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Kaduna used to be a melting pot where every section of Nigeria was represented. Known as the liberal state, it was the heartbeat of the North and home to many northern elites. The state has become a war-torn zone. Destruction of life and property has become routine in southern part of the state. The situation is as disturbing as it is heart-rending.
Recently, scores of people lost their lives to these senseless killings. Tragically, a 93-year-old visually impaired woman, Mrs Azumi Boka, reportedly lost her 11 children in the latest attack in Gonan Rogo community in Kajuru Local Council in Southern Kaduna. Some other areas that suffered attacks include Jema’aa, Kaura and Zango Kataf Councils. Usually, these attacks occur in spite of the curfew imposed by the state government. Whenever it happens, nothing is spared. Women, children, the elderly and even domestic animals are killed. In the past seven months, about 178 people were reportedly killed in Southern Kaduna and thousands of the victims forced to seek refuge in camps where they suffer untold hardship.
The crisis has festered because of the seemingly endemic tension between the northern Kaduna inhabited largely by Hausa-Fulani Muslims and southern Kaduna populated mainly by Christians and some ethnic minorities. The height of it appears to be the Zango Kataf crisis of 1992.
At the centre of the deadly conflicts is the struggle for political control, land and some other resources. The umbrella body of the Fulani herdsmen, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), accused the native militias of continuous attacks on their people and cattle. The group further alleged that the natives ambushed and killed indigenous Fulani and traditional pastoralists and their cattle along the cattle routes. MACBAN claimed the recent attacks against the natives were reprisals done in self-defence.
On their part, the natives alleged that both the federal and state governments were in tacit support of the herdsmen to take over their ancestral lands. President of the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU), Jonathan Asake, said the alleged conspiracy of silence of the government was an indication of the plan to exterminate the people of Southern Kaduna. He regretted that despite the carnage and massacre, neither the President nor the governor had deemed it fit to visit any of the affected communities to sympathise with the victims.
Due to the festering crisis, some half-nude women protested recently against the killings in Kaduna. They accused President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Nasir el-Rufai of not doing enough to stop the killings. The Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Kaduna, Reverend Joseph Hayab, disclosed that el-Rufai had reportedly claimed that bandits carried out the recent attacks. The Federal Government also attributed them to politically motivated banditry, revenge killings and mutual violence by criminal gangs.
Besides, el-Rufai was said to have suddenly decided to exhume a white paper on the 1992 Zango Kataf crisis for implementation amid the current crisis in the state. The government was also accused of not mobilising armed security agents to southern Kaduna against the attackers.
The image this crisis has created for the country is not salutary. Already, Nigeria is rated the third most terrorised country in the world. Iraq and Afghanistan are the first and second respectively. What this means is that countries like Somalia and Syria which are ravaged by Islamic insurgency are better off than Nigeria. The spate of insecurity in the country may affect foreign investments because security is the number one thing investors look out for while prospecting for investments.
Kaduna is a national hub. We should not allow violence to tear it apart. Both the state and the federal governments must strive to settle the matter as soon as possible. This requires tactful approach and neutrality in handling the crisis. Government should also move against any group or individuals found to be perpetrating atrocious acts in the area. It should beef up security in the area to protect innocent citizens and ensure that whoever is apprehended for being part of any criminal act must face the full wrath of the law. There should be no room for impunity because without justice, peace will be elusive.
