Saturday, January 14, 2017
Southern Kaduna killings and our fragile unity
By Ayo Oyoze Baje
“Woe unto them that call evil good / and good evil;/ that put darkness for light/and light for darkness;…/woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes”
-Isaiah 5 verses 20-21
The Holy Bible had long predicted man’s scarce regard for the sanctity of fellow human life. “Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood.Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths”: Isaiah 59 verse 7.Yet, in all his grand self-deceit he cannot create a strand of human hair. This is the class of people God calls ‘rebellious children’. It is no different here in Nigeria.What with the recent heartless and hideous killings of mostly Christian faithful by fully armed Fulani herdsmen in places such as Jema’a, Sanga, Kanra and Kauru in Kaduna state . Add that to the wanton waste of irreplaceable lives, unleashed on our dear fatherland by the premeditated Boko Haram insurgency, over the past few years and the image of a cruel and conscienceless people is brought to the global space, again.
Equally outrageous is the sordid silence of those who swore by Nigeria’s constitution to ‘protect our lives and property’. Honestly, this rankles deep. So does the insulting and erroneous belief in some quarters that some Nigerians, whether by ethnic colouration, religious or political persuasion are superior to others. Ordinarily, perpetrators of heinous crimes against humanity should be behind bars grinding their teeth in utter remorse, waiting for the Day of Judgment. But it becomes worrisome when proactive and preventive measures, either on the part of state or federal government are few and far between. Such would have curbed, curtailed or out rightly stopped senseless killings of innocent citizens. For instance, in August last year villages in Southern Kaduna, including Gad Biyu, Akwa’a Agwan Ajo were attacked by the armed herdsmen but the expected rapid response from the government was not forthcoming.
Similarly, going by the account of the Catholic Diocese of Kafanchan, it boggles the mind that it would take the deaths of some 808 voiceless victims sent to their early graves, by the vampires in human skin; with 57 injured after series of attacks on 53 villages,16 churches and 1,422 houses burnt to ashes before some form of government intervention would come!Even then, the curfew placed in villages such as Zango Kataf, Jema’a and Kaura local councils could not stem the rising tide of mindless mayhem by the herdsmen. Even on Christmas Eve, several communities in Southern Kaduna still fell victims to their killing spree.
Not long after, and as if adding fuel to an already flaring flame of the ethnic/religious distrust in the troubled state,the governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai claimed he had paid an undisclosed ransom to some of the suspected killers so as to sheathe their swords! Such a controversial government policy, including questionable amnesty granted to criminal gangs in states such as Benue, Katsina, Rivers, Imo and Kano is viewed as a tacit support for mass murder by some political leaders, by not a few peace-loving Nigerians. Inadvertently, it pays to threaten the lives of other citizens; maim rape, waste their property and their lives and wait to be paid for such brazen bestiality! Can you imagine that in a 21st Century Nigeria?
This of course, triggers the burning questions, as rightly demanded by the Southern Kaduna People’s Union(SOKAPU).What was the source of the fund? What is the identity of the beneficiaries of the money? Are the lives of the perpetrators of pure evil more precious than that of their most unfortunate victims? Was it true, as claimed that the government was implementing an aspect of the recommendations of the previous administration t of late Patrick Yakowa? And if so, did the payment for cows killed in crisis, as proffered equate to paying herdsmen to have mercy on defenceless citizens? Who, indeed has been arming the Fulani herdsmen that have been on rampage in communities and states such as Agatu in Benue, Uzo-Uwani in Enugu, Taraba, Zamfara, Katsina, and Niger? The latest is the killing of four policemen in Kwahine, Gidandadi and Karahali villages in Adamawa State.
Only credible answers to these troubling questions would go a long way to finding lasting solutions to the collective injustice against the Nigerian state. One cannot but therefore, support the clarion call of the esteemed members of the Catalysts for Peace and Justice Initiative (CPJI) as well as the Catholic Arc diocese of Kafanchan for the setting up of a panel of inquiry into the immediate and remote causes of the killing spree by the herdsmen, especially over the past one year. Indeed, the fragile fabric of the nation is gradually being undermined by the twin evils of corruption (not just financial scams) and the self-decimating incubus of impunity. We cannot afford any form of religious crisis, worse still with the biting economic recession.
For the peace-loving people of Kaduna, the religious crisis in 1987,the subsequent killings in Zango Kataf in 1992 and the post-election violence in 2011 through which we lost some youth corpers should be sobering enough to prevent a repeat performance. We should have learnt enduring lessons from the events that led to the setting up of Oputa Panel and the attendant Report.
Over the centuries, no nation, or part of it that sheds so much innocent human blood has enjoyed sustained peace or prosperity. From the ethnic cleansing of the Jie people in China in 350 AD, through that of Sicilian Vespers in Italy, in 1282, the religious persecution of a quarter million Jews in Spain between 1492 and 1614, the killings of herdsmen in Central Kalahari in the 1990s,to the Sudan crisis in 2003 and Uzbeks in 2010s should have informed us of the folly of taking the lives of those we can never replace. Vengeance, as all the holy books say belongs only to God. And history, repeats itself for a people who refuse to learn from its open hands.
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