*NO SINGLE TRIBE, SECT OR REGION WILL TRIUMPH AT THE EXPENSE OF THE OTHER.*
Facts about the recent Plateau incident has been buried under emotive discourse. I do not have problem with anyone politicizing the current insecurity problem. After all, the APC used similar partisan propaganda while in opposition. But I have a duty to expose fake news, exaggerations and incitements where I see one.
Most Nigerians do not want justice. What we want is for 'our own' to have the upper hand in every conflict, and when the reverse happens, we claim sole victimhood in a conflict where both sides have played a role in the ongoing bloodshed.
That's exactly what we are dealing with in this latest cycle of violence in Plateau State. On the Tuesday before the escalation, four Fulani cattle traders where stopped and killed in Plateau State. The news of their tragedy didn't make any headlines. By Saturday, Fulani retaliation left more than 100 people dead. In reaction, the natives, while still being victims, blocked highways and killed travelers suspected to be Muslims.
None of the two sides has justification for doing what it did. The first action of killing Fulani cattle traders was barbaric. The second action of Fulani retaliation was equally barbaric. And the third reaction of blocking and hacking innocent and unsuspecting travelers by Biting youth is equally and more barbaric.
We should ask ourselves why people decide to take laws into their own hands instead of going to the law enforcement for justice? The answer to this is not far fetched. Nigerians have lost confidence in the system to protect them, or in the event of injury, to give them justice. People resort to defending themselves and getting their own version of justice through reprisals.
But one problem with ethnicised self-defense is that it can be easily turned into an offensive and oppressive tool against 'the other' in our areas of superiority. And one problem with reprisals is that they do not follow the eye-for-an-eye rule. No! The aggrieved party is always trying to exert maximum damage on the other party and in the process creating multiple layers of grievances that grow thicker with each round of violence.
Unfortunately, Nigerians are not interested in those realities, in those facts. We are only interested in our sentiments. If it is our own that is at the receiving end, we classify it as genocide of unprecedented proportion. We stage protests and delegetimize those who refuse to join us in our type of mourning. If it's the other that is at the receiving end, the first rule is to ignore it. If it's difficult to ignore, then we under-report it and present it in a way that our own appear blameless.
That's why communal conflicts continue to run amok under the helpless gaze of successive presidencies. More than 1000 people have been killed in a single violence under Obasanjo. Those who believe Obasanjo was the problem were made to eat their words after the killing continued under Yaradua. Those who believed Yaradua was the problem were proven wrong as the killings grew even worse under Jonathan, and those who believed Jonathan was the problem now appear clueless as the killings continued under Buhari.
The fact that we didn't learn anything from these realities means we are not ready for peace. We chose which tragedy to mourn, which victim to sympathize with and which perpetrator to condemn. It is heart-breaking to see supposedly educated people subscribing to this sentiment of free-floating ethnic and sectarian passions. Our own is not moral courage but moral hypocrisy, but if it takes some moral hypocrisy to wake those in power to their responsibilities and bring an end to this tragedy, then we need more of that hypocrisy.
Unfortunately, that will not work. What will work is when we regard any attack against any Nigerian as an attack against all Nigerians. What will work is when we realize that our communities are tied by a common destiny as Nigerians, that what we have in common is greater than the sum total of our differences and that it is either we progress together or we perish together because no single Nigerian tribe, sect or region will triumph at the expense of the other.
When we are ready for peace, we will sit down and look at the problems and proffer real solutions. For example, if cattle herding is the problem, we can find ways to phase it out through ranching and other modern nomadic practices that will eliminate conflict between farmers and herders. That's because the so called herder who is stuck in his this outmoded way of life is a victim of his own of ignorance and therefore needs to be liberated.
But if the problem as we have seen with people opposing long-term solutions like ranching is for the ethnic group they hate to completely disappear so they can carve out their own ethnic or sectarian Bantustans, then I'm afraid we are miles away from peace. Because in the world we live today, it is impossible for one single ethnic or sectarian group no matter how powerful to exterminate the other.
Therefore, while it is the primary responsibility of those in power to secure the country and arrest this tragedy, the ultimate choice lies with all of us, whether we want peace and justice for everyone or we want the type of peace and justice that only benefit our own. This is really sad time.
On Jun 30, 2018 22:11, "'chidi opara reports' via USA Africa Dialogue Series" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com > wrote:
With deep sense of shock and indignation, the Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF) hereby expresses her unreserved and unequivocal condemnation of the recent killings in villages in Barkin Ladi, Riyom, Mangu and Jos South Local Government Areas of Plateau State. These senseless attacks by Fulani herdsmen on innocent communities which occurred over the weekend of Saturday 22nd June 2018 are not only painful but a disgraceful indication and indictment of the lawless and stateless society that Nigeria is fast dangerously descending into........
Link: http://chidioparareports.blogspot.com/2018/06/news- release-adf-statement-on- recent.html?m=1
From chidi opara reports
chidi opara reports is published as a social service by PublicInformationProjects
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