For the perceived sins of the past administration, Nigerians are today being punished undeservedly.
From the far north where Boko Haram has reduced human life to a state of nothingness, to the North Central and the South East, random killings have become an everyday affair.
While government at the centre is busy searching for documents and or people who can confess, even if falsely, about former President Goodluck Jonathan’s assumed involvement in corruption deals, the blood of the innocent is crying for justice.
From Agatu in Benue State to the hitherto unknown Uzouwani in Enugu State, what people call Fulani herdsmen seem to me as Boko Haram operating under the guise of cattle rearing. Those who should know are merely feigning ignorance.
We must not miss the point here; the atrocities of the so-called Fulani herdsmen bear an undeniable semblance of a religious journey under another name; from the North to the South. It may not be long before the true picture emerges.
I do tremble in secret about what the future of Nigeria looks like; or whether Nigeria has any future at all. Somehow, there is this sad feeling that we are coming to the end of our togetherness faster than we could ever imagine.
The more I condemn such thoughts, the stronger it looms.
I’m still wondering why the federal government kept sealed lips when the so-called Fulani herdsmen brought down Agatu in Benue State; kill so many people; burn down houses and then took a walk as though nothing happened.
It is baffling why nothing was said or done about that attack. That silence gave rise to the attack in Enugu State. The herdsmen simply concluded that since nobody said anything and none of them was arrested or even hunted, then they were on the path of righteousness.
In Plateau State, we have heard repeated stories of Fulani herdsmen killing and maiming people at will. They are said to be well armed with sophisticated weapons of war. The question is: are they really the same herdsmen we used to know?
It does not require a soothsayer to tell us that these killers are not the typical Hausa Fulani herdsmen. These are well-trained, well-armed bandits with a deadly mission masquerading as innocent cattle rearing Hausa Fulanis.
They are on a mission; a dangerous one at that. The mission seems to be well articulated. They are picking their targets one-by-one. I wish someone can prove me wrong here; but these people seem to be on religious expansionist mission.
I suspect their next target would be their neighbours in Cross River State.
How do you contain such an enemy? What really is the way out of this bloody adventure by these characters that are said to be more adventurous than the traditional Boko Haramites?
Some people are even suggesting that a greater number of those carrying out the attack are from neighbouring countries.
I recall that at the last national conference whose reports have been eternally condemned to the dustbin of silence as if nothing like that ever happened, the issue of Fulani herdsmen and their atrocities were thoroughly discussed, debated and far-reaching decisions taken on how to handle the situation.
While it is clear that the All Progressives Congress (APC) was against that conference which was the first to hold since Nigeria’s independence (although some of its members attended as delegates) it would not be out of place for them to have a look at that report.
They can even do this when nobody is looking.
I do wonder at times why this administration, or the APC comprising run-away members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), thinks and believes that it has the monopoly of solution to all of Nigeria’s problems; and that everything done by the Jonathan administration was bad and avoidable.
I believe that when it concerns human lives, when it concerns the oneness of Nigeria, and when it concerns our peaceful co-existence as a country, we should drop the minority-majority ethnic divide and create a pool of ideas that can pull us out of the messy situation we find ourselves.
Why should we close our eyes to the needless massacre of our citizens simply because we do not want to be identified with the solutions agreed upon at the national conference under the previous administration? I don’t think this is right and acceptable.
Add the death of the innocents, the burning of their houses, the destruction of their farmlands, the raping of their wives and female children, the kidnapping of the helpless, to the present socio-economic hardship faced by Nigerians, and you will understand why I am worried.
In the name of fighting corruption, ordinary Nigerians who knew next to nothing about what happened behind closed doors where acts of corruption were being conceived and executed, are today dangling at the end of the rope. Why?
Somebody somewhere must know that there is hunger in the land. There is hardship everywhere. Even nature seems to be at war with us; especially for those of us living up North.
The climatic experience this year is negatively historic. Nigeria has never been this hot in the month of April and May.
Let the APC rise to challenge of leadership. This bloodshed must stop. This kidnapping must stop. This burning of peoples’ houses must stop. This raping of the girl-child and our women must stop. This deadly and religiously-inspired expansionist adventure must stop.
The buck must stop somewhere.