By Aminu Iyawa
Nigerians would be totally forgiven if they thought that last week’s carnage, mayhem, wont and all, was scripted. Not even a Hollywood movie script would have perfected such a seemingly coordinated assault on the nation by some blood-thirsty terrorists, bandits and separatists.
A number of policemen were killed in the Southeast and South-south. Police stations burned down and even Imo state Governor’s personal house in his hometown was not spared as it was razed down and the two policemen guarding the house murdered.
There was also a video trending on social media, showing AK-47 weilding gunmen attacking Fulani settlements in the Southeast, killing anything that moved, including cattle, while Northerners were allegedly rounded up like chickens by Amotekun in the Southwest and framed as bandits.
Indeed, the last 7 days and also the week prior, will go down as probably the most violent in a long time, especially in the North where Boko Haram and Bandits struck and left in their wake, scores of casualties on both civillians and the military. What makes the tragedy unique is that it mostly happened in Muslim territories and in the secred month of Ramadan when killing even an ant is forbidden. These acts of babarism were supposedly perpetrated by “Muslims” from two groups – (1) Boko Haram operating in the Northeast and lately in Niger state according to the Governor; and (2) Bandits operating in the Northwest.
There were reports going round that in one of the overran villages in Niger state, an Imam conducting afternoon Ramadan Tafsir in a mosque was forced to break his fast by the invaders, but when he refused, he was instantly executed – shot in the head. The sad occurrence did not attract headlines or even burried in the inside pages, because it did not editorially fit with the interest of the newspapers.
Which begs the question most discerning Nigerians would want to ask: are the killers really Muslims? In the history of Islam, none of the religion’s many sects ever questioned or challenged any of the five pillars that formed Islam, among them, fasting in the month of Ramadan. Denouncing any one of the five, automaically renders the believer out of the religion, otherwise known as apostasy (Riddah). So how is it comprehensible for the invading “Muslims” to force a Muslim, an Imam, to break his obligatory fast? It does not add up.
There is no doubt that the killers of the Imam cannot be Muslims – a point that some Nigerians who have different agenda for the nation refuse to accept by their verdict of silence. That, in itself, raises suspecion by Muslims on whether Boko Haram and Bandits are not the creation of a certain powerful interest to plunge the North and by extension, the entire country in to chaos to achieve a hidden objective.
I have seen a lot of write-ups of recent trying to whip up religious and ethnic sentiment against the current administration, portraying it as an Islamic/Fulani government that backs bandits to invade communities in the South. Yet, all rational thinking Nigerians know that nothing can be further from the truth and that the allegations are nothing but mere propaganda.
The theater of operation of both Boko Haram and Bandits is here in the North. Over 98 percent of casualties are Northerners and Muslims, a fact that is deliberately underreported. Yet, the region is still the victim of a coordinated campaign of columny, simply becsuse partly, some “smart” politicians have no way of covering the alleged massive looting of their states’ kitties and underperformance, than create a distraction. They therefore cleverly fall back on our weakest point as a people and turn anything and everything, no matter how trivial, to ethnic and religious, in order to whip up maximum sentiment.
Unfortunately these “smart alecs” lack tact in both design and execution of their plan. Attacking President Buhari on the basis of his religion and ethnicity, rather than his performance (if at all there is failure), has failed to work. Instead, it made the whole region rally round him because they do not see Buhari under attack, but it is them and their religion.
When former President Goodluck Jonathan almost ran this country aground during the last two years of his tenure, Nigerians, especially Northerners, did not blame the Ijaws, christianity or the South. They directed their anger and accusations at him as the leader, because the buck stopped at his table. Therefore, unless and until we start holding politicians accountable and not their ethnic group, we shall continue to regress and perpetuate in stone-age politics.
How can the South even contemplate complaining of being “short-changed,” when virtually all the major projects that have been successfully executed or is in state of near completion so far by this administration are located in the region; from the second Niger bridge in the East to standard guage railway in the Niger-Delta and the Southwest. That is in addition to the rehabilitation of most major highways, including the Lagos – Ibadan express way.
On the contrary, there is not a single completed major project in the North, other than the Abuja-Kaduna rail service. All the rest are either just on paper or at a snail-speed, because they have not been accorded priority by those the President put incharge. Not even the much celebrated Mambilla hydro-electricity project (dogged by law suits), Abuja- Kano raod, Yola-Gombe road, Numan-Jalingo road and the Kano-Maiduguri road, just to mention a few.
And with just two years to the ushering in of a new government, coupled with the derth of funds, I doubt if any project in the North will ever be completed before 2023.
The propagandists, the doomsday advocates and their collaborators should therefore spare us their mouths odour and look for another scapegoat, but certaily not Muslims or the North. If the laudable objective of the federal government to deny terrorists and e-criminal gangs from obtaining SIMs for their nuferous activities would be turned to a religious palavar by some bigots looking for relevance, we have a long way to the healing station as a nation. It is high time the authorities start quizing such people who sympathize with terrorists and criminals.
They should also know that politics of religion and ethnicity will not work in a country that is as diverse as Nigeria. We are better off united, than devided. In fact, it is a sign of inferiourity complex for any individual or community to fallback on to such lowly tactic in the quest for relevance or leadership. It is more or less, self-underminig and self-destruction.