Danjuma warns again: Nigeria is finished if we don’t stop bandits
A former Minister of Defence, Lt. Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (rtd), says Nigeria would be reduced to nothing if bandits terrorising the country are not rooted out.
Danjuma said their mission is to re-colonise the people, and alluded to the warning he issued some years back which, he said, has vindicated him today after being called a liar by the military.
He spoke, yesterday, in Wukari during the presentation of staff of office to the 25th Aku-Uka of Wukari, HRM. Manu Ishaku Adda Ali Amatakitswen.
The former Minister, who served under the Obasanjo administration, had, in a March 24, 2018 public statement, alleged ethnic cleansing in Nigeria, asking the people to defend themselves.
“Our country is under siege by armed bandits”, Danjuma, also a former Chief of the Army Staff, said yesterday.
“When some few years ago I warned that the armed forces were either not capable or unwilling to protect us and that we must defend ourselves, the first denial about what I said came from the Ministry of Defence.
“They said I was lying and they set up a kangaroo board of inquiry to investigate the truth or otherwise of what I said.
“They invited me to come and testify but I did not go. They wrote their report which stated that I was only speculating and that there was no evidence. But now there is evidence.
“The whole country now is being overrun and one very clear thing that is happening now is that these foreign invaders are destroying everything and our government allowed them to come into the country.
“As a soldier, my training teaches me that the best defence is attack. Right now we are all sitting dogs and these people are armed to the teeth with all the weapons of mass destruction.
“They are trying to recolonise us and take over our land. This country with the largest population of the black man is being brought to ruin by absolutely useless criminals.
“My prayer is that God Almighty that has given us this land would give us the courage to face up to our enemies, locate where they are and root them out; driving then out of the country otherwise Nigeria is finished.”
Danjuma urged the new monarch to unite the Jukun race to ensure its people rally round to defend themselves.
The Sultan of Sokoto, Alh. Sa-ad Abubakar (II), on his part, urged youths to join hands with the new monarch to promote peace among the various ethnic nationalities under his jurisdiction.
The monarch pledged the support of his chiefdom to the Aku-Uka whenever such is required.
Governor Darius Ishaku of Taraba State and his counterpart from Plateau, Mr Simon Lalong, both of whom also spoke, used the occasion to enjoin descendants of the Kwararafa Kingdom to come together for the good of the Jukun race.
Herdsmen attacks
Danjuma had, in the 2018 speech, called on Nigerians to rise and defend themselves against attacks by marauding herdsmen in some parts of the country, or continue to suffer casualties.
“You must rise to protect yourselves from these people; if you depend on the armed forces to protect you, you will all die”, he had said.
“I ask all of you to be on the alert and defend your country, defend your state”.
According to the former Army Chief, who spoke at the maiden convocation of Taraba State University, Jalingo, the unnecessary killings, which he likened to an act of ethnic cleansing being perpetuated against the people of Taraba, specifically, and Nigeria, at large, must stop.
An obviously angry Danjuma also lampooned the military by slapping the institution with the accusation that it is complicit in the violent incidents by providing protection for the killers.
“This ethnic cleansing must stop in Taraba, and it must stop in Nigeria. These killers have been protected by the military; they cover them and you must be watchful to guide and protect yourselves because you have no other place to go”.
He then warned that “the ethnic cleansing must stop now, otherwise Somalia will be a child’s play”. Vanguard
