THIS IS OUR HOMELAND

Sonnie Ekwowusi argues the need for people to protect their land

EVIL THRIVES WHEN THE SO-CALLED GOOD MEN SIT BACK AND DO NOTHING

The massacre of our country men and women by the Cattle Fulani militia (whose origin in West Africa dates back to the Futa Toro State in old Senegal) constitutes both national and existential threats. In the last three and half years we have watched with dismay the massacre of our countrymen and women by the Cattle Fulani militia. Rather than offer the citizens the much-needed protection the state security apparatus is complicit in the massacre of our fathers, mothers, children and great grand children. This is evil. Four decades and nine years ago, our freedom fighters brought forth in this land a new independent nation, conceived in freedom and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are under the greatest assault of the Cattle Fulani militia, testing whether that nation so conceived in freedom can endure. Now we are slaves in our homeland. They want our children, our great grand children to be their slaves as well in our homeland for that matter. Tufiakwa!

Therefore it is proper and fitting that we act now and uproot this evil from our land otherwise we shall be doomed forever. No matter their threats or intimidation, we must never surrender. No more procrastination. Beyond being a permanent voter card carrier, each citizen should try to get involved, even at a comparatively smaller scale, in the political process. If we decide to wait for all pregnant women to put to bed then all those who were delivered first would become pregnant again. This is our homeland. It is our ancestral land. In African cosmology, land is intertwined with human existence. To deprive a man of the land of his ancestors is to put him to death. They have taken everything we have. They monopolise political power. They have stolen our commonwealth. They have made us perpetual hewers of wood. They have destroyed our means of livelihood. They have destroyed our educational system. They have even yanked history off our school curriculum to conceal their iniquitous past from our children. They have deprived us of our basic human rights. But no legislation, no force on this earth can force us to give up our ancestral land to the Fulani militia for grazing ranches or for anything. This is our homeland. It is the land of our hope. We were born on this land. Our children are the inheritors of our ancestral land not the illiterate cola-chewing militia. Therefore we must defend our land with the last drop of our blood. A crab can only become a King at the seashore but if dares extends its sovereignty to the middle of the sea, the king of all fish will have it for a dessert. Prayer? Of course we must pray assiduously always and not to lose heart to be delivered from this evil. But prayer alone without action is like tempting God. Silence? At times. But silence cannot be golden amid political, social and moral turmoil. Besides being a proud carrier of PVC, try to get involved in the political process if you can. Evil, we are told, thrives when the so-called good men sit back and do nothing. “One injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”, says Martin Luther King Jr. The toleration of injustices in Nigeria is producing more injustices. When they committed pogroms against the Igbos some kept mute because they felt they were not Igbos. But little did they know that 48 years after the Nigerian Civil War the entire spectrum of Nigerian society will be their killing field. Yesterday they committed pogroms against the Igbos. Today they are committing pogroms against the rest of us. In February 2014 Nnamdi Kanu warned: “As they campaign vigorously for elections, you would think, they are coming to grow the economy, enthrone justice, breed unity and tolerance, love for one another. No, they are coming to elevate Hausa-Fulani supremacy, to reposition the security agencies by sacking all competent hands and replace them with their kinsmen to drive their ethnic domination of the Biafrans, the Fulani herdsmen will be armed and encouraged to slaughter us with impunity, and their masters will protect them. They are coming to ensure that my people are enslaved forever. Those who do not believe me will soon see it happen before their eyes.”

This warning was unheeded. Then on April 25, 2016 over 500 armed Fulani herdsmen invaded seven villages - Ekwuru, Nimbo-Ngwoko, Ugwuijoro, Ebor, Enugu-Nimbo, Umuome and Ugwuachara-in Ukpabi-Nimbo, a border town in Uzo-Uwani area of Enugu State, and left scores of citizens killed. This was greeted with silence. In January 2018, the bodies of about 80 citizens of Benue State murdered by the Fulani herdsmen January 1 – 2, 2018 were given mass burial amid tears of sorrow. Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom said at that time that the Fulani herdsmen had murdered no fewer than 1,878 citizens of Benue State within the last three years. Yet another silence.

But after the Fulani herdsmen attacked and killed the Taraba town folks of T. Y. Danjuma the respected elder statesman opened up and said, “I ask all of you to be on the alert and defend your country, defend your state. This ethnic cleansing must stop in Taraba, and it must stop in Nigeria. These killers have been protected by the military; they cover them and you must be watchful to guide and protect yourselves because you have no other place to go”. As debate on Danjuma’s self-defence antidote raged the barbaric militia suddenly came out from where they were being protected and murdered two Catholic clerics – Rev Fr. Joseph Gor and Rev. Fr. Felix Tyolahan –and 17 parishioners who were peacefully worshiping God at a morning Mass at St. Ignatius Catholic Church, Mbalom, Benue State.

As the nation was steeped in deep mourning, the Fulani militia again emerged from where they were being protected and slaughtered about 200 men, women, children and babies on the Plateau. In a statement ostensibly accepting responsibility for the Plateau murder, Miyetti Allah said, “We lost 300 cows, no one should expect peace in Plateau....” Till date, Miyetti Allah still thirsts for human blood. Their leader is not arrested. He is not prosecuted. He is not called a terrorist. Python Dance is not set after him. Miyetti Allah apart, till date no Cattle Fulani murderer has been tried and convicted in court, whereas Christians accused of killing some herders have been convicted and jailed. And you want to still tell me that we are citizens of the same country? Tell that to the marines. Let’s not be naive. The 19th century Usuman dan Fodio Jihad is still spreading albeit in forms which may be undetected.

Once beaten twice shy. Now that we are all regretting the mistake of 2015, we should avoid a repeat occurrence in 2019. It will be suicidal to experience another four years of Buhari nightmare. But be forewarned. Terrorism is deadly and directionless. None of us is immune from it. Therefore you must stand up and be counted. No matter the size of the finger it can never be bigger than the nostrils of the owner. We are the owners of this land. This is our homeland.