By Danjuma Byang
The hustle and bustle of the politics of 2023 have started in earnest and are heating up! Although the whistle for campaigns has not been formally blown by the umpire body yet, still there are noisy “consultations” going on! As usual, nocturnal meetings are going on throughout the nation. A lot of permutations and combinations are being calibrated across the length and breadth of the country. We pray that the best candidates with the best programs and policies to positively impact the electorate will emerge and win!
But as all this is happening, something else is also quietly taking place, almost unnoticed! It is the well-coordinated, systematic and clinical elimination of several communities in the North, especially in the Middle Belt region! Nothing is being reported about this in the conventional print and broadcast media, except in some social media handles, where the pedestrian and unprofessional reportage give good enough reasons for the powers that be to jettison them, as untrue and unreliable. But many communities in Niger and Kaduna states have been bearing the brunt of this pogrom for a while now. Their haters come in the night, and several times in the day time too, to kill, rape, loot, burn and kidnap at will! All is happening with no resistance, no interventions and no reportage of it anywhere!
Gov Nasiru Ahmad El-Rufai of Kaduna has been vocal in advocating that the perpetrators of this carnage should be liquidated and never to be treated with kid gloves. The firebrand Islamic cleric, Sheikh Bello Yabo of Sokoto, and few of his likes, have similarly been calling for the elimination of these bandits, who come in the name of religion, but perpetrate acts despicable to every known religion! But instead of reducing, the carnage is aggravating! So much talk, but little or no action! The silence of the Federal government, however, is what is giving some of us sleepless nights. How can the people who put you in power, and whom you pledged under oath to defend and protect, be daily decimated and you pretend you don’t know it is happening?
If this continues unabated will there be a 2023 at all? The elections of 2023 is one year away. And communities are being wiped away! The Southern Kaduna People’s Union (SOKAPU) reports that close to 100 communities have been wiped out in Chikun local government area alone! (They have up to date stats of the pogrom). How many communities would remain by 2023? Have the politics of 2023 become an opium, to sedate the people into an eternal sleep? Who are the sponsors of this carnage? Is it true that foreign mercenaries are being mobilized to come and “to finish the job”? What can be done to stop this glide towards Armageddon? Can politicians and religious leaders from these communities stop fooling themselves that there will be a 2023?
There are many questions that obviously don’t have answers for now, or perhaps the answers are bitter and unpalatable! But we must confront them. Let us not play the ostrich, by pretending that just because we have put our heads in the sand and can’t see the approaching danger, it is gone! Some people may dismiss this cry as alarmist. I sincerely pray and hope so, that there is no cause for alarm! Who doesn’t want peace? I deserve to sleep with my two eyes closed too. But can I afford it? An ce, kukan kurciya ma jawabi ne! Allah ya sa mu dace! Good day my people!
▪︎ Bwang, a minister of the Gospel, is based in Jos, Plateau State.