The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi and professor Wole Soyinka have urged Nigerians to defend themselves as well as their ancestral lands against the plan for Ruga settlement.
Both men made the call in a communique issued on Sunday after a meeting held on Thursday in Ogun State.
The call comes few days after a northern coalition group gave the Federal Government a 30-day ultimatum to implement the Ruga settlement which it suspended following wide rejection.
The communiqué stated, “In this regard, the recent ultimatum delivered by a sectarian order to the President of this nation to set up the so-called Ruga cattle settlements across the entire nation within a stipulated time, despite the national outcry, should be acknowledged as an entitlement under the bounty of freedom of expression.
“In return, we exercise ours, and call upon Nigerian nationals across state demarcations to defend the sanctity of their ancestral lands. This birthright has never been annulled, not even under colonial occupation.”
The Ooni and Soyinka also pointed out that Nigeria cannot survive as one if it is plunged into another civil war like the Biafra war.
