first major deliberate ethnic attack on the Ibos in Northen Nigeria,
many were killed. The
events spiralled into the Civil War.
During the eighties, pockets of extremist religious sects and their
quest to 'cleanse' the North of Southern elements ensued with
understated death tolls. One of such sectarian incidences were the
Maitasini riots.
Kaduna, Jos and some other cities had been major points of eruptions.
Kaduna and Jos are unique because of their historical heritage. With
other areas like Kano, Borno, Sokoto etc, the target had been
Southerners but with these two, it had always been with indigenes.
This is because Kaduna and Jos have idigenes who from time were
basically non-moslems. And some in The North had always seen these
stwo areas stick out as a sore thumb when it came to their claim of
having an Islamized North. It is time we do a reality check.
There has always been Northern elements whose sole agenda is to
forcibly bring these two areas ie the Non-moslem indigenes to their
knees by sheer brute force and terror. And the pattern has been
rushing towards what we are now seeing for some time now.
-it first started with 'riots' during the eighties.
- through out the nineties till now, with events occuring round the
world, astute watchers had known it would only be a matter of time
before clear cut and advanced form of terror begins to take place in
these parts. Now from roving bands of marauders attacking villages in
Plateau state and leaving behind them a trail of blood, we now have
synchronized multiple bombings taking place. We have moved within a
decade from a 'riot' that came about through two people probably
fighting over the price of chicken in the market to synchronized
bombings.
The people in power needs to really do some serious reality check.
There was a time this was limited to core areas in the North with
Kaduna and Jos, now Abuja has been attacked twice within a year. It is
spreading down and what stops it from hitting the shores of Bar Beach?
It is time people wake up. It is no longer a Northern thing.
The very first hijack ever recorded in Nigera was during the war or
those very early periods of it when a group of Easterners hijacked an
aircraft and landed it in The East. A Nigerian tried blowing up a
plane in Europe, what stops any body from taking one during a local
flight? It is time those in power wake up to reality.
They are still living with their heads in the clouds. They are still
calling for 'restraint' implying that they know who is doing what,
treating an ever enlarging issue with criminally kid gloves.
Nigeria is facing real terrorists. They are coming down from The North
and going up from The South-South.
It is time those in power stop looking at this as a 'sensitive' issue
where they are afraid whose ox will be gored. Some decisive actions
needs to be taken. Their are Emirates within The North that needs to
be completely dissolved. The issue of Sharia needs to be addressed
once and for all, we can't have two law systems working side by side,
one constitution is enough for one country. It is the sum of thes
'little' issues that is joining together to form the monster that we
are all looking up to.
Some Northern bigwigs needs to be brought to book for complicity. A
presidential hopeful made a very glaring threat on national TV, in
that same month Abuja was attacked again. People need to start been
shown that they just can't get away with any thing. They may not be
connected but it should be investigated because it is a lead worth
followiing on its own merit and an example should be made. People in
like positions should begin to see that every utterance comes with not
just responsibilities but with consequences.
The government should stop living with their heads in the clouds and
wake up to reality.
One of President's Jonathan's greatest undoing was to indicate
interest in running for the office. It has greatly limited his
capacity to taking decisive action. Now he has to weigh pros and cons
that he would have been otherwise free of if he and every body else
knew he was going to stay for the few months he had. They too would
have taken caution and kept their dogs on the leash because they would
know that it would not be allowed. But now, their dogs have been
unleashed on the Nation as they play their deadly game of relevance
and angling and haggling for positions with every thing in their
arsenal. Now Jonathan has been sworn in as President. Police
headquarters was bombed in Abuja.
It is time those in power sit up to the reality of what is happening
now. Governor Fashola should become pro-active. Nothing stops him from
setting up a security task force now( excluding the usual suspects of
the police and the State Services who from their body language and
indeed words of his Plateau counterpart, indicates that they are more
or less tools in the hands of the powers that be). He should set up
his own task force to look at the near and remote causes of the
security situation in the country and the impact it could have on
Lagos being the melting pot of the land and the most tempting target
around. They should send in people to infiltrate those areas in the
North and go into intelligence gathering. We are living in a country
where the passersby has more knowledge of about to happen events than
the State Apparatus. This is something that actually happened. One of
the intervewees in a recent successful jail break that was contrived
by members of another extremist sect; the Boku Haram asserted that it
was known by people within the vicinity of the prison. The man was
shown on TV saying they were told in a Mosque not to go to that street
moments before the attack started(I lie you not, this actually
happened but this is a country where things are criminally
overlooked).
The Fashola government shouldn't wait for things to happen or for
those in power -who are busy chasing after false dreams, negotiating
away a moment where they could have made real impact on the Nation(
you don't need 4 years to make that impact, Muritala Mohammed had a
shorter stint in the government house). They should become more
pro-active. They should just make sure they don't rely on the
apparatus of state or the task force would be dead before it even
starts.
Nigeria needs to wake up to the reality on ground and tackle this
menace head on, once and for all.
--
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