Zabarmari massacre and Nigeria’s bleeding heart!
In another time and place, perhaps in saner climes where the sanctity of human life matters to their leaders, the president would have declared at least a day of national mourning over the recent horrendous, gruesome and mind-bending massacre of 78 rice farmers (according to Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau) there in Zabarmari, Borno State. The voiceless victims were defenseless citizens whose priceless lives were wantonly wasted with their heads decapitated and sent to their early graves. Such a day or more would have served as a moment for sober reflection; for fervent prayers by concerned citizens of different religious persuasions, to call on God and the political leaders for an end to the senseless blood-letting across the country.
But not here in Nigeria! But why, one may ask? The answer is obvious, or should be. As the series of preventable killings have proven over the years, the government,which is empowered by Section 14 sub-section 2(b) of the 1999 constitution, (as amended) to protect the lives of the citizens and provide for their welfare has grossly failed in that regard. Curiously however, the current Buhariled administration must never be criticised by anyone, as it does no wrong! There are listless excuses waiting to be given against any form of accusation, leveled at the doorstep of the country’s number one security chief!
Or, how else would one equate the unbecoming response by Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Adviser to Mister presidentin an interview granted BBC soon after the massacre? He stated that the farmers “did not get military clearance to be on the rice farms when the attack happened”. No empathy whatsoever. No recourse to the expected role of the government to defend the defenseless farmers! Though he has come up with contrary explanations, the harm has been done.
By that, the scary, sordid and saddening statement has been sent across to all Nigerians that no one is safe here anymore! According to the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar-led Jama’atu Nasril Islam “nowhere is safe in the country now”. Going further, he stated that: “We nevertheless, once again call on the Federal Government to rise up to its responsibilities and do well beyond the traditional condemnation, as lip service(s) on security matters should stop. Nigerians are desperately yearning for concrete actions,” the JNI said. The statement was titled, ‘Press release: Requiem for Zabarmari’.
Re-echoing the palpable fear of millions of Nigerians who can no longer sleep with their two eyes closed, Aisha Yesufu, the human rights activist and #ENDSARS campaigner raised an alarm on her twitter page, @Aishayesufu. In her words: “Being good citizens will not stop the killings, neither will praising Buhari to high heavens. You must call him out and give him the incentive to go after those killing our citizens and also not kill us. We are all victims waiting to happen.” That is nothing but the bitter truth!
In fact, going by the recent statement credited to the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, terrorism might persist in Nigeria for another 20 years! Read that again. He wrote: “There is a general misunderstanding of what insurgency and terrorism entail. There is likelihood of terrorism persisting in Nigeria for another 20 years. It only depends on the level of escalation and the appropriate responses by all stakeholders both civil and military authorities. Also by both local and international actors.all must cooperate to contain the lingering insecurity.” Well said.
But after going through that nerve-shredding statement one cannot ask the salient questions. Why did President Muhammadu Buhari ask his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan to resign from the exalted office of the presidency back in 2013, on the basis of his inability to combat insecurity? Why did he make the security of the citizens as one of his cardinal campaign promises in 2014 under the platform of the All Progressives
Congress (APC)? It would be recalled that in an interview he granted thedaily Trust which was published on Wednesday the 22nd of May 2013, he asked the then President Goodluck Jonathan to resign, saying “Jonathan should vacate and give way to competent hand to govern the country”. Words are cheap indeed!
But in an ironic twist of events the presidency blew ‘hot’ over the recent call by the Senate Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe (of the People’s Democratic Party – PDP) demanding Buhari’s resignation. Abaribe, in his contribution to a motion sponsored by the Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi, on national security, said: “Those who live on propaganda shall die by propaganda. Defeat is staring us in the face`. Nigerians did not elect the Chief of Staff; Nigerians did not elect heads of Security, Nigerians elected President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 and in 2019. As it is, we are facing the head of the Nigerian government and this is President Buhari. He should resign with immediate effect.”
And before anyone assumes that Abaribe’s call was politically and ethnically motivated, being a South-easterner and belonging to the opposition PDP, the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) have since joined the fray. They have asked President Muhammadu Buhari to resign, making the statement twice in two days.the NEF spokesman, Dr. Hakeem Baba-ahmed, stated this in a live television programme.
He said: “We will continue to ask that he (Buhari) resigns. He is a democratically elected president. We wish he is doing better but he is not. Ordinarily, under a democratic system, a leader is supposed to deliver, he is supposed to do two things - he is supposed to secure citizens and he is supposed to facilitate their economic welfare. He (Buhari) hasn’t done the first and he is not doing the second. So, explain to me on what basis President Buhari should continue to be our president?”thought-provoking question to those who love this country.
In all honesty, political leadership is not about base sentiments but the capacity to deliver on promises made and in tandem with the wishes, aspirations and the crying needs of the people.
‘As a governor I cannot keep quiet while six million people of Borno state are left to die or perish. It is a covenant between me and Almighty God that I should be truthful to my people.’ -Prof. Babagana Zulum
Baje is Nigerian first food technologist in the media and author of ‘Drumbeats of Democracy’
The truth however, is that over the past five years Nigeria has been turned into Africa’s killing fields by the fully armed herdsmen, brazen bandits, kidnappers and of course, Boko Haram terrorists most of who have killed hundreds of thousands of defenceless citizens and gone Scot-free!
The very idea of granting spurious amnesty to the so called ‘repentant terrorists’, feeding them from our common purse and sending them overseas for education, while their victims are left to rot in harrowing hunger in the much-neglected IDP camps is antithetical to the course of justice. It is enough to trigger God’s anger. It means that their lives are more precious than that of the people they kill at will.
We are not jungle animals such as the African buffalo, the Indian dragon, the saltwater crocodile, the Cape buffalo, the black mamba or the lordlylion that live on beastly instincts.worrisome too is the fact that there is no value for all the stupendous sum of N4.62 trillion claimed to have been spent so far on combating insecurity in the country over the past five years! Sadly, Nigeria has been turned into a Hobbesian state where might is right.
For the military to claim that foreign interests are responsible for their inability to discharge their duties to the nation is simply passing the ugly buck. Only God knows why President Buhari has blatantly refused to sack the Service Chiefs. Governor Zulum has asked for mercenaries to combat insecurity in the state but who is listening to him? It is time for those who swore by the Holy Book to protect our lives to do so now or throw in the towel. Enough of the bloodshed!