Nigeria: A House Divided Against Itself By David Abu
It is now pellucid to all well-meaning Nigerians that Nigeria has reached a point of no return; the President, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, has reneged on his campaign promise and constitutional duty to protect the lives and property of Nigerians.
Since he was first elected president in 2015, Buhari has shown with a compelling lucidity that his main goal is the continuation of Uthman Dan Fodio’s jihad. He probably wrote the blueprint before he became president and tucked it away in his portmanteau.
In his first term in office, the content of the blueprint was inadvertently or deliberately revealed to Nigerians (to warn them about the forthcoming birth pangs?) by one of his subalterns, Femi Adesina, who, in his reply to a question on ancestral land on AIT interview said, as follows: “Ancestral attachment?
You can only have ancestral attachment when you are alive. If you are talking about ancestral attachment if you are dead, how does it matter? The National Economic Council that recommended ranching didn’t just legislate it; there were recommendations.
So if your state does not have land for ranching, it is understandable. Not every state will have land for ranches. But, where you have land and can do something, please do for peace. What will the land be used for if those who own it are dead at the end of the day”?
And if we juxtapose this statement with what Buhari said in Benue about three years ago during a meeting with farmers, herders, government officials and stakeholders, namely that Benue people should exercise restraint and live in peace with their neighbours, without addressing the role of the herders in the conflict, we would agree that there is a common thread running through them. In other words, Benue people should not fight back when attacked by the Fulani herdsmen.
Furthermore, Buhari pretended to be unaware of the refusal of Ibrahim Idris, Inspector General of Police (IG), to relocate to Benue as he instructed. Hear him: “I am getting to know this in this meeting.
I am quite surprised.” He does not care if the people of Benue perished at the hands of his kinsmen, the Fulani herdsmen; his hatred for the people of Benue is palpable. In short, he would gladly welcome a pogrom against them, because he is a man who has honey dripping out of his mouth but a dagger concealed in his heart, à la Li Linfu, the 8th century Chancellor of China.
In April 2018, the Fulani herdsmen viciously attacked a church leaving 18 people dead, including 2 Priests. In an attempt to avoid public outcry and criticism of government, Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President, in a State House Press Release, wrote, inter alia: “The President reiterates that the government will not rest on its oars in its determination to fish out these barbarous mass murderers and their clandestine sponsors.”
Really? As I write, the government is yet to fish out those anal retentive malcontents, aka Fulani herdsmen, who have turned Nigeria into a veritable abattoir of humanoid aberrations. And despite the fact that the DSS has a long list of their sponsors, as revealed by Navy Commodore Kunle Olawunmi (Rtd.), none of them has been invited for interrogation or arrested. They walk our streets free because they are the favoured boys of the establishment.
Could it be that the Commander-in-Chief is in the thick of it? Did Dr. Obadiah Mailafa get it right by accusing Buhari of pursuing an Islamization and Fulanization agenda? If Buhari’s past utterances about his support for Sharia are anything to go by, then one can safely conclude that he is monomaniac—He is stubbornly obsessed with Islamization, and a cursory look at his appointments would portray a man going ahead full throttle on the Fulanization of Nigeria.
Nigeria has been a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, and multi-cultural country from amalmagation to the present day. Therefore, Buhari’s deliberate promotion of ethnocentrism and religious bias is counterproductive; it breeds disunity. Together we stand, divided we fall. “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
Under Buhari, the South has also been subjected to incessant attacks by the Fulani herdsmen, who take delight in the savage killing of farmers, maiming, raping, pillaging, and torching houses, with impunity. Recently, they have made Edo State the main focus of their attack and incessant harassment, and as a direct consequence, Uromi women have abandoned their farms.
It seems they have effectively mapped out the whole country; they are now the occupants of forests in Southern Nigeria. But, how long will this sorry state of affairs continue? Not for long. The nefarious plan of the enemies is now well known. We will not sit idly by and allow a group of miscreants to kill us and confiscate our ancestral land. And we are also aware that our enemies would intensify their attack as 2023 draws nearer; their plan is to start a war.
In order to avoid plunging the country into another senseless civil war with its attendant bloodbath and human suffering, it is imperative for the South to act now before the situation gets out of hand by organizing a round-table discussion on how we should peacefully disengage from Nigeria.
David Abu writes from The Netherlands
