“Nigeria in the last 10 days:
21 killed in Adamawa yesterday.
36 killed in Zamfara last week.
Over 200 killed in Plateau today,” – Isah Sanusi, Twitter, 24th June, 2018
From Borno to Birnin Gwari, Nigeria is becoming a field of blood with many innocent civilians being murdered in broad daylight. We are living in a country where mass burials are becoming an everyday normal activity in the Northern part of it. What is wrong with us? Are we not simple, but sinful human beings? What is wrong with those who are paid to protect us? If all those security forces that are deployed hither and thither can’t protect us then who can protect us from the massacre and macabre that are confronting us?
While our politicians are busy planning for their political future, the voters are being slaughtered and their properties being destroyed. We are living in doom, in a geographical hell. I don’t know where we are headed to if these genocides can’t be stopped. It is getting darker here with many lives that supposed to celebrate the victory of Super Eagles being lost. It is as if we are cursed with Boko Haram in the East and killer herdsmen in the Centre. Our houses are set ablaze and our cars and belongings are burnt to ashes.
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This time I’m not going to blame it on those who are trying to give these genocides an ethnic or political colouration. They are wrong, of course, but those stakeholders in our security that are not working to see the end of these genocides are to blame. When shall these attackers be destroyed totally? When shall we see them with the same fate as Boko Haram, running and hiding in another Sambisa? Citizens, we should stop debating on the identity of the killers with tweets and replies as our own methods of mourning. We should focus on the killing and the killers not their tribes or ethnicity. They are our common enemies.
In the first place, it seems Nigeria is not ready to start this war and these killers are not ready to stop it. The country is using archaic, out-dated and redundant method of military operation against the killer herdsmen. It shows as if the security forces are waiting for the killers to converge at one area and ask for war. While other countries are using sophisticated weapons in addressing any security threat, here it is the same old method of driving Hilux from here to there without fishing any killer out.
To those who want to give it political or ethnic colouration, you should know that these killers are not representing any religious group, ethnic background or political party. They are just killers that should be caught and handed over to the law. We should not take it to another direction. These people are enemies of all. They started with farmers and are planning to sweep who ever they come across regardless of his political party, religious beliefs, ethnic background or geographical location. They are our common enemies.
Prayers are of course needed, but government should not pay any religious cleric or man of God to pray for peace or organise prayer session. We should all raise our hands, bow our heads and close our eyes and pray to the Almighty. The government on the other hand should buy weapons that can be used to detect, locate and attack the killers. God will bestow us with the ideas, knowledge and tactics on how to tackle this problem only if we want Him to do that by showing our commitment to Him with our actions not with how frequently we organise prayer sessions for peace. God doesn’t change the wrong with people until they start changing it by themselves.
I don’t want to talk about self defense now. In most cases, the so called self defense evolve to aggression on people different from the attackers and that leads to religious and tribal unrest in the country. We should be calm and leave it to the government. We should pressure the government and force it to stop repeating one way of dealing with a problem. It will be waste of time and energy if we keep on using the same method of dealing with a problem without seeing any change in the outcome. The killings in Zamfara, Benue and now Plateau should be stopped at any cost. The safety of Nigerians should be primary purpose of our government. If there is no peace the country will end up in pieces
