Related Articles
Earlier in the administration of Mohammadu Buhari, I raised alarm about the attitude of the Buhari government to the terrorist activities of Fulani herdsmen. Today the evidence are pilling up that indeed, the government of Nigeria, the police and army chiefs may be complicit in the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Nigerian villages.
They have failed to react and respond in the way and manner an honest and sincere government, would respond in the face of existential threat to the people.
The Fulani herdsmen have chosen to disregard the laws and behaviours that govern inter ethnic relation and civil society and, it would appear that the Nigerian government has decided to side with them.
What Buhari is overseeing in the middle belt, north east and parts of east and west Nigeria is the worst betrayal of a people by their government. It is like the decision of the government of Sudan to align itself with the janjaweed, who conducted similar ethnic cleansing in Darfur.
The Nigerian government by her action is undermining the foundation of of the nationhood of the Nigeria, by electing to support the sectarian interests of Fulanis. It is unprecedented in a true democracy and should be a source of serious concern to all southerners and non-Muslims in Nigeria.
It would seem that the government is not touched by the inhumanity of ethnic cleansing and Fulani herdsmen taking over Nigerian villages. The president keeps quite after every attack by Fulani herdsmen, until public opinion forces him to make gestures.
As the Fulani terrorism increases, the inspector general of police is trying to disarm Nigerians instead of the terrorists. What can be the rationale behind the sudden urgency to disarm Nigerians, who have been under onslaught from Fulaniherdsmen terrorists?
This decision to disarm civilians is as bizarre as it is incomprehensible. How can a government, which values the lives of her citizens opt to disarm them, when they are under attack from a terrorist group, if it is not in cahoot with the terrorist group?
Why is the Buhari administration hell bent on rewarding the aggression, terrorism and crimes of Fulani herdsmen?
What is the National Assembly doing?
Why can’t the Nigerian National Assembly pass a law to give Nigerian right to bear arms and direct the army to disarm Fulani herdsmen, and return displaced people to their villages, since the president has refused to discharge his constitutional duties and obligations to the communities at risk?
It would seem that the Nigerian army and police no longer exist as we once knew them. They now appear to be instrument in the hand of Fulani hegemony to aid their plan to control Nigeria and expand their Caliphate. If not, why is the government trying to impose Fulani enclaves all over Nigeria under the guise of grazing colonies? Nigeria now seems to have an army and police which serve the interests of Fulani herdsmen by aiding extrajudicial killings, summary execution and mass murder of innocent citizens the without consequences.
At the moment, Nigeria has an army and police dominated by northerners, who see those, compelled by the injustice of the union to ask for self determination as enemies that should be eliminated, while protecting terrorists burning Nigerian villages and committing crimes against humanity. This is both dangerous and ominous.
Both the army and police have so far. Failed to protect helpless Nigerians from Fulani herdsmen terrorism, but quick to use force against those who voice the injustice and absurdity of their inaction in the face of existential threat to the people they swore to protect.
This injustice must not be rewarded. If the Nigerian army is indeed a Nigeria army and not a Fulani army, it should disarm and sack the Fulani herdsmen from the villages they occupy and ensure that the villagers are safe in their communities.
The continued occupation of Nigerian villages by Fulani herdsmen is an affront to justice as fairness and a violation of the sovereignty of Nigeria. This is a crime against humanity for which the perpetrators and their coconspirators must be held accountable.
Nigeria May face a slaughter of her helpless citizens unheard of in history, if the current Inspector general of police is allowed to remain in his position. The IG has proved to be an unsavoury character. His role in the last election in Kano and his failure in the death of Kano state INEC returning officer should have rendered him unfit for the office he occupies. If Nigeria is serious about building a united and viable nation, men like IG should not occupy high office of the state.
The Rwanda genocide was as a result of unresolved injustices, perceived injustices, ethnic prejudice and attempt by one ethnic group to dominate. The result was the attempt by the Hutus to eliminate all Tutsis. In multiethnic nations conflict as a result of over valuing of ethnic or religious identities is not far away. It is the quality of governance and leadership that keep it at bay and finally neutralises it.
Successful nation have addressed this problem by focusing on justice as fairness, equality of all under the rule of law, outlawing discrimination on any of the well defined protected status, adopting zero tolerance to nepotism and corruption in any form, upholding and enforcing the rule law and cracking down on the abuse of power.
In the last few years, Nigeria has been on a slippery slope to anarchy as the leaders focus on orgy of stealing of public resources, impunity and fanning sectarianism.
The result has been the emergence of Boko Haram, rise of agitation for self determination and increasing attempt by the north to dominate Nigeria by tearing the rule book in election registration, appointment to public offices and administration of justice.
In the period, the gap between the ethnic groups and major religions have widened, the confidence of the people in the police and army have waned and, a huge deficit in trust on the government have developed.
Nigerians have watched as criminals from the north, who have committed heinous and abominable crimes are acquitted by judges from the north because they share the same ethnicity and religion.
The president has taken nepotism to a new height and has kept quite as Fulani herdsmen emboldened by his position, go on rampage of pogrom. Fulani are now occupying many villages, while the community they displaced have swelled the rank of internally displaced people. This is happening under the nose of Buhari government, when most of the service chiefs are either Fulanis or northern Muslims.
The police chief have failed to enforce the law evenly by treating northerners and Fulanis differently.
These and more have fuelled agitation for self determination by those who pay the social, economic and blood price of this sustained inhumanity on the basis of ethnicity and religion.
We cannot continue to have a country’s, where policemen who supervise rigging of election and involved in cold blooded murder of innocent civilians are rewarded by being appointed police chief or promoted.
No country can make progress, when they have unsavoury characters at the helms of her affairs.
I call on President Buhari to govern for the whole Nigeria and not just for Muslims, the north and Fulanis. He must start by sacking the current inspector general of police. He is not fit for purpose. Buhari must now realise that he was elected president of Nigeria and not leader of Fulanis in west Africa.
By E O Eke
