By Ken Tadaferua
ABUJA (Sundiata Post) Hundreds of citizens hacked to death after, President Muhammadu Buhari finally approves deployment of army troops to the crises ridden six states of Benue, Taraba, Kaduna, Kogi, Nasarawa and Niger.
The army will engage in a six week exercise code-named “Ayem Akpatuma” or Cat Race in support of an earlier deployed 1,000 special forces of the police to stop communities massacres, murderous herdsmen-farmers clashes, kidnapping, cattle rustling, militia activities and armed banditry leading to thousands of deaths over the years.
– News (Premiertimes)
Indeed, it is welcome news that the government has finally woken up from its lethargic reaction to the wanton murderous criminality that engulfed the middle belt region and spreading to other states.
Perhaps if the commander in chief, President Buhari had moved much earlier to act, rather than his folded arm Buddha stance over the crises, many lives would have been saved and peace long established.
Many are skeptical though. It is thought that Buhari only clawed from his cocoon of ice over the disasters, because of his bid for a second term in the coming elections of 2019. That he may well return to his icy embryo, if he gets re-elected as President. That the recent security move, the deployment of police and army, is merely a political exigency. Maybe. Maybe not.
What is clear in my mind is that citizens’ action, the outpouring of anger and strident calls for Buhari to act, fast and decisively, to stop the bloodletting, must have broken the ice. I therefore congratulate all, who engaged constructively, even if fiercely, to get our President to act.
It is people’s power. We must use it more often. We must set the agenda and push our politicians to act. There must be something in Aso Rock that induces lethargy in high places over urgent matters of the killings of citizens.
President Jonathan also played the same Buddha role over the adoption of hundreds of girls by Boko Haram. Unless the people rise, the leaders play koso with our lives.
For all the families who lost their fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers and children in the long months of horror and terror, may God Almighty grant you the grace to bear your loss, the strength to forgive and the spiritual gift of reconciliation.
The scuds of dark, pregnant clouds continue to hang threateningly over the nation, the evil of the desolation lurks still, despite the deployment of the army and the police in the troubled region.
But it is not the troops. It is reconciliation of the people, the disarmament of the special forces of the Fulani herdsmen and the tribal militias that will stave off the pending evil. This country cannot afford to watch criminality mushroom into bleeding national crises. We cannot fold our arms when one, just one of us, a citizen of this country is murdered with reckless abandon, not to mention thousands dead. The life of the ordinary citizen must matter.
The law cannot afford to act deaf and play dead, when Nigerian citizens are murdered in and outside Nigeria. It is time. It is time that we put priority on the sacredness of the life and blood of every Nigerian citizen, indeed all humans.
May the dark clouds lift. May it be well with our country.
Source: Facebook