Britain hasn’t left the European Union as it promised to do by March 29. The detail, regarding why it has not done so, is out there. I find something interesting in all of this, though. Britain’s political leaders have been sweating for about three years over the terms of their nation’s exit. It is because they want an exit that outlines the path into the future, one that shows clearly where the nation’s economy is heading. That is unlike most countries where governments arrive in the future without an idea of what do to. In such countries, people occupy political offices without a plan of what they want to achieve for the country.
In this season when Nigeria politicians have started jostling for the offices they desire to occupy, the brouhaha over exiting the EU is a lesson in how public officials should stand for the public good.
Meanwhile, on March 19, 2019, the Commissioner of Police in Kaduna State, Ahmad Abdulrahman, held a meeting with stakeholders from conflict spots in the state and said things that sounded like a sermon or waazi. At the meeting, he said that most Nigerians have found themselves in their current places of residence because God made it so.
Noting that it is good for people to live in peace and tolerate their neighbours, the CP added, “Tolerance makes you a very unique human being. When you leave your doors open to other people, your towns will grow and make progress. When you close doors, there will be no new development, no progress and no blessings.”
I understand Abdulrahman to be saying that it is the responsibility of Nigerians, not that of security personnel, to choose to live in peace with one another. He reminds me of how a candidate in the last governorship election in Ogun State got interested in the affairs of a group of people that some natives of the state would ordinarily tag as ‘settlers’. That person is the governor-elect of the state, Mr Dapo Abiodun.
In the course of his election campaign, Abiodun visited the Fulani community in the state to find out about the challenges facing the people. Narrating his experience, he said they (Fulani) had been very articulate, regarding how they wanted the incoming administration in the state to assist them.
I suppose the people of Ogun State chose to have an excellent relationship with the Fulani living among them. In return, the Fulani have been making their own contributions to the economy of the state. So Abiodun took them as his own people in whose welfare he was interested. For me, this is an excellent example of how far the Yoruba and the Fulani have travelled together in the state, which sharply contradicts the divisive view that some now hold in this country. Some people have called me to state that some ‘settlers’ among them want to dominate and as such they don’t want them in their area.
My view on this is simple: Competition moves our world forward. Healthy competition leads to development. Those who think they are the ‘sons of the soil’ should work to improve themselves so that they would neither be left behind nor become ‘dominated’. But, sometimes, the ‘dominate us’ argument isn’t used. Instead, it is the “they are killing our people” narrative from the people of a particular faith that we hear.
In this season when reprisals are adopted by those involved in conflicts as a solution rather than forgiveness and reconciliation, I’m not moved by such faith-centred narratives because of what I have personally observed in the North. Also, I wonder if those who make the faith argument consider how they sound to their audiences, the mostly silent majority belonging to the same faith that called me (after the murder of an Army general in Plateau State) to say, “Don’t mind them”.
On March 17, 2019, Channels TV invited a guest to discuss issues relating to the killings in Kaduna State. She was introduced as a writer, lawyer and analyst. So I had waited to listen to an unbiased analyst. But she painted the picture of victimhood of one side in a situation where the parties involved fully engaged in reprisals. She responded to a question on why violence was happening by saying, “we don’t know”. In an attempt to hide the fact that she sounded like an interested party, she quickly changed it to “the people of Southern Kaduna don’t know what they did to them” that they are killing “our people”. This is insincerity. The outset of this problem was that localised issues arose between herdsmen and farmers over routes, crops, water and animals. The killings happened and retaliation followed. The matter has since spiraled, such that fully kitted gunmen now carry out regular reprisals. Any impression given that is contrary to this is insincerity. Now there is even a decision by one of the parties involved in these conflicts to ensure that ‘settlers’ don’t live amongst them any longer. The people involved said this directly to me.
On March 19, 2019, a group of people staged a protest at the Unity Fountain in Abuja. They said they were from Kaduna State and they had come to seek peace in conflict spots in the state. I don’t think they want peace yet. Their comments and the pattern of the protest indicated so. They sounded to me like people who wanted to use the opportunity provided by the presence of TV cameras to send a message across to governor of their state. They wanted to portray him as a demon and present him to the world as the source of all their problems. Can one man be the source of a problem that began long before he became governor of the state, a problem that is rooted in intolerance and lack of desire for reconciliation?
The protesters said the Kaduna State governor warned of a possible reprisal after the February 15 attacks. They added that when he said this they took it as a deliberate provocation. Eventually what the governor warned against actually happened. But reprisals have always been the pattern in this crisis for many years. So the governor was only saying the obvious. They added that he mentioned the Fulani as the ethnic group that was attacked on February 15 and they were surprised. To me, people who desire peace won’t harbour in their hearts a catalogue of faults.
I had watched as the governor warned about reprisals and as he mentioned that the Fulani were the ones attacked on February 15. I understood why and I think he needed to say so. One reason is that many outside the theatre of conflict have been erroneously led to believe that people of one faith and ethnic group are the ones that are always attacked. The guest on Channels TV on March 18, 2019 gave this same impression that only her “people are being killed and they don’t know why.” As for the protesters in Abuja, I take note that they didn’t march to the Government House in Kaduna to ask the governor to lead in the peace process they wanted. They talk to lawmakers in Abuja, but they ignore their state’s chief security officer who’s the best guarantor of any peace process.
Some people from this area tell me their state governor abuses their people. But much earlier, I had listened as some openly insulted their governor. This became more virulent after the governor said that any Nigerian could live anywhere and the habit of saying that some people cannot live in a part of Kaduna State would not be condoned. About two years ago, some people from this area proudly announced to me that their people wanted to beat up the governor when he visited their area to commiserate with them following a violent attack. Fortunately the governor was rescued by his security aides and driven away.
I see the governor as only being human and responding as humans do when they are treated with disdain. Everyone cannot like the leader they have. But if reprisals continue at this rate, a time will come when all sides will be compelled to realise that learning to live in peace with fellow Nigerians, as the people of Ogun State wisely do, is the way to go. Then it will be discovered that this crisis isn’t about a particular governor in office, but about working toward achieving peaceful coexistence with other ethnic groups in the state.
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