SIR: The situation and happenings in Nigeria bring back sad remembrances and echoes of the events preceding the Nigeria- Biafra civil war. In addition to the homicidal deeds being perpetrated by the Boko Haram in the Northeast, bandits are laying claim to the ownership of the Northwest, particularly Zamfara State. In that area, the bandits kill people with reckless abandon, creating anarchic situation and instilling fear into the people. As a result, the number of ungovernable places in the country is increasing at a great and alarming speed, with the federal government not mustering and showing the political will to solve the security problem besetting Nigeria.
But, it seems to us that it is the gruesome killings being executed by cattle herders that will spark off a major crisis. With A-K47 and other guns slung across their shoulders, the bandits patiently lie in ambush in forests waiting for the auspicious time to attack occupants of posh passing cars. The murder of Mrs Olakurin, daughter of Pa Fasoranti, the Afenifere leader, the latest, has since sparked national outrage.
In the Southeast, the herders are in the habit of killing people of their host communities even without provocation. I remember vividly their early morning massacre of scores of people of Nimbo town in Enugu State.
Rather than tackle the issue of insecurity of lives and property in Nigeria, and bring the murderous herders to justice, the federal government planned to appropriate other people’s land for the implementation of Ruga settlement for the benefit of the herders. The shelved Ruga policy is akin to showing a red rag to a bull. Expectedly, it elicited criticism and opposition from countless millions of Nigerians. Little wonder, it has been shelved.
Have we forgotten that it’s ethnic suspicion as well as rivalry, which undermined our national unity and cohesion in the first republic, and led to the Nigeria-Biafra civil war? Today, ethnic suspicion and hatred is rearing its ugly head up again. The happenings in our today’s Nigeria bring back remembrances and echoes of the Nigeria-Biafra civil-war. Are our political leaders aware of this saying: A stitch in time saves nine? The time to bring Nigeria back from the precipice of instability and disintegration is now.
- Chiedu Uche Okoye, Uruowulu –Obosi, Anambra State.
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