Former
Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, has written yet another
explosive and interesting piece to Nigerians, its a must read!
Fani-Kayode
When you take everything away from a man or a people, including
their humanity, their loved ones, their land, their posessions, their
faith, their God, their self-respect, their identity and their dignity
and you put them and theirs under the fire and sword morning, day and
night you cannot expect them not to voice their pain and not to scream
and a shout.
And when the screaming and shouting goes unheeded you cannot expect
them not to hit back and attempt to break the yoke of torment,
subjugation, tyranny and slavery.
No matter how powerful you are and how long you have been killing
them and all that are theirs, one day they will rise up, pull you down
from your giddy heights and cut open your throats.
If history teaches us nothing else, it teaches us this. The morale
of the tale is as follows: mind how you insult and mock your victims and
those that you treat with contempt, kill at will and hold in bondage
because one day their time will come.
It is in this context that I view the shameful call by the Council
of Imams for the arrest of the President of the Christian Association of
Nigeria (CAN) and Christian leaders in Southern Kaduna for asking the
people to defend themselves from genocide.
The call is not only reckless and provocative but it is also self-seeking and dangerous. They must stop this nonsense.
The facts are as follows. 808 Christians were butchered on
Christmas eve and Christmas day by the Muslim Janjaweed Fulani militia
in Southern Kaduna. Not one of the butchers and bloodthirsty murderers
have been identified, apprehended, killed or arrested since then by our
security forces.
The Christians of Nigeria are still in mourning and the people of Southern Kaduna are still in trauma.
Yet there have been no soothing words or expressions of regret,
consolation or solidarity from any Sunni Muslim group in the country
since the pogrom took place.
Only threats and insults from the Council of Imams. The only
exceptions are the Shiite Muslims who have consistently expressed
outrage about what is going on in Southern Kaduna and who have
themselves also been subjected to mass murder and genocide in Kaduna
state simply because they are not Sunnis.
You first butcher the flock and then you say that the shepherd dare
not complain or attempt to protect those that are still left behind and
alive. What type of monsters are these?
The Supreme Council Of Islamic Affairs made matters worse by saying
that those that killed 808 Christians in Southern Kaduna on Christmas
eve and Christmas day were “unkown elements”.
Really? This, perhaps, is the biggest insult of all. It is rather
like saying that those that perpetuated the holocaust against the Jews
which resulted on the cold-blooded murder of 6 million Jews were “unkown
elements”. It is insensitive and it is callous.
It represents the greatest perversion of truth and most bestial
denial of decency and justice that Nigeria has witnessed in many years.
It is falsehood and pefidy, cooked up and served by a group of
unconscioble and uncontrollable dark and evil men who believe that they
can get away with anything and that they are a law into themselves.
Meanwhile, Miyetti Allah, an umbrella organisation that speaks for
the Fulani herdsmen and the Janjaweed militia, have said that the mass
murder of Christians that took place in Southern Kaduna on Christmas eve
and Christmas day were “reprisal” and “revenge” killings for the murder
of their kith and kin by the Christians of Southern Kaduna in 201. Need
we look any further for who the culprits are?
In his own contribution the Minister of Internal Affairs, General
Dambazzau, who is himself a Fulani Muslim, has roundly condemned CAN’s
call on the Federal Government to do its job and protect the people of
Southern Kaduna and their counsel to the Christians to defend themselves
where and when the government fails to do so. I ask again, what type of
monsters are these?
And why has our President refused to call them to order? Is it
because he shares the same faith and comes from the same region as them?
Is it because the President himself is not only a Muslim and a Fulani
man but also the Life Patron of Miyetti Allah?
Professor Wole Soyinka provides profound insight into the matter. He said,
“Religion in the history of this continent has been a disastrous
venture, a disaster in many zones and continues to be even so today. In
this very nation in Southern Kaduna, over 800 souls were brutally
extinguished suddenly. While the issue of grazing lands versus farming
is unquestionably part of the conflict, it is equally undeniable that
religious differences have played crucial role in the conflict. And yet
some weeks before the latest outrage, the governor of that state was
quoted to have claimed that peace was nigh since he had sent funds to
the earlier wave of killers and they had agreed to end their killing
spree.
What astonished me was not the admission by the governor but the
astonishment of others at such governmental response to atrocity. There
was nothing new about it. Has appeasement to religious forces not become
a Nigerian face of justice and equity? First lethargy and then
appeasement. Wasn’t Boko Haram’s Muhammed Yusuf not a beneficiary of
appeasement in a similar fashion? Southern Kaduna has reminded us once
again that the monster always lying waiting to pounce under the guise of
religion. If you ask why General Buhari did not act fast enough when
these events take place, which degrade us as human beings, well it is
perhaps he has been waiting for the governor of that state to send money
to the killers first for them to stop the killing.”
Whatever the reasons are for the indifference of our President and
the callousness and insensitivity of the Council of Imams, the Supreme
Council of Islamic Affairs, Miyetti Allah, Governor Nasir El Rufai,
General Dambazzau and all those that support them, it would be wise for
them to appreciate the fact that the patience of the rest of the country
is fast running out and that they are set to provoke a chain of ugly
events the end of which will not augur well for them or their cause.
Nothing reflects this better than the words of Bishop David Oyedepo
of Winners Chapel, who is one of the most influential and powerful
clerics in the country, when he said,
“Since when has it become a crime for Christians to say they can defend themselves?
Must the north always rule? If Nigeria will break let it break. No
marriage is by force. I curse every Islamic northern forces sponsoring
this uprising of Fulani herdsmen and Boko Haram in Jesus name. You catch
anyone that looks like them, kill him! There is no reporting to
anybody. Kill him! Pull off his neck! And we spill his blood on the
ground. What nonsense. They said why should Christians say they could
defend themselves, hold it! What stupid statement, why should Christians
say they could defend themselves? So, they should watch for you to put a
knife to their necks?
You think we are dummies? What! What? All those zeros census they
are fake. Where are the human beings? Where are they? We go around the
place. Where are they? We’ve never had a successful census in this
country. Where are they? Don’t mistake only those in politics as in
power. The anointed in the Lord are the ones in power. By divine
ordination, don’t mistake that. There was a king in the land but Elijah
was determining the events of the nation. If I say it will not rain here
for three years, it will not drop. What nonsense! Who born their
mother, who born their father? They are too small. Come! Get excited and
walk in confidence. Any devil that misbehaves around you will be slain
by the fire!”
Again Darius Ishaku, the Governor of Taraba state, said,
”The people of Southern Kaduna must wake up from their slumber and
defend themselves. You can’t just lie down and allow yourselves to be
annihilated by other groups. You have a constitutional right to
self-defense and now is the time to use it. The government alone cannot
do it.”
Clearly the drums of war and conflict are already beating in our
nation and no-one takes a greater share of the blame for this than those
identifiable forces that are encouraging, sponsoring, protecting and
covertly supporting these barbaric and murderous Fulani militias and
herdsmen. They are all, to the last man, nothing but monsters and
beasts.
(TO BE CONCLUDED).
About the Author:
Femi Fani-Kayode was former minister of aviation and spokesman for the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation.
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