The Kaduna State governor Mr. Nassir ElRuffai
is a maverick, no doubt, but he has one of the closest friendship of recent
with the man on the top now in the seat of power in the Federal Capital of
Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari.
In some political circles the name of the
dimunitive politician has severally been mentioned as one of the possible
successors to the current President in 2019 should he be allowed by the
centripetal and centrifugal forces pulling apart his political platform
(APC) to anoint his successor going by emerging evidence that age is no
longer on the side of the serving President who himself recently made an open
confession that old age wouldn't let him achieve many revolutionary changes in
the body polity.
Well, analysis of who is suitably qualified
to succeed the current President in 2019 may be too early in the day but if
this peculiarly eccentric politician who presides over as governor of Kaduna
State wants to stand any fighting chance of winning the hearts and minds of
well meaning Nigerians for higher political calling in the foreseeable future
then he has to buckle up his sleeves and truly hit the ground running by
pragmatically finding a solution to the spate of genocidal killings going on in
his backyard in Southern Kaduna. Let this media savvy politician stop his
dramatic early or late hour visits to General hospitals in Kaduna seeking to
catch unawares the many lazy government employed medical workers but he has to
do first thing first.
The first thing is not this media generated
populist agenda of stopping the payment to a segment of the populace for the Islamic
fasting seasonal feedings which in itself is illegal but he has to save the
lives of the ordinary villagers in the Christian dominated Southern Kaduna if
he is to be free of accusations of having the knowledge of the plots by some
forces both within and without Southern Kaduna to decimate the population of
Southern Kaduna indigenous tribes people.
The immediate past Governor by now should
have been dragged to the International Criminal Court in The Hague Netherlands
for prosecution for his persistent failure to do the needful to stop the mass
killings of women, children and the aged by armed freelance fighters thought to
be Fulani Herdsmen. That the leadership and elite of Southern Kaduna
including the leadership of their organised civil society are yet to take
concrete and verifiable action to institute a charge of crime against humanity
against the last governor Mr. Yero is a shock to every right thinking observer
that have followed the ugly development that evolved in the entire four year
tenure of that Zaria born Accountant thought to have been imposed on Kaduna
people by his boss and erstwhile Vice President Mr. Namadi Sambo. So the
current governor must learn from the mistakes of the last occupant of that seat
and take every citizen of Kaduna irrespective of tribes or creed as his primary
constituents. That he has set up a probe to be led by a former Military
General Mr. Agwai is cosmetic. Let him go further than that and round up the
sponsors of these spate of killings who may have been identified by previous
probe panels since that state is always known for fratricidal warfare between
the diverse ethnic and religious components either over lands rights or just
mere mischief over their cosmetic religious and ethno -cultural
differences.
Impunity is one factor that motivates these
current killers who have for long stockpiled weapons to carry out the so called
revenge over perceived opponents who they have nursed longstanding grievances
for fundamentally working strenuously to gain their unique traditional
rulership far away from the overbearing dominance of other customary and
traditional stools that have no identical cultural and religious affiliations.
Few years back it was thought then that the
decision of then governor Ahmed Maikarfi to create autonomous Chieftdoms for
Southern Kaduna indigenous people to somehow symbolically free them from
consistently viewed as persons under the Zaria powerful oligarchs. But years
down the line the indigenous tribal people and the so called settlers
especially those of the Hausa/Fulani affiliations have continued intermittently
to an extent that at a time when the crazy leader of Boko Haram Abubakar Shekau
had the global press at his beck and call he even threatened to unleash his
killers on Southern Kaduna indigenous Christian communities to pay back for
what he perceived as previous genocides against the Hausa/Fulani.
So the killings going on in Southern
Kaduna is skin deep and one way of stopping it is to fundamentally round up the
known sponsors who as I have stated earlier may have actually been
pointed out by previous investigations whose findings were never implemented. A
stroll around the streets of Kafanchan and another around Zaria and Kaduna and
with thoroughbred investigative skills it won't be difficult to fish out the
real masterminds of these genocidal killings of all colouration. What us
lacking even now in the seats of power at the state and Federal levels is the
desired political will and will power to do the needful rather than embark on
shadow chasing and cosmetic committee set ups that would end up not really
doing much. Genuine reconciliation is needed but justice for victims and
judicial sanctions for the suspected killers must be present evidently before
any contemplation of a permanent panacea to this annoying mass killings.
All the mass murderers from which ever
affiliations must be arrested and prosecuted and if the state government
continues to dance around setting up committees after committees then these
brutes from both sides will up their game and we will remain in one particular
bloody spot and continue to grieve whenever the gangsters unleashes their blood
cuddling violence. Let Nassir ElRuffai meet President Buhari (his new political
soul mate) so a permanent solution is found or he be prepared to also be
dragged to the international Criminal Court for crimes against humanity because
as the Chief Security officer of Kaduna State you are constitutionally obliged
to protect the lives and property of the citizenry within your area of
political jurisdiction. The immediate past Governor Ramalan Yero would be
sleeping only in a precarious corner of his bed with one of his eyes wide open
because if my sixth sense isn't deceiving me then he may sooner rather than
later be required to surrender to international prosecutors in the ICC to say
what he knows about the spate of genocides that happened under his political
watch from 2011 to 2015. The apparent nonchalant attitudes of both the Federal
and Kaduna State POLITICAL administrations to tackle the Southern Kaduna
genocide squarely is disturbing to a lot of people not less the Senator
representing that embattled constituency.
Senator Danjuma La’ah, representing Southern
Kaduna Senatorial Zone, said it all when he recently decried what he described
as lack of action by the federal and Kaduna State governments over the murder
of 13 natives of the area by gunmen in three villages earlier this month.
Addressing newsmen in
Kafanchan, Senator La’ah said he wanted the security challenges facing the
people of Southern Kaduna to be given equal attention as that of North East
region of the country.
Hear him: “The manner in
which our people are being killed with impunity still resembles the same
fashion of mindless murder of our people under the former government. This is
giving me much concern and I want to call the attention of the world to this wickedness
that has always been going on without any seeming solution".
The parliamentarian
continued further: “Last Tuesday, June 16, 2015, around 8pm, the peaceful and
law-abiding village of Kastak, in Takad Chiefdom, Jema’a Local Government Area,
LGA of Kaduna was invaded by well armed men. According to distress calls I
received and the reports of my aides shortly after the invasion, nine people
were killed, and 13 others critically injured".
“On June 5, 2015, Ayagan
village in Bajju Chiefdom in Zangon Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna
State, was invaded by armed men. Four people were killed and several others
injured when the invaders fired into a crowd of mourners, unprovoked. I have
gone there and personally verified this killings".
“On June 11, 2015, one
Tanko Nyam,45, from Kyari Daddu village in Jaba, LGA was ambushed by yet
another set of gunmen and killed, leaving behind his wife and five kids".
“As a responsible
Senator, I cannot sit and claim that it will soon be well when no authority has
shown any interest in the insecurity that has bedevilled our people since 2011.
“In the light of the
above, I am asking for the following: That the Federal Government should make
Southern Kaduna one of the areas needing urgent and immediate security response
just like it is doing in parts of North East zone,” the senator said.
I sincerely think the President must make it
a priority to stop these genocidal killings now. As government at the center
settles down there is the need for concerted effort to be made to check the
proliferation of illicit weapons by securing our international borders
especially those porous areas bordering Nigeria with Chad, Niger and Cameroon.
In the interim let the Nigerian State give licences for mentally sound
and law respecting adults facing attacks all over to carry arms to defend
themselves since the right to life is sacred and the moment someone dies then
any remedial process may no longer involve him directly. As the American rap
singers would say and I dare state that I agree that "it is more honouring
to die fighting than wait and be slaughtered like Christmas goats". A
stitch in time saves nine. Buhari can indeed end the vicious circles of
genocides going on multiple fronts in different parts of Nigeria. He is
after all a tested and trusted General.
*Emmanuel
Onwubiko is Head of Human rights Writers association of Nigeria and blogs @www.huriwa.blogspot.com, www.rightsassociationngr.com, www.huriwa.org
23/6/2015
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