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Tag: Southern Kaduna

  • Southern Kaduna, murderous herds men and their sponsors: Issues in a misbegotten federation

    Apparently, El Rufai, the Fulani prince charming, in a classical demonstration of Aryanism (the master race), cannot bear to see Fulani blood spilled. 

    “”God sent me as His apostle of liberation to this continent to stop it from decadence. “I heard from God and He has proved it beyond measure. Therefore, every occultic root, every political root of this uprising is cursed today!
    “All the northern forces that are sponsoring this uprising and killings, I decree the curse of God upon them.
     ”Lord, if it is your will to break up Nigeria, break it now!” – Bishop Oyedepo on the Southern Kaduna genocide.

    It cannot be funny that the same General Muhammadu Buhari who, as a former Head of state, wearing a long face, leading Arewa top guns which included the likes of General Buba Marwa, Alhaji Aliko Muhammed, Alhaji Abdulrazak and Alhaji Hassan  on 13 October,  2000 to storm the offices of Alhaji Lam Adesina, the Oyo State governor, to protest alleged killings of Fulani herdsmen  in Saki, Oke Ogun, is the same man who, as Nigeria’s incumbent president, looked askance as hundreds of poor Southern Kaduna Christians were being mowed down by an increasingly murderous Fulani herds men. El Rufai, the megalomaniac Kaduna State governor, would not rouse himself to action until it became obvious that the killings were becoming equal opportunity as those who were being slaughtered, and their villages burnt, started to kill the marauders in return. Apparently, El Rufai, the Fulani prince charming, in a classical demonstration of Aryanism (the master race), cannot bear to see Fulani blood spilled. You would not but wonder if this is the same Muhammadu Buhari Nigerians trooped out to vote into office less than two years ago.

    I am no blue-eyed, sentimental or petulant columnist. Rather, I am over 70 years old and,  if at that age I cannot speak truth to power, then my education is not only a bloody waste, my age is worse. For those who think that this country cannot rapidly unravel or, as some like to kid themselves, that its unity is non-negotiable, I have the following contributions to a discussion of the Southern Kaduna crisis by individuals who are ordinarily cool about the Buhari government to ask that they think again. As is my wont, only my contribution will be ascribed.

     I wrote: “Reading through these two stories, the words of Pastor Adeboye, praising Gov Fayose, came poignantly back to me. With the two different approaches to the problem of these murderous people by both the two governments, it goes without saying that Governor Fayose will long remain a hero of Ekiti people. That the president has not spoken on the horrible killings in Southern Kaduna – not even during his last major radio and television address  to the nation – and his equally appalling handling of this problem especially in mostly Christian areas of both the North central and many parts of the southern stares, shows clearly, as I said in a recent article, that President Buhari obviously prefers his Fulani people to other Nigerians even where they were never able to take him to the presidential gloryland he now occupies until he had reached out beyond them to other parts of the country during the 2015 election.

    Incidentally, the gory picture of killings in Southern Kaduna was mailed to me via WhatsApp all the way from America. When you juxtapose that with the graceful Obama farewell address in which he said only ignorance could make any group think that some Americans are more American than others, then you know we are absolutely in the backwoods here in Nigeria.

    While these Fulani herders kill at will, their political leaders are also all out, both at the executive and legislative arms of government, trying to force grazing routes on Nigerians with a view to having Fulani settlements, complete with some of these killers, planted in each part of the country. No wonder, it  has been suggested in very serious quarters that  all these herdsmen’s antics are, indeed, a precursor to some devilish religious scheme and it is getting increasingly difficult not to believe them.

    My candid advice, if the federal government continues to treat non Fulani’s like they are lesser Nigerians, is that those aggrieved victims of the mindless Fulani killings, and governments and citizens of states who hold their freedoms sacrosanct, must take a page from the Fayose book, get their peoples prepared and – here governors as chief protectors of their peoples must pro actively act in their support – and get them ready for whatever is coming. After all, President Buhari has himself said that these killers, assisting their ethnic Fulani compatriots in the killings, are well trained men, armed with superior and sophisticated weapons they brought all the way from the Maghreb as if Nigeria has no government to defend it against these marauders.

    Fayose has shown the way, Nigeria is a federation and state governments must rise up to their responsibility of safeguarding their people. There can be no two ways to it. After all, we die but once”.

    Wrote a seasoned lawyer next:

    “Reading the way Alhaji Lam Adesina and his Security Chiefs dealt with those Fulani supremacists who  today are holding the” kuku ida “ (in power) set me thinking , made me proud and shed a tear at the same time. Nigeria was a country not too long ago; there were leaders who knew their briefs, there were Security Chiefs who manned their duty posts. It now appears that the carrying of begging bowls, monthly, to Abuja has reduced men to children.  Honestly, it appears as if we have forgotten that Nigeria is a Federation and not a feudal enclave under the Lordship of one powerful Emir.

    And our people who ought to discern the times are so blind by reason of stupid politics that they would scurry to defend their oppressors to their shame and hurt. The only thing I know is that some of us are conscious of our free born status and can never agree to this second class citizenship being engineered by those whose days in power could be numbered.”

    And then, an Engineering Professor interjected:” Looking at those mass slaughter of fellow human beings is simply awful, and I have since stopped thinking that all this is really about cattle rearing. I have come to accept the claim, in some quarters, that a form of expansionist agenda is surreptitiously being undertaken. What could midnight burning of houses, raping of women and killings all over the country have to do with cattle rearing?

    * Fayose may be anything, but his approach to this matter will stand the test of time. Chief Awolowo, asked what he would  have done if he were to be Shagari when the Cameroonian gendarmes trespassed our territory, killing our citizens, had replied :

    “if you wake up every morning to find your neighbour pointing a gun at you, you need to buy a gun and hold it conspicuously each morning, for him to see”. What is absolutely inexplainable is the dumb refusal of other Southern governors to adopt the Fayose strategy. Seeing the carnage, in what has a semblance of genocide, I started to look beyond the herdsmen. Nasir El Rufai, the Kaduna State governor, eminently qualifies for arrest on the strength of some of his statements over the Kaduna South mayhem. He confessed to have paid some Fulani killers, who are from outside the country, so that they stop killing! Hogwash! The failure to do anything, but look the other way, until immersed in an unmamanageable public outcry, says a lot. It sounds so unbelievable that this president, who swore to protect the lives of Nigerians, could look the other way while citizens were being beheaded in their hundreds. That  this president, who as an ordinary Nigerian, led a crowd of Miyeti people to invade the government house, Ibadan, could look the other way as children, pregnant women and able bodied citizens of Nigeria were being butchered by those Nasir described as foreigners, is beyond belief.  Clearly, this president seems more interested in protecting the lives of cows, the rustling of which he has deployed soldiers to fight, than protect ours.

    • We Yorubas are obviously in a culture shock; for here, human life is sacred and we believe that only the Almighty who gives it, can take it. We will now have to decide whether, or not, we want to be made no more than slaves in our own land or continue to watch, helpless,  the continuing defilement of  sacred aspects of our culture  by co-habiting with unruly beings to whom cows’ lives  are obviously more valuable than humans’”.

    Lesson of all these: Nigeria’s unity should not be taken for granted. I can only hope this is internalised.

     

  • Military operations in Southern Kaduna, Kano, Plateau soon- Buratai

    Military operations in Southern Kaduna, Kano, Plateau soon- Buratai

    To rid the country of criminals and troubleshooters, the Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai on Thursday said that the Nigeria military will soon commence exercises named Kunama 2 in Southern Kaduna, parts of Kano and Plateau States.

    He spoke with State House correspondents at the end of about six-hours security meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    According to him, troops are already on ground to stop the killings in Southern Kaduna.

    He also said that other operations in the North-East, South-South, and South-East are on course.

    He said: “Our troops are already in Southern Kaduna, we have our special forces operating there along with all other security agencies and we intend also to have an exercise very soon in Southern Kaduna to cover some part of plateau and indeed part of Kano state.

    “So it is part of our strategy for this year, to continue all the exercises we have had before. We will be having exercise Kunama two, which will come into Southern Kaduna state and part of Plateau and Kano state.

    “Croccodile smile in the Niger Delta and indeed the Python dance, but we are going to rename the Python Dance for the South East this year also,” he added

    On Sambisa forest, he said: “We are continuing our operations in that area, Lafiya Dole mandate and the troops are still moving all over the area.

    Asked if there is new directives from the President on the North-East, he said: “The directive is there, we are still pursuing it and it is a task we must accomplish at all cost.”

    The Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali also disclosed that major security issues in the country were discussed at the meeting.

    “The Southern Kaduna, the Niger Delta issues and other major crisis areas were discussed and resolutions were passed.

    “Like I said in the Southern Kaduna we have our troops being moved and they have already taken places, operation is going on and I believe that very soon it will come to an end.” He said

    He said that no conclusion was reached at the meeting on The Gambia crisis, pointing out that it was not a national issue affecting Nigeria.

    But he was optimistic that the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was adequately handling the matter.

  • Southern Kaduna: Ulama Council seeks arrest of CAN President, senator

    Southern Kaduna: Ulama Council seeks arrest of CAN President, senator

    The Kaduna State Council of Imams and Ulama, on Monday called on the Federal Government to arrest and prosecute those who exacerbated the crisis in Southern Kaduna through inflammatory and false statements.
    The council made its stand known at a press conference in Kaduna addressed by its Chairman, Sheik Abubakar Babantune and Secretary, Aminu Ibrahim.
    It said that the inflammatory utterances of religious and political leaders in the area had led to the “merciless massacre of hundreds of Hausa/Fulani Muslims in the area.”
    The council particularly urged the government to arrest and prosecute Sen. Danjuma La’ah, the senator representing the area, and Sunday Marshal-Katung, a member of the House of Representatives.
    The Imams and Ulamas also listed Rev. Zacahriah Gado of 19 DCC Fellowship, CAN President Samson Ayokunle, CAN Secretary General Musa Asake, John Danfulani, and Solomon Musa, SOKAPU President, for their alleged roles in encouraging killings in the area.
    The council, citing several newspaper publications, accused them of whipping up sentiments through falsehood and encouraging residents to take up arms against each other.
    They blamed the government for failing to punish perpetrators of past crises in the area, who were indicted but allowed to go scot-free.
    The council cited such people to include Zamani Lekwot and five others, who were found guilty and sentenced to death by Justice Okigbo tribunal over the Zangon Kataf crises.
    “The white paper of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Kaduna State Religious Disturbances of 2001 recommended for further investigation and reprimand of Elder Saídu Dogo, Archbishop P.Y.Jatau, Archbishop B.A. Achigili.
    “The white paper on the report of the Federal Government Investigation Panel on the 2011 Election Violence and Civil Disturbances recommended among others for the Police to investigate a History Teacher that slaughtered the father of his student in her presence.”
    The council noted that the crisi had been exacerbated by the mischievous utterances of such political and religious leaders in the area, and said government must put a stop to it.
    “The council is in support of the Federal and Kaduna State Governments in taking any measure legally, to deal with any individual or group of persons,” found promoting further disturbances in the area.
    It called for sustained prayers by all Nigerians of good will to bring the crisis to an end and ensure permanent peace and economic prosperity.

  • Boko Haram may shift base to Southern Kaduna

    •Police repel fresh attack on Tsonje 

    Senator Danjuma La’ah (Kaduna South) has expressed fear that Boko Haram insurgents might shift base to Southern Kaduna.

    He spoke as suspected Fulani herdsmen at the weekend reportedly launched an attack on Tsonje, but the attack was repelled by policemen after almost 24 hours of gun battle between the attackers and the security agents, supported by arms bearing youths.

    Two people were said to have died during the gun battle and and two others missing.

    Senator La’ah who confirmed the incident in a statement yesterday, said, “death of the two men, identified as Ephraim Ezekiel, 19, and Joshua Ladi, 41, occurred after an almost 24-hour gun battle between the terrorists on one hand and the Nigeria police and local vigilante as the Fulani terrorists tried to overrun a village called Tsonje”.

    The Senator who likened the Southern Kaduna incidents to Boko Haram insurgency in the North East, said the insurgents were likely to shift base to Southern Kaduna.

    According to him, “I have been reliably informed that after the terrorists retreated to their well known camp behind Pasakori community at the foot of Kagoro mountain, a few kilometres away, two other persons have also been declared missing.

    “Information reaching me from around the troubled areas have affirmed that despite the large presence of troops of the Nigeria Army that have been drafted to assist the Police in battling these terrorists, not a single soldier was drafted to assist the police and the local vigilante, in spite of sporadic gun fire that could be heard for kilometers away and throughout the onslaught from Friday morning to Saturday morning.

    “This is a very sad development. I had earlier praised the Federal Government when these troops were first deployed to Southern Kaduna sometime last week. I had absolute confidence that the Nigeria Army will quickly put an end to this wild and cruel onslaught which have not only ravaged but laid to waste peaceful and law abiding communities; and as I speak, Fulani terrorists are still occupying several villages in Southern Kaduna.

    “Instead, I only get reports of soldiers brutalising Southern Kaduna natives; intimidating and threatening our brave young ones with arrest as they lay watch over their communities.

    “I am bringing this curious development to the attention of the Nigeria Army authority and to the public to appreciate the grave condition under which parts of my constituency have found themselves.

    “As you may have been informed, Ninte, Akwa, Golgofa, Gada Biyu, Anjul have already been dominated and inhabited by these Terrorists after many of the villagers were killed, the villages plundered before being  set ablaze since May last year. As of Today, the terrorist have moved in to these communities – The unharvested crops of the villagers that have fled, have become food for their cattle.

    “Also, Passakori, Mile 1 and Unguwan Missisi all on the ever busy Kagoro-Gidan Waya road in Jema’a LGA have been annexed and are now abodes of the terrorists.

    “That is not all, the world has remained silent or has forgotten the killings of persons and the subsequent displacement of communities likeý Kirim, Zakum,  Mayit, Agwom, Zakai Gira,  Telak Tunga and  Magwot.

    “Fulani Terrorists have since taken over these villages located strategically on the Attakad hills, in Moroa Chiefdom, Kaura LGA.

    “I am making this public to alert the world of a possible re-grouping of Boko Haram Terrorists with Fulani herdsmen terrorists in Southern Kaduna. They are now conquering large swaths of lands, and have now established a base behind Passakori. This was how Boko Haram started in 2009.

    “I am appealing especially to the Nigeria military, whose gallant achievements in dislodging Boko Haram terrorist is being praised and hailed nationwide, to step in and assist the Police.

    “Again, I call on all Southern Kaduna residents to give their maximum cooperation to the police, security operatives, the Nigeria military and all personnel legitimately deployed to secure us.

    “Southern Kaduna natives and all residents must understand that the threat to take over their lands by force is not mere speculation or rumour. Everyone must be ready to sacrifice and assist in securing his/her community through committed cooperation with the constituted authority in place,” he said

  • Govt meets Southern Kaduna mayhem with sophistry

    Govt meets Southern Kaduna mayhem with sophistry

    AFTER waiting endlessly for the hyperbolic governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai, to pacify the rampaging and vengeful herdsmen he acknowledged were his Fulani compatriots from within and without the country, the federal government has finally and sulkily embarked on remedial measures to bring peace to the pillaged villages of Southern Kaduna. Brigades of the military and squadrons of the police are being deployed in the area, and disarmament is reportedly ongoing. It took months of intense killings and pillaging for the government to finally stir itself, and only after locals had started to organise self-defence.

    But despite the horrendous scale of the destruction in Southern Kaduna, and the apparently targeted attacks against the area’s ethnic minority and Christian communities, the government is offended that anyone could attempt to lather the conflict with ethnic and religious colouration. The Interior minister, Abdulrahman Danbazzau, a retired army general and in fact former Chief of Army Staff, who had all along been anonymous in the conflict, finally found his voice to condemn those he growled were looking for excuses to ‘create divisions along ethnic and religious fault lines for their own selfish interest.’ He came to this and other conclusions without sitting down with religious leaders and chiefs of the affected areas or carrying out a fact-finding mission himself. All he was concerned with was sermonising about ‘true religious leaders not fanning hatred.’ A thoroughly disenchanted and displeased Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has replied him, citing evidence and figures.

    After first describing the attackers as foreigners, some of the northern leaders in a position to do something about the conflict, including both the Interior minister and the state governor, have finally buckled under pressure to describe the attackers as ‘common criminals’. This is at least an improvement over months ago when the attackers were described as foreigners on revenge mission. Perhaps not to be misquoted or misinterpreted, President Muhammadu Buhari has kept discretely quiet, with his aides hurling the dictum ‘action speaks louder than words’ at the public. Southern Kaduna will hope, as the CAN leaders say, that the 16 villages occupied by the ‘foreign invaders’ will be retrieved from them by resolute and impartial security officers and the locals resettled back in their land.

    By prevaricating for so long over the attacks in Southern Kaduna, the government allowed the problem to fester and attain definite ethnic and sectarian shapes. Now, to reshape the conflict into a purely criminal matter, as the government disingenuously prefers, will be difficult in the short to medium run. In a conflict where the president says nothing except in press releases, nor does he visit victims or scorched settlements, where the Inspector-General of Police angrily disputes casualty figures without providing alternative statistics and even misquoting the Rwanda genocide figures, where the Interior minister pours scorn and diatribe against those who see tribalism and sectarianism in the crisis, and where the state governor has made many unwise and reckless statements in the past few months, it is not surprising that indigenes of the area and many who sympathise with their plight accuse all the four government officials of hiding behind religious and ethnic sentiments to manage the crisis in a slipshod manner.

    It is not difficult to see why the Southern Kaduna crisis will be a campaign issue in 2019, especially given the appalling and belated responses of the federal and state governments. They will remind the federal government that it looked the other way as a 74-year-old woman, Bridget Agbahime, was murdered for religious reasons by identified people while the suspects are blatantly and provocatively discharged through actions orchestrated by the Kano Justice ministry. They will wonder why government officials keep talking about patriotism when little or nothing has been done to instil confidence in anyone, whatever their religion or ethnicity, that Nigeria means so much more than each person’s petty prejudices.

  • Cleric urges FG to deploy military to southern Kaduna

    For there to be lasting peace in southern Kaduna, a sustained military effort to calm the senseless killings is very germane, the Assistant General Overseer of The Redeemed Christian Church of God, (RCCG), Pastor Johnson Odesola, has said.

    Odesola’s position was made this known in an interview with journalists last Sunday at the Special New Year Prayer and Thanksgiving Service of RCCG, Headquarters, Throne of Grace Parish, Ebutte-Metta, Lagos.

    The programme featured the inauguration of a new 1000-seater prayer foyer.

    Odesola lamented the incessant killings in southern Kaduna that has gone unabated, saying, “I believe that most of the people perpetrating these acts are not Nigerians, they must be people that have alternatives.”

    He said that most Nigerians would have to work hard to make this nation good. “Somebody who is an alien can cause trouble here and run to other country, but as Nigerians, we do not have anywhere else to go except Nigeria. I am sure those causing problems are not Nigerians,” enthused the clergyman.

    He noted that Boko Haram started small and became a menace for the whole of West African region because the government did not address the menace on time.

    Odesola also berated the insecurity in the nation, especially the Biafran agitation in the south East and the Niger Delta militancy which, according to him, should be addressed through dialogue.

    “The Niger Delta and the Biafra agitators have consistently raised their concerns which we must put on the table and a genuine consensus reached for peace. Let us give them our ears, what they want and how do we meet at a middle point should be our priority,” he said.

    On the killings in southern Kaduna, he said that it is hard to place the reasons for the herd men’s continuous raid on people’s farm lands, houses, churches, and innocent lives, adding that military action against the senseless killings must be used against them.

    He stated that it is obvious that certain parts of the country are not fair to some others.

    “People migrate to the south part of Nigeria and get everything including land, but other tribes do not give the same level of support and cooperation to southerners,” Odesola said.

    He stressed that Nigerians should be fair to one another, saying neighbourliness and love for our neighbours should be the watch word.

  • Southern Kaduna

    Southern Kaduna

    •Only fairness, equity and justice can stop the recourse to self-help

    There are people that are sending a message, defend yourselves. We will get them. Defend yourself is hate speech. You can’t defend yourself if there is a government. We are going to arrest and prosecute all those that pass that message”. This widely publicised and yet to be disclaimed statement has been credited to the Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, apparently reacting to the multiple calls by leaders and spokesmen of the indigenous, largely Christian, communities of the Southern region of the state to defend themselves against the persistent attacks of suspected Fulani herdsmen. The attacks had led to the sacking and razing of entire villages, gruesome murder of hundreds of innocent citizens and large-scale destruction of property.

    Ordinarily, Governor el-Rufai’s statement would have been justified and understandable in a situation where the state is effective, efficient and alive to its prime responsibility of protecting the lives and property of all residents within its territorial jurisdiction. That certainly cannot be said to be the case in Southern Kaduna, which has become a veritable boiling cauldron of ethnic, religious, cultural and sheer criminal upheaval. Nothing can be more illustrative of the insecurity of lives and property in this troubled area than the horrendous attack on Goska village by suspected Fulani herdsmen on December 24 and 25, last year.

    In the words of a spokesman of the community: “There is a large presence of police operatives in Goska now. But as far as we are concern (sic), it means nothing to us. They have burnt the whole town and destroyed what we have. This morning (December 26), we counted 11 corpses and 15 other injured persons. We are still looking for four boys and two women. So, it does not matter whether the police are here or not. They have done their worse (sic)”. Ironically, this attack took place despite a curfew imposed by the state government in three local government areas – Zagon Kataf, Kaura and Jema’a – within which Goska community is located.

    The curfew was justified by what the state government described as credible intelligence about risk to lives and property in the areas. How then were the suspected Fulani herdsmen able to move about freely to commit mayhem despite the heavy presence of security agents to enforce the curfew? How can the indigenous Christian communities be logically expected to trust either the sincerity or the capacity of the state to protect them, and why shouldn’t they in that case justifiably resort to self defence?

    Governor el-Rufai apparently meant well when on December 20, he decided to hold the state security council meeting in Kafanchan, the largest town in Southern Kaduna. The protest against the governor’s entourage on that occasion was a function of how badly nerves had frayed and trust devalued over years of ever deteriorating relationships among the diverse ethno-cultural and religious groups in the area. What the scenario in Southern Kaduna calls for is utmost imperturbability, restraint and maturity on the part of el-Rufai. An already highly combustible situation can only be worsened by a leader’s tempestuous temperament.

    The unfortunate truth is that the governor, a Fulani himself, has not exhibited the requisite detachment and dispassionate disposition to be a credible and acceptable arbiter in the crisis. He has petulantly held to the implausible thesis that the perpetrators of the atrocities in Southern Kaduna are not Nigerians but  Fulani herdsmen from across West Africa, including Niger, Cameroon, Chad, Mali and Senegal. This was also the conclusion reached by the General Martin Luther Agwai Peace and Resolution Committee earlier set up to trace the root causes of, and propose solutions to the protracted violence. Those who peddle this view contend that the foreign Fulani herdsmen have been avenging the loss of lives and property, including cattle they suffered in the post-2011 election violence that occurred when they were migrating back to their countries.

    This is, of course, a tenuous and unconvincing rationalisation. For one, the violence in the aftermath of the 2011 elections was not limited to Southern Kaduna. It took place across a large swathe of the far North. How come that the ethno-religious carnage has continued only in Southern Kaduna, even at a time that the murderous Boko Haram insurgency in the North East has been largely contained? Beyond this, neither the General Agwai committee nor Governor el-Rufai has been able to apprehend and present to the public even one of this alleged foreign Fulani herdsmen. Even more ridiculously, el-Rufai has publicly admitted that he paid ‘compensation’ to some of these foreign Fulani herdsmen to stop their murderous activities in Southern Kaduna. Thus, we have a governor playing the role of foreign minister and appeasing aliens who callously snuff out the lives of his own people even as they pauperise them. This can only happen in Nigeria.

    No less insensitive has been the intemperate vituperation of the Minister of the Interior, Lt-General Abdulrahman Dambazzau (retd), against the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) for legitimately and vehemently denouncing the atrocities committed against their members. Dambazzau claims that the conflagration in the region has no religious connotation. He must be living on the moon. It is bad enough, as CAN noted, that as the Minister of the Interior, Gen. Dambazzau has not even once taken a trip to Southern Kaduna to personally appraise the situation.

    For the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, semantics appears to be more important than life. He quibbles with CAN over the latter’s assertion that 808 people died in the crisis. For Idris, what is happening in Southern Kaduna cannot be appropriately described as genocide. It does not occur to him that his prime responsibility is to do everything to ensure that not even one life is lost.

    The gravest and most inexcusable dereliction of responsibility, however, is that of President Muhammadu Buhari. He has remained mute even as hundreds of lives as well as invaluable property continue to be lost in Southern Kaduna. He sees nothing. He hears nothing. He says nothing. Not for the marauding Fulani herdsmen the fiery warnings Buhari reserves for Biafra agitators or Niger Delta militants, for instance. Buhari is Fulani. It is so sad. Even sadder is the attempt by his spokesman, Femi Adeshina, to rationalise his boss’s inexplicable speechlessness on the matter. Adeshina claims that President Buhari is only adhering to the principle of federalism by allowing the governor to handle the matter. He forgets that under our constitution, all security agencies are under the control of the Federal Government and, by implication, the presidency. In this case, the president’s silence is not golden.

    The military announces that it has “fully deployed” troops to Southern Kaduna to halt the killings and address the security challenges in the area. Gov. el-Rufai had earlier announced a plan to set up two new military formations in Southern Kaduna to “help in securing lives and property and provide rapid response to any act of criminality and the maintenance of law and order”. This may be a right step. But the problem in the region is not just about law and order. It is crucially about fairness, equity and justice for all groups. It is the latter that can provide an enduring basis for the former and make it unnecessary for endangered groups (real or perceived) to resort to the imperative of self defence.

     

  • Buhari orders ‘strong actions’ on Kaduna violence

    Buhari orders ‘strong actions’ on Kaduna violence

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday ordered decisive measures to be taken to end the recurring violence and destruction in the southern part of Kaduna State.

    Following the directive, the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, was in the region on Saturday and Sunday to assess the situation at first hand.

    In addition to the conventional policemen deployed in the area, a statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, Garba Shehu, said a squadron of mobile policemen has also been stationed there.

    According to him, the Nigerian army is also in the process of setting up two battalions in Southern Kaduna, while the military will continue to carry out air surveillance across flashpoints in the area.

    The President, the statement said, has also directed the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to carry out a joint assessment of the situation with the sister agency in Kaduna, SEMA, to determine the level of response required for urgent aid to reach the victims of the violence.

    It reads: “These measures should soon ensure the return of normalcy to the region, while the Kaduna State government continues its peace building efforts.

    “The President commended efforts of the state government and the security agencies in the steps taken so far to curtail the violence.

    “President Buhari has, once again, sent condolences to the people of Southern Kaduna, who have lost loved ones in the recent violence.”

     

     

     

  • The ‘war’ in Southern Kaduna

    Reacting to latest mayhem in Southern Kaduna, Vicar General of the Catholic Archdiocese of Kafanchan, Ibrahim Yakubu told a press conference last week that “53 villages in four local council areas came under attack resulting in the death of 808 people, torching of 1,422 houses, 16 churches, 19 shops and one primary school”. This cycle of violence in the name of religion must have prompted Pastor Adeboye, a leading member of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) to praise Ayo Fayose of Ekiti for his courage in facing up to the challenges posed by Fulani herdsmen in his state. Commending the controversial governor, he had said “We thank God for your courage, for your boldness. We are grateful to God for being willing to take risks so that your people can be protected. You have been a governor who knows when to say enough is enough in defence of his people.  And I am sure you know what I am talking about and I am sure the world knows”. I am sure many understand this is not an endorsement of Fayose’s puerile fantasies, infantile rhetoric against Buhari or his receipt of N1.3b ‘Dazukigate’ slush fund as confirmed by Musliu Obanikoro for the pacification of Ekiti in 2014 and acquisition of mansions in choice areas of Lagos and Abuja while salaries of worker are in arrears of several months.

    Adeboye was probably frustrated by lack of resourcefulness of other governors including his brother pastor, Jonah Jang of Plateau who at a period he should be addressing the Fulani herdsmen’s challenge was attempting to steal the chairmanship of governors’ forum after losing the election by 16 to 19 with the help of President Jonathan who once said stealing was not corruption.

    Fayose has not done much beyond his threat to arrest cows and arm his people against Fulani herdsmen who seem to have forgotten Lugard’s declaration after the defeat of the Caliphate in 1903 that the British, the new conquerors, had taken over the powers they once wielded over the conquered Hausa territories but today speak in the National Assembly as if the whole Nigeria is Fulani fiefdom.

    A governor is the chief security officer of the state. The strange ‘unitary’ constitution imposed on federal state by the military has not clearly spelt out how this was to be done with the control of the police and other state apparatus of power by the federal government. But a more resourceful governor from the besieged Middle Belt region could have borrowed a leaf from Lagos State that outwitted the inefficient federal government and its traffic bodies and set up LASTMA to solve perennial Lagos traffic gridlock.

    If nothing else, such an outfit can monitor the movement of Fulani herdsmen who the federal government with its awesome control of apparatus of state power claims is invincible. In seven years, there has been no record of court appearance or indictment of any member of a group described as the ‘fourth most deadly terrorist group in the world’ despite the fact that the group often takes possession of conquered territories. Except the Sultan of Sokoto who claimed ‘Fulani herdsmen are criminals’  and Governor El Rufai of Kaduna who admitted  paying them compensation to forestall further mindless killing of innocent Nigerians, both ex-President Jonathan and  President Buhari have said very little about them.

    I sympathise with Pastor Adeboye and his other Christian leaders who have been forced despite Jesus admonition of ‘turning the other cheek’ to now canvass ‘an eye for an eye’ as contained in the Jewish Torah and in their Arab  half-brother’s Holy Quran, as answer to brutal killings of their members. Unfortunately, the cycle of violence and mindless killing of the innocents have nothing to do with religion. It is nothing but a continuation of 1802 Fulani war over their host’s land as source of economic and political power fought in the name of religion.  The Zangon Kataf mid-May 1992 rioting which spread to Kaduna resulting in the death of about 100 people was according to Babangida who should know better, designed to derail his “transition without end’. We have since realized it afforded him an opportunity to nail Major General Zamani Lekwot, his political rival.

    The May 1999 Southern Kaduna Kafanchan outbreak of violence was undoubtedly political. It afforded many residents of Jama‘a emirate to protest not only against the appointment of a new Emir of Jama‘a but the entire emirate system. The appointment of an emir does not often reflect the wishes of the people. Theoretically, the people of an emirate select their emir for the sultan’s endorsement. But in reality, the choice is often restricted to the linage of the first 12 first flag bearers appointed by Uthman Dan fodio back in 1804.

    The June 24, 2012 bombing of the Christ the King Catholic in Zaria, leading to the death of 14 worshippers, with 32 injured, the bombing of the ECWA Church, in Wusasa, leading to the death of three people as well as the attack on Kaduna Shalom Church International by a suicide bomber leading to three deaths were all means to an end by those who hide under religion to pursue their selfish economic agenda. The Southern Kaduna  Christian youths  who came out on a revenge mission killing over 70 Hausa Muslims within two hours, and the response of their Muslim counterparts two days later attacking Christian targets in Tudun Wada, Unguwan Mua’azu, Trikania, Panteka and Kawo played out as scripted by their authors.

    The truth is that little has changed between the relations of the Fulani and its neighbors since pre-colonial period. Fulani settlers were once considered as aliens by the Hausa, their chief host with whom they were engaged in endless conflicts over grazing right and destruction of agricultural crops. The Fulani ended the conflicts by taking over political power from their Hausa hosts after the jihad.   It is instructive that of the 12 flag bearers appointed by Uthman Dan Fodio after his victory, only one was Hausa. Although the deposed reigning king of Gobir was not a believer, Islam had existed in the Hausa states for over 400 years before the Jihad.

    The crisis in Southern Zaria like those in other parts of Hausaland is over land. The Zango Katafs with their neigbours, Ikuku, Kaje Kamatan tribes consider themselves the owners of their land. They had coexisted in relative peace with the Hausa settlers who handled the marketing of their farm products. The Fulani conquest of the Hausa states changed the equation as the Zango Katafs had to pay a tribute of about 100 slaves annually to the Emir of Zaria. They were in fact in revolt against Zaria as at the time of the British conquest. Although the British colonial power took the power to levy away after the 1903 defeat of the Caliphate, they have after independence continued to view some of these areas as part of their grandfather’s fiefdom. Ahmadu Bello said this much during the Tiv populular uprising shortly after independence.

    The ongoing mindless killings by Fulani herdsmen in the Middle Belt region and the militancy in the Niger Delta unfortunately remain part of the unfinished Awo’s battle at the London constitutional conference that heralded Nigeria into Independence. He was the last man left standing insisting that ‘freedom for Nigeria must be freedom for individuals and groups making up the federation’ long after both Zik and Ahmadu Bello had reached a secret agreement to accept British proposal that the minority issue be postponed until after independence. Awo paid for his principled stand. Accused of encouraging the minorities to rise against their feudal lords in the name of democracy, he was incarcerated in 1962 with the Mid-West created out of the west, the most homogenous of the regions in 1963, not as an answer to demand of restive groups for self-actualization but to weaken Awo’s political base.

  • We need 1m policemen for Southern Kaduna – Commissioner

    KADUNA State Commissioner of Police, Agyole Abeh on Thursday said that the command needed about one million policemen to effectively cover every nook and cranny of Southern Kaduna.

    The Police boss, who was commenting on efforts of his command to protect lives and property of people of troubled parts of eight local government areas that make up of Southern Kaduna at the Command’s headquarters maintained that the need for people themselves to cooperate with the police through dialogue remains the surest way to resolving differences.

    According to him, the police are already using 40 patrol vehicles, deployed more men and will soon come up with strategies that will reduce the spate of crime not only in southern Kaduna, but across the state.

    “As I speak to you, the area is very calm and there is no any record of any incident after the unfortunate  major incident in Goska. We have deployed enough of our men on ground to ensure that they curb any acts of lawlessness.

    “Like I always say, if you can bring the whole police in Nigeria, we cannot achieve the desired result without the people. All the people themselves, must prepared to embrace peace and must accommodate one another.

    As regarding illegal roadblocks mounted by some youths aimed to attack unsuspecting passengers plying the trouble spots, Abeh admitted that, “so far “we have been dismantling them each time there is any.”

    “We have the department of security service and we are working in conjunction with the military intelligence. Just yesterday, I ordered the police to dismantled illegal gathering and check point around Kagoro”, said the commissioner.

    On whether there has been any arrest and prosecution in connection with the Southern Kaduna crisis, he said, “We have number of people arrested and we are going to arrest the rest because we have evidences. Its just that we are following them gradually. We have been charging a lot of suspected criminals to courts.

    “We also intend to within next few weeks, come up with various strategies to curb some menace like drug addiction among youths which has become a source of concerned. That is why we said community policing remains the only option while parents also need to bring up their children in godly way”.

    He however disagreed with number of death reported in some media over the Southern Kaduna crisis, saying the figure was exaggerated, though he couldn’t give any figure.