There is no record in recent memory of Nigerian Christendom or any of its denominations embarking on nationwide demonstrations to protest perceived ill treatment.
Not even the serial religion-induced Maitatsine riots in the north; unprovoked killings arising from a cartoon in foreign land and the bombing of churches by the Boko Haram insurgents could precipitate public protestation from the church. But that record of caution in the face of tribulation was broken last Tuesday when the Catholic Church took to the streets to denounce continued killings of helpless citizens especially Christians in the face of inability of the government to rein in the killers.
The protests were scheduled by the Catholic leadership to coincide with the burial of Rev. Frs. Joseph Gor and Felix Tyolaha as well as 17 parishioners mowed down by suspected Fulani herdsmen at St Ignatius Catholic Church, Ukor-Mbalom in the Gwer-East local government area of Benue state at a morning mass service. Its objective was to bring to the fore the degenerate level into which the senseless killing of its adherents had sunk and the impatience of members with the failure of the state to stem the tide.
And in the speeches by the bishops, they demonstrated their impatience with the continued killings in the face of the incapacity of the government to get a handle to it. John Cardinal Onayikan, the bishop of Abuja called for a halt to the killings but would not want it to be politicized as the ‘nation is in a state of emergency’
Onayikan did not fail to warn that if the murderers were allowed to continue without being checked, it would come to a point when people will begin to adopt other means to defend themselves. And that to me is the central message of the protests by the Catholic Church.
Elsewhere, the capacity of our security agencies to protect lives and property was called to serious question even as insinuations of religious and ethnic agenda were quite palpable from some of the speeches and banners. But Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue state inched closer to the crux of the matter when he pondered on the reason for the attack on the church.
Hear him: “these people were in the church and not in their farms; by this act they have moved their narrative to other motives. We know our killers but they are not arrested or invited for interrogation; they have stated in several fora that they would ‘reclaim their land’
There are weighty issues arising from Ortom’s statement. And as the chief security officer of that state, we are bound to take him very seriously. The first is that the priests and the faithful were murdered in their church while celebrating morning mass and communing with their creator. This casts the motive of the killers suspect especially given the rationalization by government functionaries that the crisis derives its oxygen from the anti-open grazing law, cattle theft and encroachment on grazing routes.
Catholic priests have nothing to do with any of these touted causes. Neither were the other parishioners in any confrontation with the herdsmen before the attack. Those who did the killings know the terrain well such that they struck when the Catholic Church was having its morning mass. Definitely, the attack has nothing to do with any provocation relating to farmers/herders clashes except the contrivance of some demented persons to desecrate and offend the religious sensibilities of the Catholics and possibly cause religious uprising. And they really succeeded in hurting the Catholics by violating all that they hold dear.
But in the pursuit of this weird agenda, they have aroused the consciousness of the Catholic Church to the reality of the danger lurking around the corner. Even with the hallmark restraint of the Catholic Church in such provocations, it was compelled by self preservative instincts to embark on the massive nationwide demonstrations witnessed last week. That was the first of its kind in our recent history and underscores the increasing impatience of the Church with the slide to the precipice into which the country is irretrievably headed. It is also a clarion call on the government to rise to the raison d’être for its existence and legitimacy or take vicarious responsibility for acts of omission or commission that sustain the increasing decline to the law of the jungle.
Before now, not a few Nigerians have accused the government of passive interest in the killings, collusion or outright bias. It has also remained confounding that our security framework could be found wanting in neutralizing the rampaging killer herdsmen. We have equally heard of all manner of excuses for the inability to stem the tide including insufficient manpower. All that could as well be traded even as they cannot explain the inability of the state to halt the scourge.
So when the government comes out to attribute the escalation of the killings to insurgents trained by Gadaffi or environmental and geographical factors, it is being very economical with the truth. Many of the communities under the mercy of the herdsmen view these excuses as part of the insincerity of the government that has allowed the killings to fester.
Yes, there could be some environmental and geographical issues to the conflict. We cannot also rule out provocation arising from cattle rustling or some other remote considerations. But the crux of the matter evident in Ortom’s statement is land ownership. Those who have been turned refugees in their own land have severally alleged that their ancestral homes have been taken over by the herdsmen. And that is the real issue.
It is needless dissipating energy on the factors responsible for the killings. What should be of essence now is the steps taken by the government to halt, arrest the killers and have them face the raw teeth of the law. It is curious that even after Ortom severally claimed publicly that they know the killer herdsmen security agencies have continued to ignore that vital lead.
If they had acted on that information by arresting and interrogating the suspects, they may have been able to decode the unseen forces that propel and reinforce the near invincibility of the killer herdsmen. The inability to act on such lead is at the root of the suspicion that behind the killings is an agenda of some ethnic and religious hue. It is inconceivable that the killer squad has continued to evade the prying eyes of our security agencies such that they now pose more lethal threat than the Boko Haram insurgents. I do not even think the killer herdsmen are beyond the capacities of the natives to handle if it comes to that. Being largely itinerant, there is no how they could possibly overwhelm those they attack in their ancestral homes if they set out to defend themselves. After all, societies had their own way of self defense and preservation even in primeval ages. But as the locals have severally alleged, each time they set out to take on the insurgents, security agencies will intervene and disband them. Curiously, the same security is always taken unawares when the herdsmen strike.
With the security architecture consequent upon the institutionalization of modern governance framework, it is no longer permissible for the locals to resort to self help. It would amount to a relapse to the atavism of the law of nature if we have to defend ourselves. But in a situation the government is unable to protect lives and property thereby failing to discharge its part of the social contract, what remedies are there for the citizenry?
The contradiction arising from this poser is at the center of calls and warnings that citizens may be left with no alternative than to defend themselves since self preservation is the first law of nature. And when that happens, what becomes of the institution of government?
We are tired of trite excuses or some other worn out rationalizations such that the Nigerian army came out with in its report on allegations by former Chief of Army staff, Theophilus Danjuma. Catholics took to the streets for an immediate halt to the killings. They took to the streets for the government to live up to its statutory duties or take the blame for the increasing lure of self help.
