TheCable

Biodun Ogunyemi, president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has accused politicians of making gains out of the crisis between farmers and herders.

Speaking with journalists in Abuja, Ogunyemi alleged that the federal government has not lived up to it constitutional responsibility of protecting Nigerians.

He said leaders from all ethnic groups were making maximum political use of the crisis for which their class was responsible.

“The ruling class is busy calculating political gains to be made from the crisis. The Nigerian people – workers, farmers, students, the unemployed, all victims of the crisis, are now being fed with crude religious and ethnic interpretations of the conflict,” he said.

“The federal government must take responsibility for failure to anticipate, manage and control the crisis.

“Government’s handling of the issue has fallen far short of protecting certain constitutional provisions on fundamental human rights.

“In particular, the government has failed in enforcing section 17 (2b) of the Nigerian constitution which states that: “the sanctity of the human person shall be recognised and human dignity shall be maintained and enhanced.

“The people of Nigeria should not be misled. As usual, the chieftains of religious and ethnic sectarianism – the ruling class weapons for pursuing their sectarian interests, have been busy trying to cover, blur, disguise and deceive people of Nigeria about the real, socio-economic sources of the conflict.’’