As despicable as the killing of some people described as hunters was, followers of developments in the area would not be entirely surprised. It was gory to apprehend some young men and unilaterally decide to not just kill them but get their bodies burnt. That the fairly large crowd of community people that witnessed that gruesome incident went through it without the inclination to intervene to stop the killing is strange. The people of Utomi are made of better stuff. They are egalitarian and accommodating.
Uromi has given Nigeria many prominent national and global citizens, including Anthony Cardinal Olubunmi Okojie, Chief Anthony Enahoro, Chief Tony Aneni, Chief Tom Ikimi and Chief Mike Ogiadomhe, among many others. The people are very enlightened with their sons having contributed tremendously to the making of a united Nigeria. So could people from such an educated and friendly community be associated with such dastardly act?
The story is told of how some prisoners of war in Nazi Germany’s World War II camps and Jews in concentration camps engaged in isolated cases of cannibalism. These were people that had been subjected to prolonged extreme deprivation, hunger and disease. They had not lost their decency and humanity. It was an instinctive reaction to an extreme situation.
For many years, the people of Uromi and other towns and communities in Esanland, indeed many areas in Edo and Delta states have been crying for help from security agencies to save them from unchecked violent attacks from the armed groups that had taken over their forests and farmlands. Help never came from the Federal Government-controlled security agencies while the kidnap, killings, rape of their women and destruction of their farms continued by men generally known to be militant and well-armed cattle herders, especially assault rifles.
The attacks are not isolated to Uromi or Edo State. Virtually every part of southern part of Nigeria and the Middle Belt has been under siege from renegade armed herders. But the disturbing part is the response and reaction to the sectarian killings that have become a recurring feature of national life in the south. What we have seen is selective outrage of the northern elites over such incidents. For many years since former President Muhammadu Buhari superintended the rigging of the security system whereby there is never any response from the Police or the military to pleas for help by communities under siege, despite their bottling up the serial violent attacks, there was expectation that things may change with a new administration.
What has been remarkable is the collective rage of the northern elites to the dastardly killings in Uromi. It is out of sync with their reaction to the numerous killings in the north. In his book “Here comes the Commander in Chief: Four Years of Journalistic Activism”, Gabriel Akinadewo, a veteran journalist, chronicled the reaction of northern leaders to the killing of youth corps members in Suleja, Niger State in the April 2011 presidential election after candidate Buhari made his infamous inflammatory threat that baboons and dogs will be socked in blood if he lost.
He duly lost to Goodluck Jonathan and as promised, blood flowed, but not that of baboons and dogs. It was the blood of eight young men on compulsory national service under the NYSC scheme. In Suleja and Bauchi State, over 15 corps members, six of them in Bauchi alone were brutally murdered. And governor of the state, Isa Yuguda’s reaction was to attribute the mob killings to act of God. Akinadewo quoted Yuguda as saying: “They (corps members) were destined to experience what they experienced. Nobody can run away from destiny…It is part of their destiny.”
When Deborah Samuel was gruesomely murdered in her school by Islamic fanatics of Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto, on alleged “religious blasphemy”, Bashir Ahmad, a former aide to Buhari on Digital and New Media, tweeted: “I can’t pretend or keep silent. I support the death penalty for BLASPHEMY. That’s my belief”. Even Atiku Abubakar had to delete his post where Deborah’s murder was condemned, claiming that he did not authorise the post. That came after religious leaders threatened that they will not vote for him as presidential candidate of the PDP in the coming election. Can Yuguda, Bashir or anybody dismiss the Uromi killing as an act of God? The killing was gruesome and avoidable. We cannot dismiss the fact that as abhorrent as it is, it could not have happened if the SOS messages of Uromi people in the face of the serial rape of their wives and daughters, kidnap for ransom, killing of their farmers and destruction of their farms had been addressed. Bashir Ahmad promptly demanded not just the prosecution of the perpetrators of the crime but compensation for the families of the victims. He, like others, ignored the path through which we got to this point. Nigeria’s rigged law enforcement system has led to the perception that some Nigerians are more Nigerian than others. Having found that they are entirely on their own, communities are resorting to self help.
The inevitable resort to self-help was a direct reaction of the failure of the security apparatuses exclusively controlled by the Federal Government to respond to their plea for help. Virtually every town and community has had to set up their own vigilance groups. However, with no formal training on security operations and poorly armed, they are no reprieve for their besieged communities that no longer knew peace. That explains why it took a mob action right in the centre of Uromi for the “hunters” to be intercepted.
Unfortunately, many politicians, especially those in the south oppose the creation of state Police for myopic reasons. They only allege that serving governors will abuse and use it to persecute political opponents. That is not just narrow selfishness but idiotic. With a strong judiciary and court system, nobody can misuse the powers of the judiciary and get away with it. Besides, what is of their major concern is precisely what the federal government has been doing – infringing on people’s rights. The federal Police is incapable of securing the entire country with its command and control structure. With the present police structure demonstrating deepening ineffectiveness against the backdrop of growing violent crime, the resort to self-help by besieged communities will make matters worse. Uromi is just the first of the new trend that may escalate into an uncontrollable sectarian violence if policing is not localised with the approval of state Police.
Like other states, Delta had banned open cattle grazing – the springboard for the accompanying criminal acts. But with the Police failing to implement the law, it is mere window dressing while the crimes exacerbate. The decision by Senator Monday Okpebholo, Edo State governor, to promptly pay a condolence visit to his Kano State counterpart is commendable. It will be tragic if the visit is seen as an act of weakness. Otherwise, Uromi may just be the beginning.
