By Igbonekwu Ogazimorah
Did you get that?
Initially, I did not want to believe it. That was until it became clear that the smallish Nasiru El-Rufai – the “Accidental Public Servant- now governor of Kaduna State of Nigeria, actually said that.
And what does this translate to?
The Government of Kaduna State is wanting to prove to all that it was making strong and enough efforts to stop the mass killing of simple natives of Southern Kaduna.
Just unbelievable!
But it is obvious it happened. Indeed, it had precedents.
In the days Boko Haram was unstoppable, it was reported that some States in the North, principally Kano, Jigawa, Adamawa, etc, were paying protection sums to the murderers. Yes, but the Governor of Bornu State, though he was reported to have created the group, simply wrote officially to the Federal Government to the effect that his government was no longer capable of sustaining a fight against the group.
That was when the then Federal Government of Goodluck Jonathan sent in the miliatry.
Now, wait a minute.
These Fulani killers recently operating in Southern Kaduna are even reported to be foreigners, from Niger Republic, and possibly Chad and Cameroon.
If that is the case, isn’t it clear evidence that Nigeria has been invaded a long time, and we never knew or at least pretended we were dealing with unreasonable members of our own society?
Or do we say that because these killers are of the same ethnic stock with current men at the helms, they are not to be considered as invaders on mission we do not understand?
This is not funny!
And as nothing shocks any more in Nigeria, I am certain this has not shocked and rattled many of my docile country men.
But it ought to.
Funny and scary things are really happening.
Way back in recent time, then President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo – the man who fought from May 29, 1969 to January 10, 1970, and was shot in the buttocks as he fled a Biafran battle field – had flown to the United States to complain about Radio Biafra International. Then Secretary of State, diplomatic soirces revealed, was said to have sat him down and explained that US was a super democracy and could not stop such activities that were not in violation of any known law of the country.
Rising in his typical primitive show, Obasanjo was said to have leapt up, pranced, boomed and fumed: “They are destroying my country, sitting here in your country, and you call that democracy. What happens to the “Global Criminality Treaty”?
Powell was said to have calmly told him that although he was not going to teach him the governance of his country, what he was complaining of was not even criminalised in Nigeria.
Obasanjo got the drift instanta.
He flew back immediately, and that was how and when the rule was made that any agitation for Biafra must be treated as treasonable fellony.
That did it. The US government had to comply, being signatory to the Treaty in question.
Today, I do not know or understand the very diplomatic heading operated by El-Rufai in his “cash-to-stop-killing”.
Initially, when former IGP, Arase, declared that murderous and blood sucking herdsmen were not Nigerians, we simply scoffed at it. Today, Governor El-Rufai has confirmed it.
This is strange.
If you do not, I do wonder why Anambra and Abia State governors, have not started paying members of IPOB and MASSOB, even as they only engage in peaceful demonstrations, carrying no weapons, hurting no one and never disturbing nobody’s business.
At the moment, a full scale militarisation of the South East is in full swing, and would run for over six weeks, even as other such operations lasted a few days in other parts of Nigeria.
The military is busy telling whoever cares to listen that it is routine military training exercise.
I laugh!
It is bare-faced Lie!!!
Lie! Lie!! Lie!!!
The correct information is that this operation is planned to stand and counter anticipated massive influx of weapons in the South East Region in the Yule Tide.
Laughable! Isn’t it.
In the government’s antiquated intelligence gathering, the establishment is made to believe that heavy movement of weapons into the SE was planned for this period.
It is not for me to say that many so called intelligence operatives in the employ of Nigeria ought to be given simple hoes and cutlasses to return to their village farms. That way, they assemble, after each day’s hard work, at the village squares, to run their gossip shops over kegs of palm wine. I believe they can do well there – no insult intended against our hard working subsistence farmers in the villages.
Nigerians, wake up!
It is just in the interest of Nigerians to stand up now and challenge this emerging practice of “cash-to-stop-mass-murders”.
That is unless the government – which along with other immediate past regimes have failed to provide jobs for Nigerians – is saying that citizens should rise, bear arms, explore self help and defend themselves.
Isn’t this even a duty when it is established that we are now dealing with invaders from another country?
.Ogazimorah wrote from Enugu.