“Impunity evolves
and becomes integrated in conduct when crime occurs and no legal, logical and
moral response is offered. I have yet to hear this government articulate a firm
policy of non-tolerance for the serial massacres have become the nation’s
identification stamp”
Nobel laureate,
Prof. Wole Soyinka yesterday also decried the unbecoming menace of the Fulani
herdsmen, pointing out that the Federal Government’s quest to diversify the
economy through culture and tourism is endangered by insecurity.
The literary giant
spoke in Abuja at the National Summit on Culture and Tourism in his capacity as
the chairman of the first plenary session with a presentation
entitled, ‘‘The killing culture of the neo-nomadic.’’
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| Prof. Soyinka |
Soyinka,
represented by the Director, Centre for Black Culture and International
Understanding (CBCIU), Osogbo, Osun State, Dr. Wale Adeniran, located
insecurity as “principal enemy” of the quest.
He noted that
“culture is closely intertwined with tourism – the former, in fact, often
drives the latter,” stressing that “the destination uppermost in the minds of
most tourists we know is – Culture.” Soyinka insisted that both
share friends and – enemies.
He went on: “Of the
principal enemies, seeing that we find ourselves within the precincts of
governance, I intend to engage your attention in this brief address to just
one: Insecurity. That inability of any vacationist to let go completely, relax,
submit oneself completely to the offerings of a new environment – the sounds,
sights, smells, textures and taste. Of Culture itself, in and or out of the
touristic intent, there is no ambiguity in the mind of its enemies. They make
no bones about their detestation – call them Taliban, Daesh or Isis, al Shabbab
or Boko Haram. Their hatred is pathological and impassioned to a degree that
goes beyond the pale, beyond insanity and sadly beyond cure. The duty of
governance towards such retrogressive outbreaks remains unambiguous.”
Locating a link
between the heinous crimes which Boko Haram has perpetrated against Nigeria and
Nigerians and incessant attacks by the herdsmen, Soyinka said: “After Boko
Haram, what next? In fact, at this moment, Boko Haram has
no ‘after’ since it is by no means ended, no matter what technical
expressions such as ‘militarily degraded’ mean.
“But let us assume
indeed that we are already in the past of Boko Haram. It is now clear that the
succession is already decided, the ‘vacated’ space is already
conceded, and that the new territorial aspirants are already securely
positioned. The entire nation appears to be theirs without a struggle, and the
continuity of an established Nigerian necropolis north to south and east to
west is being consolidated.
“Some necropoles
are actually architecturally fascinating. They attract visitors from distant
places, but those are works of veneration, artistry and dedication. They are
visual feasts, among whose structures the visitors actually picnic, leave
flowers and symbolic gifts to hovering ancestors. Latin America is full of
them. The Nigerian widening necropoles leave only the taste of bile in the
mouth, the corrosion of hate, stench and rage.
“When I read a
short while ago, the Presidential assurance to this nation that the current
homicidal escalation between the cattle prowlers and farming communities would
soon be over, I felt mortified.
“He had the
solution, he said. Cattle ranches were being set up, and in another 18 months,
rustlings, destruction of livelihood and killings from herdsmen would be ‘a
thing of the past’. Eighteen months, he assured the nation. I believe his
Minister of Agriculture echoed that later, but with a less dispiriting time
schema. Neither, however, could be considered a message of solace and
reassurance for the ordinary Nigerian farmer and the lengthening cast of
victims, much less to an intending tourist to the Forest Retreat of Tinana in
the Rivers, the Ikogosi Springs or the moslem architectural heritage of the
ancient city of Kano. In any case, the external tourists have less hazardous
options.”
Soyinka also
decried the devastation that insecurity has wreaked on “internal tourism.”
His words: “However
there is also internal tourism, to be considered a premium asset – both
economically and in spirit of nation building and personal edification. This
was an exercise I indulged in in the early sixties as by-product of other
engagements, such as research. A lot however was simply under curiosity.
I can modestly claim to be among the top twenty-five percent internally traveled
Nigerians, acquainted with the smells, textures and tastes of their
geographical habitation. I wish the late Segun Olusola were around to testify
to the sudden bouts of tourist explorations we made in his Volkswagen Beetle in
the pre-war sixties. But now, would the young adventurous set out to visit
the mystery caves of Anambra and its alleged curative pools from mere interest?
They would think twice about it.”
The social activist
decried the inability of government to articulate a coherent policy to tackle
the menace, saying: “ It is not merely arbitrary violence that reigns
across the nation but total, undisputed impunity.
“Impunity evolves
and becomes integrated in conduct when crime occurs and no legal, logical and
moral response is offered. I have yet to hear this government articulate a firm
policy of non-tolerance for the serial massacres have become the nation’s
identification stamp.
“I have not heard
an order given that any cattle herders caught with sophisticated firearms be
instantly disarmed, arrested, placed on trial, and his cattle confiscated. The
nation is treated to an eighteen-month optimistic plan which, to make matters
worse, smacks of abject appeasement and encouragement of violence on innocents.
“ Let me repeat,
and of course I only ask to be corrected if wrong: I have yet to encounter a
terse, rigorous, soldierly and uncompromising language from this leadership,
one that threatens a response to this unconscionable blood-letting that would
make even Boko Haram repudiate its founding clerics.”
He recalled attempt
made “to utilize the Open Forum platform of the Centre for Culture and
International Understanding, Oshogbo, to launch a national debate on the topic
– ‘Sacred Cows or Sacred Rights.’ The signs were already clear and the rampage
of impunity was already manifesting a cultic intensity of alarming proportions.
For reasons which are too distasteful to go into here, the forum did not take
place. We were already agreed that General Buhari be invited to give a keynote
address, based on his long experience in such matters as former head of state,
and as a cattle rearer himself who might be able to penetrate the mentality of
this ‘post-Boko Haram pestilence’.
“ That challenge
remains open, but should now involve this gathering, which surely includes
tourist and educational agencies. They should join hands with human rights
organisations, the Ministry of Agriculture, Farming and local Vigilance
associations etc. It is a gauntlet thrown down to be picked up, and urgently,
by any of the affected or troubled sectors of society, or indeed any capable
and interested party at this conference. The CBCIU is prepared to collaborate.”
As a hunter of
note, Soyinka laced his remarks with personal encounters with herdsmen during
his hunting expeditions.
He said: “I had
observed a change of quality in forest encounters with cattle herdsmen over the
years. These changes had become sufficiently alarming for me to arrange
meetings with a few governors and, later, with the late National Security
Adviser General Azazi.
“At the time, we
thought that they were Boko Haram, infiltrating into the south under guise of
cattle herding. That was then, and of course that surmise has never been firmly
proven or disproved.
“Recently however,
I returned from a trip outside the country about to find that my home ground
had been invaded, and a brand-new “Appian way” sliced through my
sanctuary. That ‘motorable’ path was made by the hoofed invaders. Both the
improvised entry and exit are now blocked, but interested journalists are invited
to visit. In over two decades of living in that ecological preserve, no such
intrusion had ever occurred. I have no idea whether they were Fulani or Futa
Jalon herdsmen but, they were cattle herders, and they had cut a crude swathe
through my private grounds. I made enquiries and sent alerts around, including
through the Baale of our neighborhood village. There has been no repeat, and
hopefully it will remain the first and last of such invasion. What it portends
however is for all thinking citizens to reflect upon, and take concerted
measures against.”
Describing herdsmen
as humanity’s earliest known tourists, Soyinka added: “They must be taught
however that there is a culture of settlement, and learn to seek accommodation
with settled hosts wherever encountered.
“The leadership of
any society cannot stand idly and offer solutions that implicitly deem the
massacres of innocents mere incidents on the way to that learning school. For
every crime, there is a punishment, for every violation, there must be restitution.
The nomads of the world cannot place themselves above the law of settled
humanity.”
