I tried as much as possible not to comment on or discuss this issue anytime it came across my way because I was not only involved, but the subject is emotive. But the more I tried to avoid it, the more it kept coming in recurring decimal fashion. The February 18, 2006 sectarian riot now designated the Black Saturday in Borno refused to go for its sad memories of destruction, barbarism and man’s inhumanity to man. The day the South African Sharpeville massacre re-echoed in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital. Indeed, the day the dark cloud of smoke accompanied by dead silence hung over the city, thus violating the serenity and Borno philosophy of “Home of Peace and Hospitality”. It was the day hell was let loose and Satan ran mad wreaking havoc on people and property. Talking of the dark cloud of silence that hung on Maiduguri on the black Saturday reminds one of the visit of Pope Benedict VI in May 2006 to Auschwitz.
This place (Auschwitz) was a concentration camp in Poland during the Second World War where millions of Jews were gassed to death by the Nazis in Germany. In an emotion-laden speech, Pope Benedict declared: “To speak in this place of horror where unprecedented mass crimes were committed against God and man is almost impossible……. in a place like this, words fail, in the end, there can only be a dead silence, a silence which is itself a heartfelt cry to God: why Lord did you remain silent? How could you tolerate all this? How many questions arise in this place! Constantly, the question comes up: where was God in those days? Why was he silent? How could he permit this endless slaughter, this triumph of evil”. The reaction of the Pope is indeed a tailor-made for Maiduguri Black Saturday, a day the man’s modicum of sense was overrun by instincts and emotions and thereafter ran berserk.
In the holocaust that followed over fifty churches were set ablaze, several souls lost in brutality, private and public buildings, commercial houses, shops and restaurants razed down within a matter of hours with no single appearance of a policeman to abate the crime. It was a grand conspiracy, carefully thought, carefully planned, carefully mapped out, carefully directed and meticulously executed. The action was spontaneous and exact in all the areas affected. It was a well calculated and rehearsed plan whose execution was precise and straight on targets with mostly Christians the victims. The perpetrators of this dastardly act held the innocent Christians victims in response to a cartoon drawn by a Danish man said to have blasphemed Prophet Mohammed.
This day of heinous crime against the Christian world by the so-called Muslim fundamentalists or hoodlums was brought back once more to memories of the people by Bishop Naga Williams Mohammed, the current Chairman of the Borno State chapter of the Christians’ Association of Nigeria (CAN) in a press interview penultimate Saturday in Maiduguri. In the interview titled: “Boko Haram: What Christians faced under Sheriff, Shettima”, Bishop Naga said: “If you go back to fairly recent history, our first major problem was in February 2006, when a Danish man whom I heard was not even a Christian drew a caricature of Prophet Mohammed. Unfortunately, there was a protest here in Maiduguri and Christians received the repercussions. A total of 56 churches were destroyed. What struck most is that there was no compensation from the then government.” Bishop Naga pointed out that the then governor in person of Senator Ali Modu Sheriff reneged on the promises he made to Christians after the crisis.
He further stated that though he was a member of the Administrative Committee set up by Sheriff only N150,000 was given to each pastor whose entire church was destroyed. Bishop Naga pointed out that the administration of Governor Kashim Shettima has been of tremendous assistance to the state CAN as well as the generality of Christians since the Boko Haram saga. He explained that the sum of N205 million has been given to a committee set up by the state government to rebuild some of the churches burnt down by the insurgents.
The CAN chairman said that the Gwoza Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the Maiduguri camp were given N20 million, while the governor directed the Borno State Management Agency to be supplying food directly to the IDPs under the Christian leadership. In addition, the governor gave N5 million to bring back the Christians who fled to Cameroon. Similarly the governor gave another N5 million to bring back to Nigeria non-indigenes who also fled to the country . As I pointed earlier, I tried to refrain from commenting on this subject because I was a victim and morally one cannot be a judge in his own cause. As a victim, I lost my property made up of 22 rooms and a bungalow of three bedrooms located at the Bolori layout.
It was in the bungalow a family lost six lives. Besides, I was the chairman of the Association of the Individual Victims made up of the landlords, tenants and traders. I will only mention the facts of the case which are not in contention. It is a fact that Ambassador Ahmed Jidda committee set up by Sheriff’s administration on the crisis recommended the sum of N1.5 billion to be paid as compensation to the affected victims. It is a fact that Sheriff as governor pledged to pay but reneged. It is a fact that prominent Nigerians, including the Sultan of Sokoto Sa’ad Abubakar and the then CAN National Chairman, Cardinal John Onaiyekan, intervened but to no avail. One striking aspect of the press interview by Bishop Naga is the revelation that only N150,000 was given to each pastor whose entire church was destroyed. What is this supposed to mean? Until justice is done, the memory of the Black Saturday of February 18, 2006, will not go. •Victor Izekor, a journalist and public affairs analyst, writes@gmail.com