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Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi (Photo: nigerianeye.com)
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A
former minister has warned of a looming “horrendous violence” after next
February’s general election. Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi, a former minister of
External Affairs, in a December 16 letter to President Goodluck Jonathan and
Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, urged the presidential candidates of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to sign an
undertaking to rein in their supporters after the election.
The Nation reports Akinyemi,
who served during the military regime of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, was the deputy
chairman of the National Conference organized by President Jonathan, whose
recommendations are yet to be implemented.
Akinyemi
recalled that he warned the then National Security Adviser (NSA), the late Gen
Patrick Aziza, that violence “on a massive scale would trail the results of
the 2011 general elections.”
But
he expressed regrets that his “conflict-controlled” measures were ignored. “We
are back at the same crossroads again, except this time is more precarious and
dangerous than the last time,” he added.
For
the 2015 polls, Akinyemi said: “The certainty of violence is higher than it was
in 2011. If President Jonathan wins, the North will erupt into violence as it
did in 2011. If Gen. Buhari wins, the Niger Delta will erupt into violence.”
“I
don’t believe that we need rocket science to make this prediction.”
The
reason he gave for the impending violence is the “illegal massive importation
of weapons into the country, which has reached such alarming proportions that I
really wonder which is better armed, the militia on one hand or the official
armed forces on the other hand”.
The
international affairs expert recalled the “very notorious prediction from the
United States semi-official sources that the world is expecting a cataclysmic
meltdown of the Nigerian nation come 2015.”
Besides,
he added that: “there are states and movements out there, Africans and
non-Africans, which do not mean well for the Nigerian state, which wish Nigeria
to dissolve into a theatre of bloodshed, gore and instability. They will
succeed if we continue the politics of making enemies of ourselves and friends
of our enemies.”
To
prevent the disaster he predicted, Akinyemi suggested that frontline
traditional rulers – the Sultan of Sokoto, the Emir of Kano, the Lamido of
Adamawa from the North, the Ooni of Ife and the Oba of Benin from the South;
elder statesman Chief Emeka Anyaoku; religious leaders Pastor Enoch Adeboye and
Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor and ex-Heads of State Gen. Yakubu Gowon and Gen.
Abdulsalami Abubakar – should facilitate a pre-election meeting between the
candidates, the preparation of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and act as a
Council of Wisemen to assist in managing the post-election conflicts.
According to Akinyemi, the
recommended MoU should commit the candidates to “a civil and peaceful campaign,
devoid of threats; a commitment to control their supporters after the
elections; and that supporters of whoever loses should be entitled to peaceful
protests but not to violent protests”.
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