By Akonenwu Ojoakajo
Last Thursday, I witnessed a gory event that made me thank God firearms were not legalised. I would have been behind bars by now.
A little history. My friend and brother, Ladi, and I have had this back and forth discussion on the desirability of Christians and Christian communities carrying firearms to protect themselves against bloodthirsty criminals, who are just not killing only Christians, but anyone that is of economic value in terms of ransom.
There are those who think it is a religious thing, what with the way Christians were initially targeted at the onset of terrorism. A friend who lived in the north-east said his Muslim friends enjoyed the killings until the monster grew more heads and began looking in all directions, even more in the Muslim direction.
Another in Borno drew my attention to the role Borno elders played in the growth of the monster. According to him, the elders fought the Dr. Goodluck Jonathan administration for its determined effort to fight the insurgents, until the insurgents began to kill elders of the land.
On the Plateau and in Kaduna State, it was difficult at a point not to read religious and ethnic reasons into the killings, not minding the rationalisations of Governor Simon Lalong, who is seen as a sellout by his own people there. In Kaduna, Nasir el Rufai, is not trusted by a majority of people of the southern part of the state. He doesn’t even care whether he is trusted or not, and continues to act with the same arrogance he ran Abuja as minister.
Predominantly Christian communities in these two states point to their villages that have been overrun, and in some cases, taken over by people who they claim were brought in by visitors they graciously allowed to live with them. One common proverb they throw around is that it is the rat in the house that tells the wild ones outside, where the roasted meat is kept in the house. What they mean is that it is the men of a dreaded ethnic stock within their midst that tell the ones outside their communities and Nigeria how to decimate them.
Whatever the truth of the facts being bandied around is, I have always told my friends and brothers, whether there is a Fulanisation or Islamisation agenda is of no consequence to me, because before the birth of any of these agenda, there was a Christianisation agenda, enunciated by the owner of the agenda. It goes something thus: ” All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, therefore, go and make followers for me among all the ethnic nationalities on earth dipping them completely in the knowledge of the Father and myself and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded and taught you. Be rest assured that I am with you always, whether you are persecuted, maimed, or killed, to the very end of the world and time.”
I have always insisted if other tribes, like Yoruba, who were in charge for eight years; or the Ijaws who were there for five years did not execute a Yorubanisation or Ijawnisation or Christianisation agenda for those period they were there, they should not blame others who do so. Why must we be the ones who are loyal to the contraption called Nigeria when others are not? Why blame a man for obeying his own definition of God, when you who claims you have the original God won’t be bold enough to obey yours.
I have been told that my logic is fraught with inconsistencies, but I have lived long enough in Nigeria to know that it is only a few that truly believe in and love Nigeria. Many more others from Independence are only pursuing ethno-religious and personal agenda.
In the last few years, there have been so much bloodletting that the noise for the carrying of firearms by citizens has reached a crescendo, since it appears that the call for States, Local Governments, and community police has fallen on the deaf ears of federal legislators who should alter the constitution.
Frustrated, state governors, like Benue’s Samuel Ortom, Katsina’s Aminu Bello Masari, Taraba’s Darius Ishaku, and more recently Zamfara’s Matawalle, have stepped out of line to advise citizens to take measures, including procuring arms, to defend themselves. As that goes on, citizens are also making the same call on social media platforms and other places. And that is my dilemma and that of my friends. In some circles, the debate has again taken on religious colouration with debates on whether Christians should carry firearms to defend themselves. The debates have been both emotive and irrational. But knowing Nigeria as I do, the proposition is tantamount to sitting on a trailer load of gunpowder.
However, with banditry, kidnapping, killings continuinf unabated, while government and its security forces appear helpless (some say, complicit), there is no quenching the fire of the debate.
There are reports that elements within the security forces have been punished for taking the initiative to protect Nigerians, against orders to stand-down by higher-ups, believed to be fifth columnists.
A friend insists that there is more to the insecurity in Nigeria than meets the eye, adding, as other conspiracy theorists have done in times past and present, that other higher-ups in the political system, have compromised their offices. The theories go on and on, and the end of them is yet to come.
For the records, I have been opposed to bearing arms, but recent happenings in the country are making me wiser. For instance, the mindless killing of Deborah Emmanuel in Sokoti, the wicked killing of a vigilanté Ahmed in the Lugbe axis of Abuja, the blood curdling killing of 40 parishioners at St. Francis Catholic Church, Owo, Ondo State; and of course, the near-killing of a government official, “Citizen X” at Gudu District junction in Abuja last week.
Just two days after I read a persuasive material on social media allegedly by a Bishop on how Christians can defend themselves against terrorists in their churches and communities, I witnessed right in the middle of Federal Capital City (FCC) a brutal attack on a government official. (It is not clear if the man is dead, but he must surely have suffered brain damage).
The Bishop’s edited suggestion as posted on social media reads: “Sometime around 1993 when I got newly converted and I was in Kano, and (a brother) who was CAN (official) in Kano then, as a result of the crisis in which the churches in Kano were razed down, Christians killed at will and confusion everywhere.
“He asked me, “you that have knowledge of (their religion) and also an authority, do you have any advise to give to us?”
“I replied, “If I advise, will you take my advice, you won’t like what I will tell you, but since I’m talking to right people that can communicate to other Churches, write to all the churches in Kano, from today all serving military men that come to church should go to church with their guns and machete and women do same.”
“He said, “but the Bible says if you’re slapped on one cheek, give them the other side to slap.”
“I replied them that they have slapped you several times and the Bible didn’t say you should give them your head to break.
“You know what? They did exactly as I advised.
“I trust the Igbo brethren in Kano. One of them approached me and invited me over to their Igbo brethren meeting and I gave them further strategy for defence and or attack in case another riot breaks out.
“When the next riot was stirred, the Igbos killed them, they barricaded the road that leads to Kofa-Mata and Sabon Gari, at that boundary, there was a storey building that belonged to an Alhaji, they used gas cylinders to bring down the building, all the … rioters ran away. This is how to handle them, else they’ll never stop attacking the churches and Christians.
“Let me tell you one secret about terrorists, they don’t like whoever that is prepared and ready for them, same as armed robbers.
“The same thing I told the Christians in Kano years ago is what I’m telling Christians now. Get guns! We have retired and serving military men and women in church, if you die in church in stupidity….
“You’re permitted to defend yourself by UN laws.
“All of these serving military men in church will be there and bandits will come around to mess around. I can give these Christians tips on how to resist bandits. I will teach you how to be spiritual and physically adequate….”
Sitting in my car at the traffic light at the junction where Gudu, Gaduwa, and Apo districts meet on that Thursday morning, my car’s mechanical problem was on my mind. Just a few seconds before the lights turned green, I observed that the Federal Road Safety marshal helping to maintain sanity at the junction ran in a panic to the left (Gaduwa end) where commercial motorcyclists were parked.
I thought I heard him shout suddenly as a man ran out onto the road from the midst of the bikes. Another man ran after him with a big boulder of rock he had to steady with his second hand. There was a mild commotion as others ran after the fleeing man, two cars behind mine.
The man with the big boulder double-crossed the first man, just as the cars in front me began to move, but I saw the boulder slammed on the head of the first man. I was shocked at what I thought was jungle justice. The man hit the ground, and I concluded he was a dead man. But as I drove off, I saw he was still moving, while others from among the commercial motorcyclists arrived with all manner of rods and began hitting the man on the ground. It was like the drama of Deborah playing out at that busy junction, while other motorists and passers-by watched in horror, in broad daylight.
As I drove off, forced on by blaring horns behind me, I thanked Heaven I did not have a firearm on me. I would have defended the life of the ‘criminal’ even if it meant killing any of those meting out ‘justice’ to him.
At the Mechanic’s shop, I did not fail to tell anyone who gave me a listening ear the gory drama I witnessed.
Two hours later, as I returned through the same junction, I made it a point to stop over and make enquiries on what actually the man stole to warrant the public execution I witnessed. As I arrived there, I noticed the police post and patrol van I did not notice there two hours earlier. Where were they when I drove past earlier on? How come they did not stop the macabre drama? But…if the policemen I now noticed with firearms were here…why…? I banished the nagging thoughts as I walked up to the road safety officer I thought I saw earlier on. I asked him exactly what the executed man stole that led to the jungle justice.
“He was not a thief o,” he replied.
“What?” I almost screamed.
He proceeded to narrate that the man was a government official on official duty when he was attacked.
I was now dumbstruck, staring at him like a fool. “A government official?” I asked as if in a trance. He looked at me as if he thought I was deaf.
“Oga,” he continued, “he is part of the task force that seizes commerciak motorcycles that have been banned in Abuja. When the task force arrived, he separated himself from his team to scope the environment before they rush at the cyclists, but unfortunately they recognised him and that was the attack you said you saw. He is not dead o, but…”
“He is not dead?” I interjected.
“No, sir, but if he survives, he will be useless because his head opened…”
I did not allow him to finish before I began to run my mouth on the wickedness of men. He kept staring at me and said something to the effect that a revolution was in the making, because if the motorists and the passers-by knew at the time of the incident that the cyclists were killing a government official, there would have been a retaliation which would have re-enacted the recent carnage between motorcyclists and traders at the Dei-dei market.
Happening in the middle of the city, with the miasma of anger by different groups, moreover with the bitterness against the commercial motorcyclists in the different parts of Abuja, it was a recipe for a disaster.
I walked the distance back to my car wondering what Nigeria was turning into, where miscreants from backwood parts of the country behave like lords, because the civilised choose the path of decency.
In the midst of all these, sits a government with all the might at its disposal. The government won’t protect its citizens, want the citizens not to pay ransom when loved ones are abducted and security agents sit on their hands, won’t protect them comprehensively, allows the seat of power in Abuja to become a practice pitch for village miscreants, and yet will oppose men like Matawalle who advise their citizens who need to bear arms.
May be it is time for a rethink. May be it is time I consider procuring licensed firearms.
▪︎ Ojoakajo, a public affairs commentator, lives in Abuja