TALK TO ANYBODY, indigenes or residents, elites or other citizens, in Nigeria’s northern region, about the present state of insecurity in the region, they will, unreservedly, state that it is the country’s most failed region, and dangerously sliding further, six years of President Buhari’s leadership. They recount the horrific bloodletting going on, and lack of sacredness of human life, under the regime.
Matthew Hassan Kukah, Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, in his December 25, 2021, message, painted vivid picture, once again, of the situation in the region. He described the unrelenting security challenges in the region as “catalogue of unprecedented cruelty has been unleashed on innocent citizen”, and added that the “north is in the full grip of evil”.
Kukah urged Buhari and his government to move fast, “before Arewa, our beloved Arewa, descends into Arewanistan”, due to persistent killings and bloodletting in the region. He said the silence of Abuja, was only feeding the “ugly beast of complicity in the deeds of these evil people who have suspended the future of entire generations of Nigeria’s children.”
His words: “Today, a feeling of vindication only saddens me as I have watched the north break into a cacophony of quarrelsome blame games over our tragic situation. A catalogue of unprecedented cruelty has been unleashed on innocent citizens across the northern states.
“In their sleep, on their farmlands, in their markets, or even on the highway, innocent citizens have been mowed down and turned into burnt offerings to gods of evil. Communities have been turned into gulags of misery, death, pain, and perfidy. We must move quickly before Arewa, our beloved Arewa, descends into Arewanistan”.
Kukah asked: “Does the President of Nigeria not owe us an explanation and answers as to when the abductions, kidnappings, brutal, senseless, and endless massacres of our citizens will end? When will our refugees from Cameroon, Chad or Niger return home? We need urgent answers to these questions”.
He described as complicitous, Buhari’s regime continued silence on the remaining abducted Chibok schoolgirls, Dapchi schoolgirls Leah Sharibu, and other abducted students forgotten for years in their captors’ den. And asked: “Does the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria not believe that he owes parents and citizens answers as to where our children are and when they are coming home”?
Kukah commended the efforts of security men and women engaged in the battle against insurgency, banditry and kidnapping; but called on the president and state governors, who are doing their best to persevere, protect their people, develop more honest, open and robust strategy for ending the “humiliation of our people and restoring social order to our people”. And added: “We have borne enough humiliation as communities and as a country”.
Mass protests have, recently, hit some northern states, particularly, Katsina, Bauchi, Kano and Abuja, by aggrieved people, including women over unending killings in northern Nigeria. Observers, noted that States where there are yet no protests, are merely temporary silent. There are speculations that Zamfara, Sokoto, Kaduna, Gombe, Yobe and Kebbi could join the protests.
Aggrieved young men and women, recently, converged at the Unity Fountain, Abuja, carrying placards with inscriptions written in English and Hausa Languages, chanting solidarity songs, to call local and global attention to the ongoing “genocide” in northern Nigeria.
