Former ECWA Secretary Prof. Turaki Slams Colonial Masters, Constitution, For Middle-Belt Crisis
Yakubu Busari
The former ECWA secretary general, Prof. Yusuf Turaki has cautioned the constitution and colonial master for making the country unfavourable to the middle-belt minorities and their traditional religion .
Prof. Turaki stated this during a one day workshop organized by Middle-belt with a theme,” CRUDAN A biblical response to current challenges facing the middle-belt /northern minorities in Nigeria”.
He decried that the Nigeria constitution only placed the middle belt at disadvantage people to the Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa Fulani.
The university don reiterated that the movement of some foreign nationality to occupy the Middle Belt /Northern minorities with the used of political and ethnicity to threat the people raising insecurity as major cause of conflict.
According to him, the effect of Islamic and Christianity worship has brought about change in the mode of dressing, cultural and religion differences.
Speaking further on jihadist movement of 1904 was the British defeated the entire Borno umpire and implemented their own identity of changing the cultural and traditional religion.
Turaki stressed that the second movement was the consideration of the a rab who are predominantly Muslim ahead of pagan worshipers to be least, as the concreted division by allowing the Islamic to dominate the native.
He noted that the British government divided Nigeria into three region the North ,South and East and non of the middle belt can go and settle in any parts because they have claim ownership of all the country including middle-belter cannot go to Sokoto , Enugu or Lagos to occupy such area.
He lamented that when the Sahara desert started encroaching in the north there are mass movement of people into the middle belt where the land will be contested with foreigners especially the Fulani herdsmen.
Professor Turaki raised alarm over the middle-belt suffering the lack of cattle routes that have been turn into food farmland.
He described the Fulani cattle herdsmen plight as terrible because they cannot go about rearing their animals due to constant attack and restricting them to remain where they are leaving.
The Fulani are not known with violence they were peaceful in nature but what happened now is the culture of change they have resorted to violence and destruction of lives and properties, he added.
Chairman of the occasion, Hon Frank Kure said instance of having peace and dialogue with the indigents the Fulani resort to violence with the farmers.
He sued the northern states to end the insurgency and address the problem of poverty and moral training to the youth to be productive.
Kure accused that government has failed to use their power in promote economic development rather they bring more problem.
He said there are too many peace organizations so government should trim its and support those with neutral agenda manage crisis.
Politicians in the middle-belt are blind that they don’t know what is going on, they need to be given new orientation that our people need to be educated, he explained.
The creations of Local governments system facilitate the movement of people in Nigeria through colonial administration to form heavy population in the middle-belt.
There is mass exodus of people into your areas so we advice the people of the middle belt before their land is taking over by the foreigners ,they are coming with political might and jihadist through Fulani herdsmen and international connection so we have to thinking twice .
The facilitator Suleiman Solomon Sukukum said the society characterize by three factors, poverty, non-productivity and Unhealthy and environment with too many strangers who just arrived turning our youth into unproductive and begging to survive .
The mis-education is the vulnerable causes of underdeveloped society were most of the graduates are roaming the street seeking for white collar Jobs ,adding ,if you don’t have a good house to food to eat is a great setback.
We wait for the Hausa/Fulani,Igbo and Yoruba because of our inability to create wealth ,we are building the city without thinking about our rural communities and we have nothing to compete with.
We call on our people to be conscious of the movement, Malian who passed through Nasarawa state to received military training and went back, to come back and wrecked havoc on the people of the middle-belt.
