NIGERIA'S DEADLY MONSTERS
When you take everything away from a man or a people, including their humanity, their loved ones, their land, their possessions, their faith, their God, their self-respect, their identity and their dignity and you put them and theirs under the fire and sword morning, day and night you cannot expect them not to voice their pain and not to scream and a shout.
And when the screaming and shouting goes unheeded you cannot expect them not to hit back and attempt to break the yoke of torment, subjugation, tyranny and slavery.
No matter how powerful you are and how long you have been killing them and all that are theirs, one day they will rise up, pull you down from your giddy heights and cut open your throats.
If history teaches us nothing else, it teaches us this. The morale of the tale is as follows: mind how you insult and mock your victims and those that you treat with contempt, kill at will and hold in bondage because one day their time will come.
It is in this context that I view the shameful call by the Council of Imams for the arrest of the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Christian leaders in Southern Kaduna for asking the people to defend themselves from genocide.
The call is not only reckless and provocative but it is also self-seeking and dangerous. They must stop this nonsense.
The facts are as follows. 808 Christians were butchered on Christmas eve and Christmas day by the Muslim Janjaweed Fulani militia in Southern Kaduna. Not one of the butchers and bloodthirsty murderers have been identified, apprehended, killed or arrested since then by our security forces.
The Christians of Nigeria are still in mourning and the people of Southern Kaduna are still in trauma.
Yet there have been no soothing words or expressions of regret, consolation or solidarity from any Sunni Muslim group in the country since the pogrom took place.
Only threats and insults from the Council of Imams. The only exceptions are the Shiite Muslims who have consistently expressed outrage about what is going on in Southern Kaduna and who have themselves also been subjected to mass murder and genocide in Kaduna state simply because they are not Sunnis.
You first butcher the flock and then you say that the shepherd dare not complain or attempt to protect those that are still left behind and alive. What type of monsters are these?
The Supreme Council Of Islamic Affairs made matters worse by saying that those that killed 808 Christians in Southern Kaduna on Christmas eve and Christmas day were "unknown elements".
Really? This, perhaps, is the biggest insult of all. It is rather like saying that those that perpetuated the holocaust against the Jews which resulted on the cold-blooded murder of 6 million Jews were "unkown elements". It is insensitive and it is callous.
It represents the greatest perversion of truth and most bestial denial of decency and justice that Nigeria has witnessed in many years.
It is falsehood and perfidy, cooked up and served by a group of unconscionable and uncontrollable dark and evil men who believe that they can get away with anything and that they are a law into themselves.
Meanwhile, Miyetti Allah, an umbrella organisation that speaks for the Fulani herdsmen and the Janjaweed militia, have said that the mass murder of Christians that took place in Southern Kaduna on Christmas eve and Christmas day were "reprisal" and "revenge" killings for the murder of their kith and kin by the Christians of Southern Kaduna in 201. Need we look any further for who the culprits are?
In his own contribution the Minister of Internal Affairs, General Dambazzau, who is himself a Fulani Muslim, has roundly condemned CAN's call on the Federal Government to do its job and protect the people of Southern Kaduna and their counsel to the Christians to defend themselves where and when the government fails to do so. I ask again, what type of monsters are these?
And why has our President refused to call them to order? Is it because he shares the same faith and comes from the same region as them? Is it because the President himself is not only a Muslim and a Fulani man but also the Life Patron of Miyetti Allah?
Professor Wole Soyinka provides profound insight into the matter. He said,
“Religion in the history of this continent has been a disastrous venture, a disaster in many zones and continues to be even so today. In this very nation in Southern Kaduna, over 800 souls were brutally extinguished suddenly. While the issue of grazing lands versus farming is unquestionably part of the conflict, it is equally undeniable that religious differences have played crucial role in the conflict. And yet some weeks before the latest outrage, the governor of that state was quoted to have claimed that peace was nigh since he had sent funds to the earlier wave of killers and they had agreed to end their killing spree. What astonished me was not the admission by the governor but the astonishment of others at such governmental response to atrocity. There was nothing new about it. Has appeasement to religious forces not become a Nigerian face of justice and equity? First lethargy and then appeasement. Wasn’t Boko Haram’s Muhammed Yusuf not a beneficiary of appeasement in a similar fashion? Southern Kaduna has reminded us once again that the monster always lying waiting to pounce under the guise of religion. If you ask why General Buhari did not act fast enough when these events take place, which degrade us as human beings, well it is perhaps he has been waiting for the governor of that state to send money to the killers first for them to stop the killing.”
Whatever the reasons are for the indifference of our President and the callousness and insensitivity of the Council of Imams, the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs, Miyetti Allah, Governor Nasir El Rufai, General Dambazzau and all those that support them, it would be wise for them to appreciate the fact that the patience of the rest of the country is fast running out and that they are set to provoke a chain of ugly events the end of which will not augur well for them or their cause.
Nothing reflects this better than the words of Bishop David Oyedepo of Winners Chapel, who is one of the most influential and powerful clerics in the country, when he said,
"Since when has it become a crime for Christians to say they can defend themselves ?
Must the north always rule? If Nigeria will break let it break. No marriage is by force. I curse every Islamic northern forces sponsoring this uprising of Fulani herdsmen and Boko Haram in Jesus name. You catch anyone that looks like them, kill him! There is no reporting to anybody. Kill him! Pull off his neck! And we spill his blood on the ground. What nonsense. They said why should Christians say they could defend themselves, hold it! What stupid statement, why should Christians say they could defend themselves? So, they should watch for you to put a knife to their necks? You think we are dummies? What! What? All those zeros census they are fake. Where are the human beings?Where are they? We go around the place. Where are they? We’ve never had a successful census in this country. Where are they? Don’t mistake only those in politics as in power. The anointed in the Lord are the ones in power. By divine ordination, don’t mistake that. There was a king in the land but Elijah was determining the events of the nation. If I say it will not rain here for three years, it will not drop. What nonsense! Who born their mother, who born their father? They are too small. Come! Get excited and walk in confidence. Any devil that misbehaves around you will be slain by the fire!”
Again Darius Ishaku, the Governor of Taraba state, said,
''The people of Southern Kaduna must wake up from their slumber and defend themselves. You can’t just lie down and allow yourselves to be annihilated by other groups. You have a constitutional right to self-defense and now is the time to use it. The government alone cannot do it.”
Clearly the drums of war and conflict are already beating in our nation and no-one takes a greater share of the blame for this than those identifiable forces that are encouraging, sponsoring, protecting and covertly supporting these barbaric and murderous Fulani militias and herdsmen. They are all, to the last man, nothing but monsters and beasts.
In his book titled “Concerning the Government of Our Country and Neighboring Countries in the Sudan”, Nigeria's first Mahdi, Sheik Usman Dan Fodio, who is the father of the Fulani Caliphate and leader of the 1804 jihad that overwhelmed and conquered what is now known as northern Nigeria wrote:
“The government of a country is the government of its king without question. If the king is a Muslim, his land is Muslim; if he is an unbeliever, his land is a land of unbelievers. In these circumstances it is obligatory for anyone to leave it for another country”.
Could this strange and primitive rationale be the reason for the creeping attempt to wipe out Christianity, destroy the Church, slaughter Christians, Islamise the faithful and enslave the people of the south and Middle Belt in our country today?
Could this be the ethos and philosophical bedrock and foundation of the imperative of Islamic domination and Fulani rule? Have we finally discovered the intellectual Holy Grail of Fulani raison d'etra?
This brings me to a number of other questions which many harbour but few dare to ask.
The southern region of Nigeria has not had a Chief Justice of the Federation in 30 years and now that one has been nominated by the National Judicial Council our core northern President Muhammadu Buhari has simply refused to confirm him. The question may be asked, what is the south's portion in Nigeria?
Such is the suspicion, bedlam and utter turmoil in our nation today that some are of the view that the solution to the problems of Nigeria is not just restructuring but a total break up of the country.
They believe that restructuring may be a good first step but the final destination has to be a total and complete break up and divorce.
They argue that this can he done peacefully and quietly or it will eventually be done violently and in a very messy way.
They say that the sooner we do it the easier it will be and that the longer we delay it the more messy it will be.
Whether one agrees or disagrees with them one thing is clear: we are sitting on a keg of gunpowder and we ALL know it.
It is just that we like to pretend. The bottom line is this: things cannot go on the way they are.
Some believe that we should let the four "liberal" zones (south-west, south-south, south- east and north-central) come together and form one nation and let the north-west and north- east zone either go and merge with Chad and Niger Republic or form their own country.
They argue that we should let the Christians, the Shiite Muslims and the core northern ethnic minority tribes that presently live in the north- east and north-west, if they wish, to relocate, move to the Middle Belt (north-central) and remain with us in Nigeria.
Interestingly this mass relocation and migration process was executed in India when she broke into two and Pakistan was formed just after she got her independence from the British.
Millions of Muslims who resided in India moved north to the other side of the country that was to be later called Pakistan whilst millions of Hindus who resided in the area that was to be later called Pakistan relocated from there and moved all the way south to the area that continued to be referred to as India.
Given the terrible carnage that took place between the Hindus and the Muslims in India before the break-up the whole thing worked rather well and saved millions of lives.
This was the case even though there were three border wars between the two countries not too long after the division and tensions exist between them until today.
Yet had it not been for the break-up the number of casualties would have been far higher and the victims of the fratricidal butchery which took place would have been primarily the civilian population, including women and children, rather than just the soldiers.
Some believe that we in Nigeria must take a cue from the Indian, and later Sudanese, examples. They believe that we must break Nigeria into two before we kill each other to the last man and woman.
They believe that it is either we negotiate this and let it be done in an equitable, reasonable, respectful and orderly manner or we will end up having a violent, brutal, bloody and long ethnic war in this country which will result in the final balkanisation and break up of Nigeria into no less than four or more pieces.
Whichever way we cannot be compelled to stay in a nation that is controlled by our collective oppressors and those that believe that killing others that do not share their faith or belong to their ethnic group or religious sect for much longer.
They have sucked the nations blood dry and killed the host body that they have fed fat on for the last 56 years.
They have killed the spirit of Nigeria and sacrificed her unity on the alter of greed, hate, religious intolerance, political domination and false notions of ethnic supremacy.
Their hegemony is an affront to the Living God and it stands against the natural order of things.
It is time for them to go or to be thrown out.
It is only after this happens that we can achieve our full potentials as a nation and that our people can be truly blessed.
Those that control the country and believe that they own it will NEVER allow restructuring because it defeats the object of their purpose.
Given that, it is very clear that we are heading for the rocks because the generation of southern and Middle Belt Nigerians that come after mine refuse to accept the notion that they are nothing but glorified slaves and second class citizens.
My generation and those that came before it were far more ready to compromise with the evil, accept that bogus notion and just continue to hope for the best.
The result is that we are still waiting and hoping whilst the grip of our internal colonial masters and their power is greater today than it has EVER been.
Meanwhile thousands of southerners, Shiite Muslims, Middle Belters and northern Christians have been slaughtered at the alter and are being butchered by the sponsored ethnic militias that are known as the Fulani herdsmen. One must ask, how long are we going to continue watching this evil silently and just keep hoping for the best?
This sort of thing can only happen in Nigeria. If people had been subjected to such barbarity and wickedness in any other country in the world there would have been international outrage and violent reactions long ago. Yet in Nigeria we respond to it with nothing but indifference and silence in the name of political correctness. It is truly pathetic.
The truth is that this "political correctness" will kill us if we dont kill it first. We must be prepared to say the things that we say to one another behind closed doors publicly as well.
The country needs a dose of truth to heal its wounds and it also needs focused, strong, honest and decisive leadership. Those that believe that they were born to kill us at will and rule us in perpetuity must either accept that they are not our ethnic masters and stop all this barbarity or they must go.
The truth is that the whole country is ready to explode. We the older men are the ones that are just still talking. The younger ones stopped talking long ago and now they are preparing for war.
I have traveled to many parts of this country in the last few weeks and months and what I saw and heard scared me. And I don't scare easily. We must try to keep a lid on it and talk our way out of this mess before the bullets start flying and reason and rational thinking goes out of the window.
Those that believe that they own Nigeria are the greatest obstacle to national cohesion and no one else. The rest of us can work out our differences, keep our four zones, devolve power from the centre and establish a 21st century secular modern nation-state where we are all equal, where the rule of law prevails and where Islamic fundamentalism and ethnic domination has no place.
We must also work out our differences in the south. It is the division amongst the southerners that feeds and fuels core northern hegemony. We must all make concessions and set our differences aside and come together as one against our collective adversaries.
If we cannot do that and we allow historical differences and rivalries to abide and flourish then frankly we deserve to remain as the slaves that they have turned us into. Let us hope that good reason prevails and that we make the right choices.
Let us hope that we are guided by God and His Holy Spirit in all our endeavours. Let us hope that we can muster the courage to say "no more" to ethnic and religious cleansing, mass murder, bondage, servitude and tyranny.
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