Senior Advocate of Nigeria and rights lawyer, Femi Falana, has delivered a jab at Nigerian authorities for failing to tackle the longstanding governance and security challenges, asserting that Nigeria is the only country in the world where cattle still roam freely on major roads, including the airport road in Abuja.
Falana made the remarks on Channels Television’s current affairs programme, ‘Politics Today’, on Wednesday evening.
“On my way to Abuja yesterday, I saw cattle on the street of Abuja, on the airport road,” he said. “Nigeria is the only country in the world where this happens.”
Meanwhile, while reacting to comments made by US President Donald Trump about Nigeria, Falana said Nigerians should not lose sleep over Trump’s statements but instead take them as an opportunity to reflect on the country’s internal failures.
“Instead of losing sleep over what Trump has said, can we take it as a duty to look inward? Where have we made errors? We must be truthful to ourselves,” Falana stated.
He noted that respected intellectuals had long raised the alarms over the government’s silence on pressing issues, including the controversial narrative of alleged religious persecution.
Citing political scientist Professor Jibrin Ibrahim, he said the government’s inaction had allowed falsehoods to flourish unchecked on the international stage.
“According to Professor Jibrin Ibrahim, a respected intellectual, he has said that this issue of Christian genocide has been prosecuted for eight years without any challenge from the government,” Falana explained.
“Guys are going to the West and coming back, spreading this narrative about Christian genocide in Nigeria without any challenges.”
The senior lawyer also drew attention to Nigeria’s failure to implement already agreed-upon solutions to persistent national problems.
He recalled that when Governor (now Senator) Sam Ortom led the Northern Governors’ Forum and the late Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN, chaired the Southern Governors’ Forum, both groups reached a consensus on one key issue — that open grazing should be banned across the country.
However, he lamented that despite such agreements, the Nigerian government has failed to enforce the ban, allowing outdated practices to persist.
