The recent bloodletting in Uromi, Bokkos and other parts of the country, which claimed hundreds of lives and led to destruction of properties, is a strong indication that Nigeria is degenerating to a huge killing range or slaughter slab where citizens are daily killed as game animals. When 16 northern hunters were heinously killed in Uromi, Edo State, on their way to Kano for Sallah celebration, it attracted forceful condemnations from all parts of the country. We equally condemn such bestiality.
There were threats of retaliation and reprisals from the north. Edo State governor, Monday Okpebholo, handled the situation with maturity. He sacked the head of the vigilance group indicted for the jungle justice. The alleged perpetrators of the killings were apprehended and flown to Abuja by the Nigeria Police Force. The security agencies were literally in Uromi to fish out the culprits with their usual brazenness and overzealousness. Edo State governor travelled to Kano State in a condolence visit to his counterpart. He also visited the families of the victims of Uromi killings and vowed to compensate them.
While the victims of Uromi killing were being mourned by a weeping nation, gunmen suspected to be Fulani herders attacked some communities in Bokkos local government area of Plateau State and killed over 50 people. Several houses were also burnt in the orgy of violence that has a predictable pattern. Some villages were also attacked in Benue State in the usual bloodletting that has characterized the North-Central zone since 2009. There were also reported cases of bloodbath in parts of Enugu and Ebonyi states. Ondo State has witnessed some cases of bloodletting by killer herdsmen in recent times.
The North-West states of Katsina, Zamfara and others where scores of people were being frequently killed and others abducted for ransom have shown that the nation’s insecurity is escalating at alarming speed. There is even no hope in sight that these agents of death and kidnapping for ransom will be apprehended or decimated soon by the government.
While herdsmen and bandits are killing people without restraint in the North-Central and North-West zones, Boko Haram terrorists are steadily carrying out their murderous campaign in the North-East zone, with special focus on Borno State. That can explain why the governor of the state, Prof. Babagana Zulum, the other day, cried out over the encroachment of the terrorists on some territories in the state. In fact, the state is said to be losing grounds to the terrorists.
Nigeria is seriously in trouble over constant and ferocious threats by terrorists, bandits, killer herdsmen and unknown gunmen. No part of the country is safe from insecurity. Insecurity in the country comes in different dimensions. No state is also free from the general insecurity despite billions of naira pocketed by state governors as security votes.
The Catholic Archbishop of Owerri Diocese, and the President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), Most Rev Lucius Ugorji, recently disclosed that over 200 priests have been kidnapped across the country. According to the revered cleric, “some of these priests have been kidnapped twice or more. About 15 or more were gruesomely murdered in captivity.” “In our Owerri Ecclesiastical Province, Okigwe Catholic Diocese has recorded the highest number of kidnap of priests. At the last count, Okigwe Diocese has recorded 47 kidnapped priests,” the Bishop stated.
It is sad that the bloodletting in Bokkos has not received commensurate reactions, condemnations and police arrests as was the case of Uromi 16. The apparent double standards in handling heinous crimes in Nigeria will only embolden some gunmen to attack others without restraint and lead to more cases of jungle justice. Based on the patterns of killings in Bokkos and environs, the Federal Government must wield the big stick and rein in those behind the frequent bloodbath in the area.
It is no longer enough for those in government to decry and condemn the cycle of violence in some parts of the country and do nothing concrete to curb it. It is not enough to weep over the dead and still do nothing to apprehend the perpetrators and bring them to justice. Declaring that the carnage must stop without putting measures in place to stop it cannot help the situation.
The federal and state governments should sit together and come up with pragmatic measures to tackle the growing insecurity in the land and stop our country from being turned into a huge killing rage by kidnappers, bandits, Boko Haram terrorists, killer herdsmen and unknown gunmen. The government is in a better position to decimate these criminals and flush them out of the country, especially the foreign ones among them. Our leaders should stop handling this issue with kid gloves. The time has indeed come to wage a relentless war against the enemies of the state. The police must begin to mop up illegal arms in the country.
The story of Brigadier-General Maharazu Tsiga (retd), former Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), who spent over two months in captivity of the kidnappers, is a sad commentary on our nationhood. If someone like that can suffer such indignity, you can imagine the fate of ordinary Nigerians who were kidnapped. According to the former NYSC boss, “we were kept with dangerous animals, hyenas, snakes, and scorpions.”
The story of Tsiga is not quite different from those of other prominent Nigerians who have experienced kidnapping at one time or the other. The Federal Government must wake up and dismantle the rising lucrative kidnap industry. Apart from decimating the kidnappers, terrorists, bandits and other enemies of the state, government should address the triggers of criminality, which include poverty, unemployment, economic hardship and craze for material wealth without hard work.
The government should wean politics of so much money so that people should begin to see politics as a call for service and not necessarily an avenue to amass easy money and wealth. Government should consider restructuring the country and the security system in such a way that the citizens should be made to realize their goals in life under secure environment. Good enough, the framers of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution skillfully prioritized the security and welfare of the people over all things.
That is why Section 14 (2) (b) states clearly that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.” It appears those in government are not paying heed to this section of the constitution. A time of rising bloodletting across the country should remind them of this section of the constitution and nudge them to do the needful. The government must defend the citizens and stop forthwith the unending bloodbath across the country. Enough is enough.