The trust and the camaraderie of Easter have been replaced by distrust, wariness and extreme caution because it is often during joyous occasions like these that heinous crimes are committed. It is unlikely that tomorrow would pass without one church or congregation being bombed or attacked. As it is, the terrorists had started showing their hands as the airport and a metro station in Belgium were bombed at the time of filing this article. UK and indeed the bulk of Europe have been on red alerts for a couple of weeks. Nigeria goes through the motion of so called security alerts until the next IED bomb…. Churches would screen, congregations would frisk and the rest of us would look at the stranger next to us as a potential IED carrier. How did the world get to this sorry pass? Part of my thoughts this season is on the intolerance that has collapsed the world order. Say what you will, it is my belief that terrorism is the reprisal tool in the hands of people who believe that they have been cheated and short changed by the more affluent West and are hitting back. Religion is just a means – and a thinly disguised one – of recruiting disgruntled and disillusioned people around the world. The poorer a region is the more susceptible it is to frequent break downs in law and order and eventually terrorism. It does not happen overnight. There are often signs for leaders and more affluent neighbours to see and correct.
It is therefore not surprising that terrorism started in my dear country from its poorest corner and for the most preventable of reasons. The leaders in the North- East cannot say in all honesty that they did not see it coming. But rather than educate, liberate and empower their people, they did the opposite. And under the guise of culture and religion, they perpetuated poverty and subservient existence. So much oil money has flowed into the hands of the Northern elite over the years yet all you see are poverty and unemployment. The famed textile industry was destroyed by a few Northern elites aided by the Customs. The result is that many children in the North-East have lost their innocence prematurely. Many are orphans. Many don’t even know it’s Easter. Most are hardened and may never be really productive again.
And yet the impunity in the system allows the elite to get away with their greedy, hedonistic and opulent lifestyles. How do you explain the killings in Agatu? And what kind of a system allows it to go on? While growing up, the image I had of a cattle rearer was that of a man who largely minded his own business and that of his few cows. He usually had a staff across his shoulders, a straw hat on his head or tipped back to the nape and a pair of well-worn rubber sandals.
He was allowed to pass through the villages and rural towns unmolested as he searched for grazing areas. If he had a dagger, it was concealed; but never a gun. He never went to farms, not even the small, isolated ones that had maize and vegetables in the developed areas of town. All that seemed to have changed now. Today, he goes around with a swagger in his gait, a gun in his hand and murder in his heart. Like the Boko Haram insurgency, the Fulani herdsmen menace did not start yesterday. But as usual, we are treating it with kid gloves. We need to ask ourselves at what point did the herdsmen start carrying guns and for what purpose.
Most local hunters use Dane guns; our largely illiterate and largely poor herdsmen use the more sophisticated AK47 and the likes. Who is furnishing them with these dangerous weapons and for what purpose? To hunt down rabbits or to hunt down men? And why should your freedom to graze jeopardise my freedom to farm; especially in my own backyard. But what I still can’t wrap round my head are the killings. The wanton killings. All over the world murders are the most hideous of crimes yet these guys consistently and heartlessly murder people in cold blood. And they get away with it.
And because they get away with it, they do it again and again. The truth must be told that they are murderers; mass murderers and there should be something in our statute books against this lot. Whatever long term solution that will be proffered to curtail this grazing challenge should not be an excuse not to apprehend those who have taken lives.
It is bad enough that people’s farms and livelihood are destroyed, it is unimaginable that their lives are taken in such a cold, cavalier manner in their towns, in their homes and on their beds. My thought are on the people of Agatu who cannot partake in the joys of Easter and all it connotes. I feel for them. But I feel more for my country for treating the safety and security of its people so shabbily and for the justice system that is unable or unwilling to right wrongs. If I cannot be safe in my home, in my village and in my country then where can I be safe?
VANGUARD
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