DANCING ON OUR GRAVES
Tola Adeniyi worries about the unchecked and senseless killings across the nation
Iam greatly incensed by the reckless insensitivity of Nigerian politicians. I really do not know what to make of the numbness of Nigerian political leaders especially the so-called All Progressives Congress party. Volumes of innocent blood have been shed since November 1999 when the Obasanjo’s Peoples Democratic Party government ordered the massacre of over 2500 innocent citizens and the whole town of Odi was reduced to rubbles.
There was relentless onslaught on Plateau communities by the pampered Fulani terrorist militia men masquerading as herdsmen during the administrations of both Umaru Yar’adua and Goodluck Jonathan. All these aforementioned killings pale into insignificance when compared with the brutal, brutish, and horrifying ethnic cleansing agenda of Buhari’s pseudo-military government masquerading as civilian administration.
And the huge difference between the killings under Obasanjo and those under Buhari is that Obasanjo owned up to the killings as government ordered. Olusegun Obasanjo was man enough to tell Nigerians that his government ordered the sacking of Odi and the slaughter of the citizens there. In the case of Buhari, it is his antecedents, his body language and the reckless pronouncements of his top level appointees in the security sector that gave us a pointer to where the murderous activities originated from and who in fact or whose agenda the Fulani terrorist militia are executing. And of course respected General T.Y. Danjuma gave us a clue that there was complicity by the military.
How on earth could a president be smiling and merrymaking at a lavish wedding ceremony a few kilometres away from Benue State where and when hundreds of slaughtered men, women and children were being committed to earth in mass burial? How could a president ever tell a community under pogrom to accommodate their murderers? When a bus accident claimed the lives of 19 people in Saskatchewan, Canada, the prime minister flew straight to the spot to commiserate with the families of the victims. A similar incident where a deranged individual rammed his truck into pedestrians and killed 13 people in Toronto the prime minister and his entire cabinet and the provincial premier and the mayor were all at the spot to lay flowers and march in solidarity with the people of the city.
Not in Nigeria! As hundreds were being massacred in Plateau State, Buhari and his APC travellers were dancing at Eagle Square in the guise of holding a rubber-stamp convention!
What kind of country are we in? What kind of leadership do we have? Which kind of people are in charge of our security and safety? And what exactly do the herdsmen want? Why should any government place more value on cows than human beings? Why should any government be financing a PRIVATE business of some powerful individuals at the expense of peace and security of a whole country? I reproduce here the graphic lamentation of a legislator from one of the 15 recently brutalised communities in Plateau State; a clear case of ethnic cleansing:
Over 200 Killed In Attacks By Herdsmen On Plateau Communities claimed Mr Peter Gyendeng in an interview with The PUNCH on Sunday and reproduced byTheEagle Online on June 24, 2018.
The Chairman of the Public Accounts and Petitions Committee of the Plateau State House of Assembly representing Barkin Ladi, Peter Gyendeng, on Sunday said over 200 persons were killed in the attack on 11 communities in Plateau State between Saturday evening and Sunday morning.
Gyendeng said this in an interview with The PUNCH on Sunday.
He described the attack on the communities as “a declaration of war” on his constituency.
Communities attacked included Xland, Gindin Akwati, Ruku, Nghar, Kura Falls and Kakuruk in Gashish District.
Other areas affected by the attack included Rakok, Kok and Razat in Ropp District.
Gyendeng told The PUNCH: “As a matter of fact, the casualty rate is in hundreds; it is more than 100.
“In one place, it is above 51; in another, over 32 and yet in another area, it is same.
“For now, based on what we have on ground and the corpses that we have been receiving, it is probably over 200 casualties.
“Altogether, about 11 villages were attacked and our people are there now trying to ascertain the number of deaths.
“The casualty rate is above 200 and counting (of the corpses) is still going on.
“This is war, it is a declaration of war on my people.
“War has been declared on Barkin Ladi LGA completely.
“There are mercenaries that have been hired to come and kill people in Barkin Ladi LGA.
“The killing started around 11pm last (Saturday) night till this (Sunday) morning. “And the killing still continues.” Another report by View Point Nigeria says, and I quote:
Villagers fleeing ‘The Militia’ in Plateau ... casualties now approaching 200 as military say the invaders have ‘superior fire.’
‘Despair as death toll of Barkin Ladi killings reaches 106
At 12:00 noon this afternoon (Sunday 24th June 2018), the death toll from the Gashish district killings had reached 106.
Thirty one corpses were recovered from Gindin Akwati (i.e, ex-lands), 34 from Gana-Ropp, eight from Shonong and the balance (33) from small villages (e..g, Razat, Ruku, Nghar, Tanabu, Tisan, Kakuruk etc) in the vicinity.
And at the time of filing this report, it was again reported that herdsmen had gone, re-grouped and were emanated from the Kurra axis, advancing towards Barkin Ladi main town. Sporadic gunshots and the sounds of rapid automatic weapons could be heard in the distance, as residents scampered for safety. The onslaught and killings which started late on Friday has now been sustained for over 60 hours (2.5 days) non-stop. Operatives of the STF and other security apparatus appear overpowered and unable to forestall the killings.
View Point Nigeria’ s investigations revealed that all churches in the entire Gashish axis were empty on Sunday morning -as worshippers stayed away for fear of being attacked.
We have a major problem in our hands now. The STF are trying to destroy evidence of the killings. One Col. Bello who is the STF PRO along other military personnel have gone to Nyer village in Barakin Ladi where over 80 people were killed yesterday as well as other villages where people were killed forcing them to bury the corpses as the only condition for them to get assistance by way of medical treatment to those with injuries. Kindly let the STF commander know this as well as other security heads.
As things stand it is difficult to understand how any sane person can canvass for Buhari’s continuation in office as President of Nigeria. General Buhari has demonstrated the greatest disdain and disrespect for the feelings of Nigerians by the way he has conducted himself and the big office Nigerians entrusted to his care since May 29, 2015. Buhari’s vision of Nigeria begins and ends in Daura and this explains his unprecedented nepotism and parochialism. He has also proved to Nigerians that the reason he ran for the highest office four times before Bola Ahmed Tinubu donated the presidency to him was to make himself the third imperialist after Usman Dan Fodiyo and the revered Ahmadu Bello.
Right from the time he humiliated Dr Alex Ekwueme, rubbished Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s unassailable reputation, invited deaths to Bisi Onabanjo, Professor Ambrose Alli and disgraced Pa Ajasin, Lateef Jakande, Fela Anikulapo Kuti and the duo of Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabo while pampering Shehu Shagari, Buhari has shown that he did not belong to all but belonged to his ethnic group.
With the unchecked harvests of deaths heaped on Nigeria and Nigerians, Buhari has left no one in doubt that he does not deserve to remain in office beyond May 29, 2019.
Nigerians would be relieved to see the back of a man who in his years in office left a catalogue of horrors and teeth gnashing while single-mindedly turning blind eye to the horrific massacres and butchering of Nigerians and promoting ethnic cleansing, undisguised expansionism, arrogant imperialism and imperviousness to reason.
And he would be remembered by the sheer number of widows and orphans his regime created. Adeniyi is a former Managing Director of Daily Times