The Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka has beefed up security around his residence, mounting a road block at the point of entry, with a clear instruction that intruders, and emphasis on herdsmen to keep off from the vicinity.
Penpushing exclusively reports that, at the point of entry to the private residence located in Abule Ilugun a suburb of Kemta Housing Estate, in Idi-Aba axis of Abeokuta, Ogun State Capital, iron barriers have been erected to restrict any suspicious movement.
The clearly and boldly written warning message hung on the tree at the entry point reads: “Trespassing Vehicles will be shot and eaten”, ”Trespassing COW will be hanged’, and ‘Vehicle on appointment only’
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Penpushing further reports that, the security situation in the country has become source of worry for the citizens and foreigners, with the incessant cases of kidnappings and herdsmen killings which have become the order of the day
It is recalled that Soyinka, in his address to the National Conference on Culture and Tourism, has lashed out at the Presidency for its seeming inability to rein in the violent activities of herdsmen across the country.
Penpushing reports that Soyinka in his frank character said the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Government was yet to come up with an articulate solution to tackle the menace, adding, “I have yet to hear this government articulate a firm policy of non-tolerance for the serial massacres that have become the nation’s identification stamp,” .
“I have not heard an order given that any cattle herder 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’, Soyinka said.
“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.”
“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 said.
“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’. 18 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.”
Penpushing also reports that Soyinka recalled with nostalgia how he – in the company of the late Segun Olusola – journeyed across Nigeria in the pre-war 60’s, mostly out of curiosity,adding,“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. 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.”
The Nobel Laureate also said he had a personal experience recently with the cattle rearers.
