Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has described the statement by former Governor of Kaduna State, Balarabe Musa on the creation of “Operation Amotekun,” a security outfit in the South West region “recipe for tragedy.”
In a statement he personally signed on Tuesday, Soyinka said he wished Nigeria to avoid the blunder by Musa.
His statement read, “Balarabe is sadly, but I hope not tragically wrong. I invoke the tragic dimension here because the making of tragedy, especially for nations, often begins when fears are mistaken or promoted as facts, and governments either by themselves, or together with interest groups, are enticed by fears into embarking on precipitate, irrational, and irreversible acts.
“Such acts turn out, in the end, to be based on nothing but fears, sometimes generated by guilt over past injustices, such as inequitable dealing.
“That is the basis of tragedy, towards which nations are propelled by a partial, or wrongful reading of socio-political realities and history.
“I would like to see this nation avoid such a blunder. So, I am certain, would Balarabe Musa.
“Raising the spectre of secession is a facile approach to the dangerous, self-evident lapses in governance which Balarabe himself acknowledges in his response to the Amotekun principle made flesh.
“The midwives of Amotekun have repeatedly acknowledged that theirs is only a contribution towards a crisis of escalating proportions.
“Other states should be encouraged to emulate, not misread such initiatives, then demonize them by false attributions That are the certain recipe for tragedy.”
Recall that Governors in the South West region had established and inaugurated the security outfit to curb the menace of herdsmen attacks in their region.
Musa has said that the main reason the leaders and governors of the Southwest region set up the new security outfit was to create the Oduduwa Republic.
But Musa, in an interview with one of the National Dailies, warned that President Muhammadu Buhari-led government must not allow the operation of such security network, adding that it falls out of the established laws of the country.
He warned that it was a ploy to secure Yoruba land and a prelude to the declaration of Oduduwa Republic.
The former Governor further said that some of the security components of the outfit like the Oodua Peoples Congress, OPC have records of recklessness in terms of securing the lives and property of non-Yoruba.
“First of all, taking into account what happened in the history of Nigeria, this Amotekun will lead to a declaration of Oduduwa Republic,” Musa said.
