One of the many problems of Nigeria is the level of levity with which it treats its past. Indeed, one cannot make geometrical progression without subjecting or projecting the past on the screen of reality to avoid hitting the rocks.
The Nigerian Civil War a-k-a Biafran war as commonly referred to by many Nigerians was an avoidable war, yet it was not avoided due to the levity with which issues culminating to it were treated by those in the saddle. It all started with the 1966 coup led by Major Kaduna Chukwuemeka Nzeogwu. At the end of the military coup, the casualty toll was mainly of Northern Nigeria extraction. Northern Soldiers led by Cot. Yakubu Jackson Gowon, Lt. Col. Theophilus Danjuma and Lt. Col. Murtala Mohammed did not see national interest but after their ethnic meetings they decided to eliminate Major General Johnson Aguyi Ironsi and the entire Ibos in the army to gain control of the army and the government as a reprisal action.
It did not stop there. History reveals that even after Col. Yakubu Jackson Gowon has been forced on the people as a Military Head of State; the Ibos were still being slaughtered in every Town in Northern Nigeria in what looked like an unabated genocide.
This led the Ibos to manage to withdraw from the north. Of course, quite a chunk had been violently killed or maimed by then.
This was what led to the Nigerian Civil War. Of course, Col. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu and his council of Elders and Elites decided to vent their anger since they were pushed to the wall already. But supposing Gowon adhered to the Aburi Accord of a confederation, the war would have been averted.
However, as though Gowon was waiting for Ojukwu to react or to show any form of resistance, the people of Eastern Nigeria were further strangulated and slaughtered in a civil war that lasted for 30 months. Hardship and frustration forced the East to surrender in 1970.
Since then every Nigerian whether born then or not has taken one philosophy of “Never Again”.
Indeed, nobody wants to go through such horrendous experience anymore. History has it that over 1million people lost their lives during the civil war.
What then is Boko Haram? An organization that is threatening the unity of the country? A sect that is further fanning the embers of another civil war? In this episode of wanton killing in the north, Christians are their major target and thus far, Ibos have recorded the highest number of victims. This is not farfetched. It is a known fact that ibos have (1/3) one third of their population in northern Nigeria and are thus vulnerable to these serial attacks.
Essentially, Ibos (even those living in the north) do not find it funny to embrace Islam as they claim they have their origin in Israel, the cradle of Judaism or Christianity. This could be the reason why Ibos are slaughtered anytime a Muslim gets mad.
From the days of Maitasine, a fundamentalist Islamic sect that specialized in the killing of Christians and burning of churches in the 1980s to the Kalakatu of the 1990s and the early 2000 and to this day of Boko Haram, it has been an endless orgy of violence against Christians.
In all, Non-Muslims commonly called unbelievers have become the target of these various Fundamentalist Islamic Sects.
The mayhem in Kaduna in 2000 where Muslims sprang a surprise attack on Christians in Tudun Wada, the Maiduguri killings and burning of about 52 churches, the Jos crises, the Bauchi, Gombe, Kano, Kaduna, Adamawa, Yobe etc killing of Christians including Youth Corps members and the suicide bombing dimension today are quite utmost worrisome.
Southerners suffer heavy casualty figures in all these attacks. For instance, the Christmas Day bomb blast of St. Theresa Catholic Church Madalla in Suleja near Abuja and several other serial attacks on the churches, the one at Christ Apostolic Church in Mubi and ECWA in Yola all in Adamawa state, the Damaturu bombing of churches etc show that the Boko Haram madness is majorly targeted at Christians or southerners living in the north. In the Madalla St. Theresa bombing over 45 Christians/Southerners were killed, and 200 hospitalized.
In C.A.C, Mubi blast about 20 lbos were blown off. In the Yola bombing about 13 Christians mainly southerners were killed.
And the story continues and the killing unabated. These miscreants even passed circulars warning Christians and indeed southerners to leave the cities and villages of northern Nigeria. Do these circulars not go to show that the targets of these hoodlums are Christians and southerners? The dimension it has taken since 2009 also shows that their members now litter even among security organizations particularly the police. The killing of Mohammed Yusuf in custody when he was to give startling revelations about sponsors of the masquerading Boko Haram, the bizarre escape of Aliyu Tishau mid last year who had already made useful statements that implicated top police shots, the most recent melodramatic escape of Kabiru Sokoto, the alleged mastermind of the St. Theresa, Madalla blast and the complication of Hassan Zakari Biu who is from the same state with Kabiru Sokoto, the complexity of the immediate past Inspector General of Police in the drama all point out to the fact that the president of the country was right when he said, “some of them are in the executive arm of government; some of them are in the legislative arm while some are even in the judiciary, some are also in the armed forces, the police and other security agencies. Some continue to dip their hands and eat with you and you won’t even know the person who will point a gun at you or plant a bomb behind your house”.
The pedigree and antecedent of Hassan Zakari Biu leaves no one in doubt that he is one of the bad eggs in the police. The way he handled the prime suspect of the Madalla onslaught on Christians, Kabiru Sokoto, who is from the same Borno state as him (Borno is the seat of Boko Haram) shows that Christians and by and large southerners are already passing through a systematic genocide and civil war. Giving the love and affection that Hafiz Ringim, the sacked LG.P had for Hassan Zakari Biu and the way events unfolded recently one can undoubtedly conclude that the northern resolve is great. What is more? The criminal silence exhibited by northern elders and elites, the way and manner Christians and southerners were killed after Mohamadu Buhari lost his presidential election in April 2011, and the way they have handled this menace speaks volume.
Perhaps, Boko Haram means Christians shall not rule and not just western education is a sin as we are told. The grudge of even some of those dinning with Jonathan is that Yar’Adua died and Jonathan was sworn in as president and later he defeated Atiku and Buhari to become the first south/south president of Nigeria. The reason why all Christians in the north or southerners in the north must die is because a Fulani or Hausa man is not the president. So Boko Haram means a Christian ruler must not know peace in this country.
Are we heading for a war against everybody in this country? The president described the situation as worse than the civil war. “During the civil war, we knew and we could even predict where the enemy was coming from, you even knew the route they were coming from, you could even know the caliber of weapons they would use and so on. But the challenge we have today is more complicated. I remember when I held a meeting with elders from the north-east and some parts of the north-west where the Boko Haram phenomenon is more prevalent, somebody said, the situation is so bad that even if one’s son is a member, one will not even know. That means that if the person will plant a bomb behind your house, you won’t know”, the president said.
Are Christians living in this country at the mercies or grace of Muslim fundamentalists and their sponsors? Is it true that northern Nigeria is born to rule and southern Nigeria born as slaves? Are Christians imbeciles or idiots? Are the Boko Haramists and their sponsors more Nigerian than southerners or other peace preaching Nigerians? Is Boko Haram a monopoly of ballistic intelligence? Is Kabiru Sokoto, the only graduate of chemistry and physics in Nigeria?
I think we should warn ourselves in this country. Theodore Orji, Governor of Abia state said (few weeks ago when thousands of Abians protested in Umuahia against the wanton killings of Ibos in the north) that they should stop killing Ibos, they should stop killing Christians, they should stop killing southerners and stop killing themselves because Nigeria belongs to all of us.
I have decided to join Governor Theodore Orji to say that they should respect the sanctity of human lives as enshrined in our constitution. I refuse to say they should stop killing themselves, for if they want to be dying on their suicide mission that is exclusively at their own peril. They can commit suicide but they should die alone and not cause the death of innocent people. Suicide is not a crime but attempted suicide is.
They can hang themselves if they are not happy that God brought Goodluck Jonathan to lead Nigeria. But enough of all these bomb blasts. Please help me tell them now. This monster is political. ####
Barr. Gideon Girigiri
