Its been said that history repeats itself. The current allegation on IPOB by DSS is something so interesting and may lead to something else.
The Department of State Security (DSS) have
claimed that five Fulani herdsmen were
abducted, killed and buried in a mass grave by
members of IPOB in Abia state a few days ago.
It also claimed that there were up to 50 more
bodies in the grave and that they are all Fulani.
The implications of this announcement is
obvious. It will create more tension and fear in
the land and it will lead to reprisal killings in the
North. Violence is never the way out and I have
always believed that it has no place in any
civilized society. Yet what I find curious about
this announcement is the fact that it is unique
and historic.
I say this because thousands of Igbos, Yorubas,
Niger-Deltans and Middle Belters have been
killed by Fulani militants and herdsmen over the
last ten months since President Buhari came to
power, yet the DSS has never announced it and
told the country about the details and ethnic
identities of the victims. When one thousand
Shiite Muslims were slaughtered in Zaria and
buried in mass graves the DSS did not speak.
When five hundred Idomas were massacred in
Agatu by Fulani militants the DSS did not speak.
When hundreds of southern and Middle Belt
farms were raided by AK-47-wielding Fulani
herdsmen who murdered, raped, burnt down and
took over the land of their victims, the DSS
never gave us details of the victims or made any
announcements.
When our leaders in the South were kidnapped
and when men witnessed their wives and
children being raped and butchered by the Fulani
militias before their very eyes, the DSS made no
announcements. When the elder-statesman Chief
Olu Falae’s farm was raided by the Fulani
militants for the third time in one year and his
OPC guard was slaughtered, the DSS made no
announcements. When the villagers and farmers
in the south-east were murdered and their wives
and daughters were abducted by the Fulani
militants, the DSS made no announcements.
When traditional rulers, nuns and priests were
abducted and killed by Fulani herdsmen in the
south-south the DSS made no announcements.
When the farms of the south west were attacked
and ravaged and Yoruba farmers and their
families were butchered by the Fulani militants
the DSS made no announcements. When the
International Terror Index told the world that the
Fulani militias in Nigeria are the “fourth most
deadly terror organization in the world”, the DSS
said nothing and neither did they give us details
about their activities or their victims. Worse of
all is the fact that our government and our
President, who himself happens to be a Fulani,
has never deemed it fit or necessary to condemn
the activities of the Fulani herdsmen and
militants and neither have they expressed any
sympathy or displayed any empathy for their
many victims. Let me be clear: The murder of
anyone, regardless of their ethnicity or faith, is
unacceptable to me. I deplore murder and
violence and, in my view, the killing of one
innocent soul diminishes the humanity of every
single one of us as a community and a nation.
However, it seems curious that the minute that
Fulanis are killed in the East, the DSS is quick to
rise to the occasion and express concern about
it whilst they do not express the same concern
when Nigerians from other ethnic nationalities
were killed by the Fulani in their own homes and
land. Double standard Therein lies the double
standard and it is sad and unfortunate.
Furthermore, not only is it very dangerous but it
also confirms the view that our government and
security agencies are not only partial but that
they are also attempting to implement an ethnic
and religious agenda. Three questions must be
answered: Firstly, who is funding the Fulani
herdsmen and where do they get their weapons
from? Secondly, why does our government not
only turn a blind eye to the mass murder and
genocide that they regularly indulge in but also
go out of their way to protect them?
And thirdly, why do the government and security
agencies have so much hatred and contempt for
those that the Fulani regularly target and their
victims and why do they believe that those
victims do not deserve to enjoy the full
protection of the Federal Government? Could it
be because they are regarded as slaves and
second class citizens? Is Fulani blood and are
Fulani lives more important than others? Indeed,
do non-Fulani lives matter in President Buhari’s
Nigeria? Are we compelled to begin a ‘’non-
Fulani lives matter” movement which is based
and fashioned on the “Black Lives Matter”
movement in the United States of America
before we can draw the attention of the world to
what is going on in our country? Is it not obvious
and logical that when the security agencies
refuse to protect the citizens from the
murderous hordes and herdsmen from hell, those
citizens will eventually seek to protect
themselves and go on the offensive? That is
human nature and it is to be expected.
Is it not clear to those in power that when a
people are convinced that their government is no
longer impartial in any conflict and that the
security agencies of that government have been
directed to go out of their way to actively and
openly support those that constantly and
regularly slaughter their people, it will eventually
lead to open war? Is it so difficult to accept the
fact that no government and no force from hell
or on earth can compel or intimidate a man into
lying down passively and silently watch his
family, loved ones and kinsmen being butchered
and slaughtered morning, day and night, without
trying to protect them and without indulging in
some form of retaliation? Causes of war With the
sort of things that are going on in our country
today, it is time to tell ourselves some home-
truths. No-one wishes to accept it let alone say
it but sadly war may come to Nigeria again.I do
not want war and I consider it to be the ultimate
evil but I am constrained to speak the truth and
say things as I see them. The fact that a war is
coming is a testimony to the fact that we have
all failed to manage the peace that God has
given us since 1970 and the cessation of
hostilities after our brutal civil war. We have
failed so badly that the remote and immediate
causes of that civil war are back with us today
even though we hate to admit or acknowledge it.
Our country is like Yugoslavia unfolding before it
exploded and violently broke into five separate
countries. All the signs are there.
Anyone that knows about the history of
Yugoslavia or that is a student of world history
will agree with me and appreciate what I am
saying. Consider the dangerous mix. A crumbling
economy. An inept, weak, failing and paranoid
government. A hungry, angry and increasingly
desperate civilian population. An ignorant,
obsessive, arrogant, insensitive, corrupt and self-
absorbed political class who are out of touch
with reality. The implementation of an ethnic and
religious agenda by a government that refuses to
consider the implications of taking such a
course of action and that have an early-1960’s
mind-set. A relentless clamp-down on and
persecution of the opposition and all dissenting
voices by the government and the use of fear as
a tool of governance and control. The entering
into military alliance with a group of Arab Sunni
Muslim countries that seek to Islamise our
country.
The constant and open abuse of power. The
impunity and insensitivity of the Buhari
administration to the plight of the masses. The
hunger, hardship, poverty and suffering in the
land. The failure of the government to get rid of
the fuel queues and supply electrical power. The
demonisation of peaceful and law-abiding self-
determination groups and the unlawful
incarceration of their leaders. The breach of the
constitutional rights of the citizens and the
ignoring of court orders and judicial processes by
the government. The attempt to intimidate and
control the judiciary and legislature by
government. The list goes on and on and history
proves that such a mixture of circumstances is
dangerous and can only lead to open conflict if
not halted.
The country is badly divided today and the
people are suffering as never before. We must
do our best to ensure that that division and
hatred does not spill over into open war. This is
because war is a terrible thing which must be
avoided at all costs. The Yugoslavia lesson If
anyone doubts that they should consider the
plight of the Bosnians of Bosnia-Herzogovina
during the Yugoslavian civil war that took place
in the European Balkans in the late 1980’s right
up until 1992. They were the only ethnic group in
Yugoslavia that was not prepared for it when the
war started. They had no arms, no plan, no allies
and no fall back position. When the fighting
started, they were caught unawares and, for two
years, they suffered immeasurably for their
stupidity and naivety whilst their people were
killed like flies and their women and children
were raped and enslaved. God forbid this should
happen to any ethnic group or ANY of our people
in Nigeria. The reason that they suffered for two
years was because there was an international
arms embargo placed on all the ethnic groups
and warring militias and armies in Yugoslavia
when the war started. And, sadly, the Bosnians
were the only ones that did not buy and
stockpile arms in preparation for war, months
and years before it actually broke out. Plagued
by a cowardly and weak-minded ruling elite and
a naive, self-serving, servile, ignorant and
intellectually-challenged middle class, the
Bosnians just kept talking, writing newspaper
articles, appeasing the aggressors and their
tormentors, praying and hoping for peace whilst
all the other ethnic and religious groups and
warring parties were quietly preparing for war.
Sounds familiar? They suffered immensely for
their lack of understanding, insight and foresight
and their civilian population paid a heavy price.
For two years after the civil war started, the
Bosnians could not even buy a gun or bullet to
defend themselves.
Their towns were besieged and blown up whilst
their women and children were raped, enslaved
and butchered. Their men were rounded up into
Second World War-like Nazi concentration camps
and starved and tortured to death and their
dignity and self-respect was taken from them.
They were turned into an internally-displaced
people and their land was transformed into a sea
of desperate and suffering refugees. It was a
nightmare from hell and suffering on this scale
had not been seen on European soil since the
First and Second World Wars. It was after the
international community silently watched them
being slaughtered by their Serbian and Croatian
compatriots for two long years that they were
compelled, as a consequence of pressure from
the people of the world and on moral and
humanitarian grounds, to lift the arms embargo
on them so that they could buy arms to defend
themselves. The war dragged on for more years
after that but, at least, the Bosnians, though two
years late, were now able to fight back and
defend themselves.
It took the intervention of NATO, the bombing of
Belgrade by the international community led by
the Americans and the eventual break-up of the
entire country into five pieces to stop the
carnage and barbarity of the Serbs and
eventually bring the civil war to an end. It was
during that war that the term “ethnic cleansing”
was first used by CNN to describe what was
being done by the Serbs to the Bosnians, the
Croats, the Slovenians, the Kosovars, the
Macedonians and the Monte Negrans, all of
whom represented the other ethnic groups that
made up the old Yugoslavia. Eventually the
country broke up and each of them got their
independence from the dominant Serbs and from
one another. If such a thing could have
happened in the heart of Europe in the early
1990’s why on earth would any reasonably
intelligent person dismiss the notion that it can
happen here? The only difference would be that
if such a thing were to ever unfold in our
country, it would be far worse than what
happened in Yugoslavia due to the sheer size of
our population. We must do all we can to avoid
this. We must reach out to one another in love
and understanding in this country in an attempt
to prevent war and secure the peace. Yet sadly
the signs of a future conflict are already there. I
pray that I am wrong but as far as I am
concerned, for Nigeria, the bell is tolling
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