Stop killing before the end of July – Soyinka

Prof Wole Soyinka has given President Muhammadu Buhari and federal government ultimatum to end killings before the end of July 2018.

Soyinka made the statement during the inauguration of the 2018 OAU Ife Festival of Foods and Identity at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun state.

He warned that Nigeria’s food security could be jeopardized by the rampant killings, pointing out that farmersweare the most affected victims of the herdsmen and Boko Haram attacks.

He said: “Our mission in life is to beat the sword into ploughshare. This means that machetes, hoes, the instruments of cultivation, planting, and creating sustenance we must fashion out of the instruments of destruction; we must overcome the instruments of destruction.

“And my message to all those who are concerned is that between the launching of this logo and festival today and the outward manifestation of the festival itself (end of July), we should have seen signs that this battle between the sword and the ploughshare is reversed.

“Nigerians would be given fulfillment as a people of culture, peace and harmony, if the instruments of war and destruction are transformed into instruments of production and creativity.

“Between the annunciation of this festival and the manifestation of the festival itself, we want to see from this government a reversal of a seeming triumph of the gun; and if that has not taken place, let us not lie to ourselves, it means we have no government.

“If those who had been displaced, the farmers who have been displaced in their hundreds from various parts of this nation, especially the North, if those farmers have not been taken back and restored to their productive environment, then it means we have no government.

“Let us all join hands to beat the sword, the guns into ploughshares.”

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