Even with his compromised eyesight, a blind man can see all the cyclonic cataclysm that is presently befalling Nigeria. With his shortchanged hearing capability, a deaf man also is able to pick up the staccato emitting from the strings of catastrophes that have border-to-border engulfed the Giant of Africa. To many of us who live outside of Nigeria, it is now very obvious that there is a surreal siege on Nigeria. Nigeria, my home. Nigeria, our beauty pageant. Nigeria, our hope now turned into a pinata of hopelessness by invading men from foreign lands and their colluding homegrown co-labourers in powerful places. Nigeria, our land, now overrun by killer hell-men herdsmen who freely hound Nigerians unhindered and unstopped by none.
Behold the sweeping bombardment from these invisible and visible armies of occupation. These are men who love to suck on the blood of the innocent and then rewarded with payments of billions of naira in handsome ransom by our government. This is the reward for taking men and women from their beds and stacked up in the jungle until somebody somewhere pays up or prepares to bury their dead. Fulani miscreants have taken over our lands. And men charged with keeping us safe from their onslaughts hold their arms akimbo watching helplessly and haplessly.
Let me begin this treatise with an experience I heard about an Oba in Ekiti State. His story has now proved that nowhere is safe for anyone who lives in today’s Nigeria.
About three weeks ago, it was kidnappers again in Ilemesho Ekiti. Ilemesho Ekiti is a short distance from sitting Governor Kayode Fayemi’s Isan Ekiti. The Obadu of Ilemesho was the victim. I heard that the Oba had a rough run with Fulani herdsmen not long before then. The Oba then mobilised against those killing his subjects; raping his women, and ravaging their lucrative farmlands. He had no success curtailing the rampaging herdsmen. Security operatives including the police made it clear that disputes with killers were a no-go area for them. But, why? I heard anytime a case involves Fulani herdsmen, there are always ‘orders from Abuja’ to stand down.
On this fateful evening, the Oba had just concluded a meeting with his chiefs after which the marauders walked into his palace with guns. They bundled the Oba into a vehicle with his crown and staff of office. And then he was given marching orders into the thick bushes the herdsmen call home. The herders dealt hard blows on the Oba with machetes. Oba’s skin stayed intact; he suffered no cut. I was told they shot at him several times from their AK 47s; but something mysterious happened that the Oba did not fall to the rains of bullets. Then, they beat him black-and-blue with other dangerous weapons demanding N100 million as ransom. They sternly warned the Oba never to bother herders again even if his subjects are killed, raped, or maimed. No one is sure of the amount of ransom they grabbed from the Oba’s people; but I learned it was staggering. The Oba was let go after spending many days in the bushes far away from the comfort of his palace. The man ended up in the hospital for one week, nursing wounds he got from machete assaults. Who now is safe again in our nation under a retired Army General President?
Nigeria’s Information Minister, Lai Mohammad, recently said this about unbridled insecurity in Nigeria: “It is no longer news that our dear nation is facing security challenges. However, I have read comments saying the Federal Government is overwhelmed and doesn’t have a clue as to how to tackle the challenges… Well, I am here today to assure all Nigerians that while the government acknowledges the security challenges we face at this time, from terrorism to kidnapping, banditry and farmer-herder conflict, it is definitely not overwhelmed and indeed it has the wherewithal, as you will see in the days ahead, to confront the challenges headlong and restore law and order, peace and security”.
Mohammed also hinted that Buhari’s regime knows the locations of the kidnappers. It is no longer a secret that security agents know the kidnappers’ hideouts. They know their movements. They know when they are asleep and wake up. But why then does the kidnapping scourge persists? Why is the government appearing helpless? Who are the big men behind this? Why are Nigerians hurting Nigerians? Mohammed suggested that if the firepower of the Nigerian government is unleashed on the terrorists’ camp, civilians will become casualties. But Nigerians are already casualties of a war they never started with the bandits.
Nigerians from all walks of life are tired of these killer Fulanis. A few days ago, Nigerian southern governors met over the Fulani herders’ reign of terror pushing Nigeria off the cliff of oneness. For the first time in a while, these governors abandoned party affiliations and addressed the security issue. In one voice, they publicly agreed that there is a siege unleashed on Nigeria by Fulani herdsmen that must end now. It was saluted by Nigerians. Then, the Fulani standing on higher grounds went berserk. One Professor Usman Yusuf, a Fulani bloviator, went on television blabbing that southern governors who banned open grazing from their lands have no right to make laws without first consulting the Fulani. Really?
Until now, I never knew that southern governors must seek permission from the Fulani before carrying out their constitutional duties. So, we now have to seek permissions from those who kill our men, rape our women, destroy our farmlands, and coerce us to pay them handsome ransom for kidnapping our people? So, we have to consult our killers before we make laws not to kill us? These people are so ignorantly and foolhardily audacious. In this dispensation in Nigeria, whether you are a governor, senator, oba; or a community leader, you have to take permission from the Fulani before you are considered a Nigerian with a right to life? I am stunned. Insecurity is Nigerians’ common enemy. Its architects lurking in the background are Nigeria’s public enemies that must be stopped. When government men charged with securing lives and property of citizens confess helplessness as Lai Mohammed did; then the people are forced to admit hopelessness. A people stuck with helplessness and hopelessness must refuse to live with the bad vibes. They must do something.
Somebody needs to whisper it into the good(?) ears of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) His schismatic action and inaction have finally partitioned Nigeria into an acrimonious North and South. In the area of oneness and unity, Buhari’s regime has shown no strength in leadership, no direction, no intestinal fortitude, and no backbone. The nation is at an intersection. I am cocksure of one thing and history bears me out. At every intersection, Divine intervention becomes the gold we seek. Soon, a voice from Heaven shall speak regarding Nigeria. Like every siege, this one has come, and it will pass. But the willing human agents hiding behind some varnished venomous veils promoting pandemonium in Nigeria, and used and also using others as tormenting tools for wickedness, will ALL DROWN IN THE RED SEA.
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