By Ìtàn Ayòbámi
Nigeria is sadly sad. Considering the hordes of terrorist, extremist and sadistic beings plaguing our common humanity on a daily basis, it is a depressing calligraphy in the library of posterity. Without any shadow of doubt, one may be curious to ask whether God or gods in the pantheon have not fled this country of no home. For, what do we attribute to God/gods if not love, kindness, humanity etcetera which all seem to be scanty in this land like grasses on the rock.
Without much prolixity of words, the level of media reportage on carnage in Southern Kaduna these days is disheartening and the ember of killings is seemingly unabated if a constructive cum humanly approach is not being taken to avert further massacre in these terrified areas. Perhaps, one may be lost in his sane curiosity as those who fathered this nation and her states are elements of a punctured silence to things ravaging the wellbeing of the masses whose thumb fueled their political journey to desirable destinations of which and where they are today. Alas, this country is being manned by mannequins.
The massive corruption and the loomed bankruptcy is a woe heading this nation two step forward and sixty step backward. Maybe, some of these days, my quill would feature some of these other woes flaunting as beasts of burden on the giant shoulders of this nation.
It is a shame and misery of the highest order that about 60 years after we won the war against colonialism, Nigeria is still battling with communal clashes fueled by ethno-religious sentiments, underscored by grave inequalities, extreme poverty and false consciousness. This country is riding on gun powder waiting to explode should these be left unaddressed.
As religious as Nigerians are, we are blinded by inhumane treatment by jettisoning the sanctities dwelling in the scriptures of the religion we acclaim of practicing. We are too quick in ranting and agitating for ‘Black Live Matters’ but blinded to war of ‘Black against Black’ which flame flares through the nooks and crannies of our land.
Keeping you abreast with few glimpse of facts, in october 2018, no fewer than 55 persons at the Kasuwan Magani weekly market in Kajuru local government, media report also has it that gunmen killed at least 43 people between July 21 to 24 and that 178 were killed in the past 7 months across southern Kaduna communities.
Killings in Kauru, Zango-Kataf, Kajuru, Jema’a and other local governments in Kaduna State has orchestrated my age-long spiral of revenge, territorial claims, land dispute between two principal ethnic group coupled with false consciousness on ethnicity, religious to economic difference which some groups seem to threaten by other’s economical buoyancy.
The need to investigate the people fueling this conflict is germane and imperative. How arms and ammunitions are made available and whether mercenaries are being hired to escalate the massacre. The necessary authority need to get to the root of this matter. Until we address these and more, the deployment of our security personnels to the affected areas is a temporary quenching of the orgy of destruction and killing.
Truth, they said is stubborn. El~Rufai and the Federal Government must wake up from their deep slumbering and face this reality. A country with over 206 millions of population with 371, 000 police officers of which about 150, 000 0f them are attached to VIPs and unauthorized persons with depressing rate of unemployment. In this case, insecurity is inevitable because an idle hand coupled with an empty mind is a devil’s workshop.
Sarcastically, we are heading to wrong directions with high speed and the need to realize this, stop and critically analyze the causes and panacea is imperative.
The descending miseries rendering vulnerable homelessness, fatherless, motherless, futureless, childless are sadly. Our people’s future, dream and lives are being punctured. Nigeria is a sad theatre stage featuring beast feasting on our well-being. This is too much worrisome. Until we see ourselves in each other, learn the act of tolerance and place humanity in sacred position. We may forever remain sad.
It is however germane for government to consider those whose parents are debris (corpse) of the carnage. They need to be cloth, sheltered, fed etcetera. Without taking this and many considerable actions, in the later years, they may become an enemy of the societal peace thereby becoming a colony of sadist feasting and plaguing our common humanity.
Ayòbámi writes from Abuja, Nigeria.