing it is expected that the leader surrenders and say there is nothing I can do about it, I am wrong. We need to rebuild this country and rebuilding this country means he has to step down because campaigning now as a candidate versus the other candidates, it’s for him to enforce apparatus of state institution.
“And when that is done and he wins the election, he will create more conditions that will lead to more death. I am sorry I love the country more than my personal ambition. Far far too many lives have gone and we are at war. The condition to determining when a country has reached war status is 1000. We have surpassed 1000.
“Middle Belt has suffered for this country, it has laboured under gross injustice . It is from the Middle Belt that the bulk of slave trade took our young men to Europe and America.
“Out of the 400 ethnic groups of the North, the Middle Belt has over 340 tribes. The Middle Belt is the most backward, it is the most disorganised because it is structurally made to be so. May be the time has come for that Nigerians conscious mind to look into the Middle Belt, find a Middle Belter who can become president and unite this country.
“Our ethnic groups are small and they cannot threaten national stability. No ethnic group in Middle Belt will be strong enough to make demands from every aspect of the country . The region requires and needs the rest of the country.”
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