Joining forces with Yoruba activist Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho; the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Chief Gani Adams; and the O’odua People’s Congress, headed by Prince Segun Osinbote, the Yoruba socio-cultural group Afenifere is set to lead a campaign against the consumption of beef.
The proposed campaign, tagged “Anything But Cow Day,” comes against the backdrop of a North-based boycott of perishable foods and cattle out of southern Nigeria, which was orchestrated by traders belonging to the Amalgamated Union of Foodstuff and Cattle Dealers of Nigeria (AUFCDN).
Billed with the theme “A one-day symbolic beef boycott towards terminating the cow pandemic – End COWVID-21,” the show of activism is to be streamed live on the O’odua People’s Communications YouTube channel. It is also expected to trend on Twitter under the hashtag #EndCowPandemic.
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Meanwhile, stakeholders at the Igbo Nation Political Summit held in Owerri, organized by the Igbo National Council (INC), has likewise called on Nigerians to boycott the purchase and consumption of cow meat.
The INC noted through a communique from the summit, which was signed by both INC President Chilos Godsent and National Secretary Zulu Ofoelue, that the call for a boycott on buying and eating cow meat would serve as an economic sanction against the herdsmen who have been ravaging the country.
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As part of the blockade, all routes linking the north to the south were closed on instructions from the AUFCDN, preventing suppliers from moving food and animals southward and leaving them stranded between Kwara and Niger States. The union’s protest signifies a larger stand against the alleged loss of animals, property and life as a result of violence in the southern part of the country.
The union is demanding protection for its members as well as payment of about N475 billion in compensation from the federal government for the lives and property lost in the wake of the ongoing crisis.
