Deconstructing the needless southern Kaduna killings

It is rather unfortunate that the farmers-herders clashes in Kaduna State is placed in a very wrong dimension even as commentaries by opinion molders from across the divide on the ugly development are giving an incorrect perception.

In my opinion, the distortions are deliberate for certain gains; for such clashes are common in Nigeria for decades, more especially in the northern part of the country.

When I was a child while in primary school, conflicts of this nature happened annually after harvest of crops.

However, they carried no religious or ethnic temperament. The fight was purely economic in nature; it had no even political undertone. It was a crisis between farmers who wanted to protect their farm produce and the cattle rearers who wanted to graze their animals. The collision between the two parties had nothing to do with religion.

Therefore, I cannot understand why our brethren in Southern Kaduna want to classify the unfortunate happenings these days as a religious upheaval this time around.

Christians and Muslims have been living together in harmony and love and in appreciation of one another for more than one century. In those days, we used to go to the same primary school; we played together and ate together. I, personally, attended the Saint Augustine Primary School at Nguru, Yobe State, which was then a missionary school ran by the Roman Catholic Church, owned by the Igbos from the South-East.

My father was a renowned Sheikh of Islam at Nguru and beyond, but he had friends among the Christian folks. I can remember vividly the names of some of them like Mr Gaise, an Igbo man and Mr Atete, a Tiv man from Benue State. They used to sit together on the same mat without irritation, digestedness or any kind of sentiment, beautifully in a mood of friendship.

We, the aged ones who saw yesterday and today, want to know what happened to Nigerians now, particularly those living in Southern Kaduna. Why do our compatriots drive pleasure in looking at events always from religious perspective?

There is a good lesson to be learnt from the neighbouring Plateau State which witnessed needless and protracted sectarian crisis for over a decade.

We all know the Plateau problem as strictly economic but was laced with tribal and religious sentiments; the result of which was a collateral damage on all sides. But what happened at the end of the day? Everyone discovered that he cannot displace the other, hence the need to look forward.

I would like to thank and praise the Executive Governor of Plateau State, His Excellency Barrister Simon Lalong, for being intelligently neutral and for exploring all options towards bringing the perennial crisis under control.

Arguably, he has succeeded in uniting his people, and has established peace and harmony in the entire state. This is a great achievement in his life. May God be with him and guide him and there is the need for other governors to adopt the Plateau template.

But how did he achieve this feat in just less than two years? He was able to make the people know that the state belongs to everyone, irrespective of religious and ethnic affiliations and most importantly, he resisted sabotaging a section of the people economically.

At present, the Plateau State Executive Council has on board, people across the divide. This is in addition to other incentives for all, including social, economic and political leverages.

I, therefore, wish to call on the people in Kaduna State to shelve mutual suspicion and cooperate with their governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai who always wants to see peace reign in Kaduna South. No good and responsible leader wants to see his people in conflict, for he too will never have the latitude to live in peace when a section of his state is on fire.

I feel it is pertinent here to concur with the Secretary of Miyetti-Allah cattle breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Baba Ahmad Ngalzarma, when he said on channels TV that the few who ignite or kindle the fire of discord, are doing so because Buhari is the President of the country.

This is pretty true, because this problem existed during Jonathan and Yokowa’s administrations but the wailers were silent and muted.

Brawls or Skirmishs happen between farmers and herdsmen in other states like Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina, Yobe and so on, but they are not given religious smack or flavor. Then why is it not so in Kaduna State? States like Benue and Nassarawa, too, witness this kind of problem but they do not give it religious coloration.

As Nigerians, we must appreciate the fact that the world today is moving towards unity, integration and love; hence seen as a global village, but surprisingly in Nigeria, we are drifting day after day towards fraction, disunity and hatred.

All and sundry should bear in mind that no faction of this country can live alone or in isolation. It is an axiom that we need one another. The few and negligible separatists who call for secession from the federation are the ones fanning the embers of hatred in other parts of the country, busy gingering up and enlivening animosity. However, as strong bloc, we must resist this excesses and remain one indivisible entity because our strength lies in our unity.

It would be disastrous to get to a time when an Igbo man from the South-East would have to apply for a visa to come to northern Nigeria in order to sell his electronics, building materials, pharmaceutical products, books and stationeries, spare parts of vehicles and so on and so forth. On the other hand, northerners also need not to apply for a visa to go to the South-East to sell their livestock and farm produce.

The prophets of Nigeria’s breakup should have a rethink, for the simple reason that it is not only one country that will illfatedly emerge at the detriment of our strength.

My people, let what is happening in Southern Sudan and what had happened in East Timor of Indonesia serve as lessons. Our Biafran war ended in futility without producing any result, and at the end of the day, it was Nigeria as a country that lost wealth and priceless souls of innocent people. Please let us drop this naïve, parochial and myopic idea of isolationism. We are now living in the 21st century and need not go back to 20th century. Before his demise, Chief Odumegu Ojukwu himself denounced secession, and I have no iota of doubt that if he were alive today, he would not support this cantankerous and peevish elements.

I hail His Excellency, Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State for his recent patriotic action of bringing farmers and cattle rearers together. This nationalist stand is commendable.