Igboho’s Ultimatum Is Unconstitutional And Dangerous – ACF

Sunday Igboho

The Arewa Consultative Forum has warned that Nigeria risks sliding into anarchy if the Federal Government fails to rein in Sunday Igboho over his reported ultimatum to Fulani leaders in Oyo State following the abduction of a pregnant woman and her relatives. The group recently accused Igboho of ethnic profiling, and Nigerians have been reacting.

Warning that attempts to hold an entire ethnic group responsible for the actions of suspected criminals could inflame tensions, the National Publicity Secretary of the Arewa Consultative Forum, Prof Tukur Muhammad-Baba, described the ultimatum given to the ethnic group as unconstitutional and dangerous.

The group added that the Federal Government, security agencies, traditional rulers and religious leaders must act quickly to prevent the situation from escalating.

His words, “It is, therefore, the duty of the state, security agencies and community leaders, religious clergy, etc., to call him to order and to make it clear that ethnic profiling is a many-sided sword, a recipe for anarchy and an aberration in the modern world.

The ultimatum is condemnable as it presumes the specific kidnappers represent the whole Fulani group without exception.

It is not clear how he has concluded that the kidnappers are of the Fulani ethnic group, when we know that the criminal enterprise that kidnapping has evolved into involves all manner of people irrespective of social identities—ethnicity, religion, gender, etc.

Wholesale association of kidnapping with all Fulani ethnic people is clearly counterintuitive. Plainly, it is counterproductive to assume Fulani people in this location and everywhere else should be held responsible for the activities of criminal elements from among them.

It is a trite fact that criminality has no tribe and to assume otherwise is to engage in collective illusory self-deception.

Obviously, the directive is unconstitutional. Mr Igboho and his group are not state law enforcement agents and cannot operate outside the law of the land.

Their activities pose a threat to national security, and if they remain unrestrained, there is a risk of copycat backlash from others and our slide into catastrophic anarchy and atavism.

It is a sign of failure and abdication of the responsibility of government to protect the lives and property of citizens, that enable kidnappers and other criminals to operate. The same failure also encourages local non-state actors and champions of provincialism to seek to fill the gap left by the state.

Characters like Sunday Igboho can be seen as products of bad governance, corruption, impunity and criminal neglect by government.”

WOW.