It is delusional in the extreme to seek unity in the midst of insanity. And delusion itself is a form of mental illness.
On June 2, 2016, 74-year-old Igbo woman, Bridget Agbahime, was beaten to death in the full glare of the Kofar Wambai Market in Kano State. Her killers were her neighbours who, minutes before, were smiling and chatting with her. But the sane-looking crowd suddenly became a frenzied mob wielding clubs ad cutlasses. They hacked and clubbed the grandmother to death — in the presence of her husband. Her offence, they said, was “blasphemy” through refusal to allow a Muslim do ablution in front of her shop. Law enforcement agents did not save the grandmother.
The killers were brazen, they took pictures of the victim’s bloody remains. The pictures are on the internet as you read this.
That is insanity anywhere in the world. Any society or region that condones or encourages such conduct is a veritable breeding ground for psychos.
But that is not the end of the story.
Sane Nigerians expressed outrage over the murder. It was roundly condemned by President Muhammadu Buhari and the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, both of whom urged urgent and diligent investigation by concerned authorities.
On June 4, Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, announced the arrest of one Dauda Ahmad as a ‘prime’ suspect in the murder — and promised a thorough prosecution of anyone charged in connection with the crime.
On June 10, the police arraigned five suspects, Dauda Ahmad Abdullahi Mustapha, Zubairu Abubakar, Abdullahi Abubakar and Musa Abdullahi before a Chief Magistrate’s Court in Kano. They were all charged with incitement, culpable homicide and mischief, based on sections 144, 80, 51 and 327 of the state penal code.
At the opening of the trial, state prosecutor, Dauda Jibrin, told the court that Ahmad led his accomplices to attack and kill Mrs. Agbahime.
Jibrin, who was representing the Kano State Attorney-General, Haruna Falali, said some suspects were at large listing them as Salawiyu, Ibrahim, Dini, Isiyaku Mada, Mallam Sani and Yunusa Sufi.
Shortly after the suspects were arraigned, the police transferred all the case files to Falali’s office for legal advice and continued prosecution.
Then on November 3, Falali, the state attorney-general ordered the court to “discharge all suspects”.
According to him, the accused had “no case to answer as the suspects are all innocent.”
That was the end of the case. The suspects at large were never even arraigned.
Neither Buhari, nor The Kano State Governor nor the IG nor the Sultan raised any further objection. By the standards of the North, the killers were innocent.
Insanity triumphed over justice.
Why then won’t insanity fester on northern soil?
The very highest organ of justice in the North nurtures and protects insanity in the region. And so, characters with various shades of insanity feel comfortable, well-protected by northern authorities. Then, with their clubs and daggers still dripping with the blood of their innocent victims, they turn round to mouth continued “unity” with the rest of Nigeria.
That in itself is sure-fire proof of insanity.
And they go an insane step further to insist that that medumbu unity is “non-negotiable”.
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Five suspects arraigned on Friday, June 10, 2016, in Kano over the killing of 74-year-old
Teachers, lecturers are slaughtered by their northern students; youth corps members are slaughtered by northern mobs…The list is endless.
Years ago, a female teacher from the South who caught one of her northern students cheating in an exam was beaten to death by the same students. Her offence was throwing out of the window the “book” in which the dishonest student hid the offending slip of paper. She reportedly realised too late that the book was a Quran. The student who used the Quran for exam malpractice went scot-free.
Decades ago, Akaluka, another Igbo man, was dragged out of police custody and beheaded. The killers danced round town with the dripping head on a pole — in the full glare of northern authorities.
Fed up with this insane acts and mindset, agitations for self-determinaton flared anew. The agitators also cite, among others, Buhari’s lopsided appointments which even his fellow northerner, Junaid Mohammed, described as comprising “invalids, imbeciles and incompetent cabals, who are mostly members of Buhari’s family, cronies and friends…”
The response from a coalition of Arewa Youths Consultative Forum and other northern youth groups to the Igbo agitation was an insane ultimatum that all Igbos living in the North should leave on or before October 1, 2017 and a confiscation of Igbos’ legally acquired assets.
Many sane voices from the North joined other Nigerians in condemning the declaration.
And really, what has leaving the North and confiscation of Igbo assets got to do with self-determination agitations fuelled by the North itself? Don’t Ghanaians, Lebanese, Camerounians live and conduct businesses in the North? So why can’t persons from Biafra Republic or Niger Delta Republic continue to do business in the North?
But one of the leading “lights” of the region, an octogenarian of education, experience and ingrained habits, Professor Ango Abdullahi, threw his weight behind his children. And he is spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum, NEF.
The spokesman of the northern youths also declared publicly that he had the backing of northern elders.
But worse was to come. Amidst the nationwide condemnation, the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris promised to have the youths arrested.
At the time of putting this piece together, no single member of the group had been arrested. The northern youths continue ranting, unmolested in public fora — that the ultimatum stands.
The IG mouths the right thing to do but does not do it. That should be a clue to how much weight assurances of safety of Igbos in the North beyond October 1, carries.
The North pampers its home-grown looneys. Why won’t they multiply?
Fifty-one (51) years ago on October 1, in the presence of northern elders who came in snow-white Babanrigas to supervise the slaughter, thousands of Igbo men women and their children who had been assured of a safe trip back to the East, were slaughtered in Kano Airport.
The Boko Haram insanity has been globally rated as top-notch terrorism — beating even ISIS in savagery: Men, women and children of other faiths are raped, burned, butchered and bombed in the service of a “loving Allah”.
Yet it took root and festered in the full glare of northern elders and the elite. In the thick of the carnage, the parents of the insurgents demanded amnesty for their beloved psychos. Thankfully, one of the voices of sanity in the North, the Emir of Anka, in Zamfara State, Alhaji Attahiru Ahmad, countered the call:
At a workshop on peace building and conflict management for sustainable development, organised by the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, in Kaduna, on Wednesday, March 13, 2013, the emir declared:
“Where were our leaders when members of Boko Haram were going to receive trainings outside the country? Let us check ourselves, if there must be justice, we must go back to the basics.”
He also fingered the northern elite and politicians over other security challenges in the region:
“From experience, I have come to realise that whenever you have crisis and a proper investigation is carried out, you always find the involvement of these two classes… as a traditional ruler, who lives with the people, I have come to a conclusion that if the common man is left alone, there is going to be peace in the land. But any place you find crisis, just look around, you must find the involvement of these two classes – the elite and the politicians.”
Then the emir related a true story of a typical “cooked up” blasphemy attack: “Within my domain, a sad experience occurred sometime ago when an Igbo man, who owned a shop, was attacked and his shop burnt because his son was said to have torn a copy of the Quran. But upon investigation, I found out that a native of Anka, who was also in the same business with the Igbo man, deliberately roped in the Igbo family.
“He took a piece of paper with an Islamic inscription on it and tore it into pieces in front of the Igbo man’s shop and then raised the alarm calling on all Muslim faithful to come and see a copy of the Quran torn into pieces by the son of the Igbo trader. The crowd grew angry and set the house and the shop of the Igbo man ablaze immediately. You can see that this native of Anka did this malicious act purely for personal interest and not religion. And that is how it is with the elite and the politicians.”
May Allah continue to bless this emir and lengthen his life.
Can a family that breeds and nurtures insanity among its members expect others to seek its sons and daughters in marriage? Do sane young men go a-wenching with mucus-laden upper lips? Do girls seeking suitors dress up in filthy, stinking attires? How can the north nurture this level of insanity then expect, even demand unity?
Lack of education and poverty, carefully nurtured over the years by the northern leaders (despite decades in the seat of power) have been blamed for Boko Haram and allied savagery. But this ailment is prevalent even among some educated ones. Today over 95 percent of beggars who line Nigerian streets like human rags are northerners. Yet these failed parents and failed leaders prance round as the best equipped to rule the whole of Nigeria — even by violence. That is psychopathy — mental disorder, especially marked by egocentric and antisocial behaviour.
On June 1, 2014, the Movement for the Political Survival of Northern Nigeria placed an advertorial titled “2015: Why Power Must Return To The North” in some newspapers. The advertorial was signed by a Dr. Yusuf Jubril as President and one Sani Mohammed as Secretary. Here are excerpts:
“The North is only asking for what it does best in Nigeria; leadership. All regions of the country excel in one area or the other; the West in education, Eastern region business, the North has since independence by divine blessing provided leadership and administration which has kept the country stable and secure and would continue to work for a peaceful country.
“This is no accident; it is the Almighty Allah that has destined it so. However, there is currently a mediocre interregnum, with an interloper in the name of a Jonathan Southern presidency.
“It is an aberration; for apart from the six months when Aguyi-Ironsi and his Eastern cohorts took North unawares, the North has provided leadership for the country and has even denied itself by installing a South westerner, Olusegun Obasanjo, twice as a president from the South.”
No northern voice countered these rantings.
At the last count (this year 2017) over 10million almajiris (homeless kids) roam the North. That is, not counting the millions others who have reached adulthood and found their ways into the Police, Army, the judiciary etc. Any surprise that these same people who have led their region down the alley of backwardness and near-epidemic insanity are currently leading the rest of Nigeria into the hell of penury amidst plenty.
If they can do “wretchedness” to their own people why won’t they do it to the rest of Nigeria?
Persons who pen these extant facts are not the enemies of the North. The real enemies of the North are the “fathers” who deny education to their wards then lead protests over the absence of their wards’ names on the graduation list. Any northern youth who interpretes that as paternal love is surely misguided.
Northern youths lucky to come to the South see how sane men and women of all tribes and religions mingle, disagree, agree, make up and marry. The South is not perfect; there are pockets of insanity there too, but overwhelming sane public opinion and attitude keeps it in check.
Having neglected to adequately empower its teeming populace, the northern elite now seeks to hide its shame by various and furious means: quota system, catchment area, federal character, skewed appointments — and would brazenly cut corners to ensure its own hold unmerited positions.
We should pause here to acknowledge the gallant efforts of the thousands of upstanding northerners — men and women — who keep the flag of sanity flying amidst the gale of savagery. As far back as the 1966 pogrom in which about 40,000 Igbos were slaughtered in the region under the supervision of northern leaders, these northern heroes, at the risk of their own lives, continue saving many innocent victims of the northern mob. Some years ago, a northern female motorist reportedly lost her three-month-old baby while trying to convey fleeing victims of sectarian violence out of danger zone. She apparently forgot the baby in the back seat in her efforts to save lives!
Many Nigerians have not forgotten that the Boko Haram insurgency shot notches higher soon after some Northern elders, including a cadaverous ex minister, threatened publicly (imagine that effrontery) to make the country “ungovernable”. The insurgency was still raging when yet another product of northern savagery entered the Nigerian market:
“fulaneopsychoimpunity”.
Fulani herdsmen whose beautiful women and daughters mingled peacefully with their host communities suddenly acquired AK rifles and bullet-proof vests complete with army fatigues. They raped, burned and slaughtered… with psychopathic impunity.
On February 10, 2014, these killer herdsmen invaded the civilized environment of the Federal College of Land Use Technology, Jos. As usual, they were in army uniform, complete with bullet-proof vests and were heavily armed.
The invaders, numbering 20, attacked the house of the school’s chief security officer, Haruna Danjuma. He was slaughtered in the presence of his wife and daughters.
The Fulani herdsmen that same night slaughtered the chief accountant of the college, Mr. Audu Chobe; killed his wife, then killed their baby — a three-year-old girl. Next they killed the school’s electrician, Hosea, making five in all. The killers operated with infernal confidence, without hurry.
Despite frantic calls from many cell phones, security personnel arrived promptly only after the killers had left.
Many Nigerians hoped that with the coming to power of a man of “integrity”, Muhammadu Buhari, a Fulani man, the menace would be checked. After all, he should have the ears of his own people.
Their hopes were dashed. The attacks only escalated.
But something else, by far worse than the killings, emerged: Government silence. Till date, no satisfactory explanation has been offered for that murderous silence. For ten months while Fulani herdsmen raped, burned and slaughtered Nigerians, our dear president who “belongs to nobody but to everybody”, kept mum — despite stringent calls by baffled Nigerians that he spoke up and out . But all the while, our president spoke on Boko Haram, pipeline vandals, MASSOB and Kanu etc. Never on Fulani herdsmen terrorism. Clear cases of Fulani aggression were couched in a sickening euphemism: “farmers/herdsmen clashes”.
Nigerians are being told in clear terms that the Fulani herdsmen are licensed to slaughter.
That is Insanity.
At a meeting recently, the Nigerian Christian Elders Forum, NCEF, headed by Former Chief of Staff, Theophilus Danjuma, declared that some northern elements are pursuing a jihadist agenda against the whole of Nigeria using the Fulani herdsmen attacks as one of the instruments of terror. It added: “It is disturbing the alacrity with which the security forces and top Government officials responded to the attacks against the Fulani on the Mambilla Plateau, in Taraba State, while remaining insensitive to the serial attacks and killings by the same Fulani herdsmen across the nation,”
NCEF is only corroborating what many Nigerians have observed. And is it not madness that while the masses of Nigerians from North to South are seeking peace and unity, some wretches would be plotting evil in dark corners of the North.
Also speaking on the Mambila crisis, a statement signed by Mohammed Tersi, D M Ismaila and Marcus Bovoa, who described themselves as “Sardauna stakeholders”, declared.
“We are surprised that there has suddenly been a prompt response from the security forces to the Fulani call for their deployment. This response from the security is unprecedented in the history of the armed herdsmen crisis in Nigeria.
“Within just 48 hours, the Taraba state police commissioner has temporarily relocated his office to Gembu on the Mambila Plateau, a Hausa-Fulani GOC of the army has been moved to the Mambila Plateau and army battalions have moved in.
“At the same time, a military surveillance helicopter has been dispatched to the Mambila Plateau and is hovering over the plateau to protect the Fulanis. This is in sharp contrast to the army’s refusal to respond to calls for intervention in the mass murders perpetrated
by theFulani herdsmen against the defenceless people of Takum, Ussa, Lau, Donga, Bali, and Yorro local government areas in Taraba State. Similarly, the genocide committed against the villagers in Agatu in Benue State, Southern Kaduna, Kogi, Ekiti, and Delta states, etc never attracted the army’s response despite the nationwide outcry…”
What manner of men or minds see mindless slaughter of women and babies as integral components of statesmanship?
Is it not superlative insanity for these same jackals and hyenas who condone and sponsor widespread “hate slaughter” to now join the condemnation of “hate speeches”?
It is insanity to so play infernal politics with human lives, Nigerian lives, then turn round to preach “unity”. No matter how highly placed or perfumed, those sponsoring or protecting killer herdsmen are raving mad — be they in the presidency or outside it.
Why has the Buhari government failed to disclose the source (or sources) of the arms wielded by Fulani herdsmen despite calls by even the Sultan?
That the herdsmen often come with AK 47 rifles and military fatigue complete with bullet-proof vests has fuelled suspicions of military involvement.
Victim communities in Benue, Taraba, Plateau especially, have repeatedly alleged that military personnel posted to keep the peace take sides in the attacks. Former Governor of Plateau State, Jonah Jang, lamented repeatedly that many arrested Fulani attackers were spirited away to Abuja beyond the reach of justice. About six years ago, newspapers carried the Army Number of one of the attackers in Jos. He confessed to having been drafted from Abuja to partake in the killings.
On Thursday, March 17, 2016, frustrated by lack of response from government to their distress calls, farmers of Ugwuneshi community in Enugu were mobilising to rescue two of their women from Fulani herdsmen who had been harassing the community. Suddenly, men in Army uniforms materialised. They rounded up 76 of the farmers. The farmer were herded into Nigerian military trucks and driven away. The trucks landed outside the state in Abia State. The farmers were handed over to the Police who subsequently arraigned the farmers in court the following day. All 76 were pronounced guilty and promptly jailed.
But following the outrage that greeted the incident, the Nigerian Army denied any involvement of its men in the arrest of the farmers. Army spokesmen insisted the soldiers were “fake soldiers” even though Police in Abia insisted that they were men of the Nigerian Army. The Army Public Relations Officer, 14 Brigade Ohafia, Major Sydney Mbaneme, said the “Men in military uniform may not be soldiers as impersonation of soldiers by civilians do occur… If at all they (men in military uniform) are soldiers, they are not our soldiers.” He added that if the men in military uniform were real solders, the attention of the Brigade would have been drawn to it because “when such arrest is made, the first thing is to carry out preliminary investigation and inform the various units.”
The spokesman of the 82 Division, Enugu, of the Nigerian Army, Col. H. Gambo, on his part said the division was not aware of the arrest by its men. He said that information available to them showed that none of their men was involved in such a dastardly act.
But The Abia State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Udeviotu Onyeke, told the press that the villagers were arrested by the Army and handed over to the police on the same day the incident occurred.
Okay, if we believe our dear Army, it means there are “fake soldiers” working with killer herdsmen to attack and slaughter Nigerians. And if we believe the Police, it means there are bona fide men of the Nigerian Army colluding with killer herdsmen to slaughter Nigerians.
Does any responsible government (or army) fail to swiftly probe such mad incident — and make the result public?
Obviously, and expectedly, the Fulani herdsmen and their sponsors were emboldened to commit worse crimes.
On April 25, roughly a month after the “unknown soldier” incident in Enugu, killer herdsmen attacked another community, Nimbo, in the state. Though the Nigerian security were alerted of the impending attack, the attackers struck all the same. While the attack was on, frantic calls to the President (who only can direct the IG,), failed to elicit any response. The herdsmen raped, burnt and slaughtered…. About 30 Igbo men women and babies were slaughtered.
In condemning the attack, the Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, speaking through is National Publicity Secretary, Muhammad Ibrahim, said :
“Nigeria cannot afford to graduate from Boko Haram insurgency to an unwarranted attack by unknown gunmen alleged to be Fulani herdsmen.
“The traditional Fulani nomads have coexisted peacefully with their host communities and have been grazing their cattle for decades all over Nigeria without any such attacks.
“ACF is therefore disturbed and seriously concerned with this recent development.”
The Northern group then called “upon the security agencies to do a thorough investigation into the identities of the suspected gunmen in order to stop this dangerous generalization of labelling certain tribe or people of certain faith as responsible for these attacks.
“This will cause mistrust and likely incite people of different tribes and faith who have lived together peacefully for decades.
“Criminals hiding under whatever guise and committing heinous crimes against innocent people and the state should be treated as such and in accordance with the law.”
Quite sensible and wise counsel from the northern group. Truly, as it says: such “unwarranted attack” “will cause mistrust and likely incite people of different tribes and faith who have lived together peacefully for decades.” “Thorough investigation,” ACF also said, should be done to identify the killers.
Thorough investigation was done. And days later, the attackers were exposed. They were Fulani herdsmen from seven northern states of Nigeria. And the Fulani sponsors were named!
Saturday Punch, of May 28, 1916 reported that this was uncovered following the arrest of a 24-year-old suspect, Mohammadu Zurai, by the Inspector-General of Police Special Intelligence Response Team. Excerpts:
“Zurai, who was arrested alongside four other suspects – Ciroma Musa (30), Sale Adamu (33), Suleiman Laute (43) and Haruna Laute (24) – told the police that at least 100 Fulani herdsmen from seven states took part in the massacre.
“According to the suspect, Fulani leaders rearing cows in Taraba, Kogi, Benue, Nasarawa, Katsina, Niger and Kaduna States contributed representatives to take part in the attack.
“Zurai, a Fulani herdsman living in Kogi State, said he was born in Enugu State even though his family are from Garba Shehu town in Taraba State.
“His statement revealed that prior to the attack, kolanuts were shared among Fulani leaders in the seven states earlier identified, urging them to support the attack.
“According to Zurai, the attack came because of the killing of six Fulani herdsmen in the community in the past without repercussion.
“Saturday PUNCH learnt that the leaders later sent representatives who took part in the attack.
“Two days before the attack (April 23), a meeting where the plans were perfected was held in Ameke town, Kogi State.
“The police had revealed that a video recording of the killing was recovered from Zurai.
“Zurai said, ‘After we attacked the town through the bush, I saw a man who had just been slaughtered on the ground. I brought out my phone and recorded the scene.
“’I asked the dead man, ‘Your people had confidence to kill Fulani people but now you are dead. Don’t you know that Fulani owns Nigeria?’ I recorded the video to show my relatives in Kogi where I live how successful the operation was. As we moved around Nimbo, I saw an Igbo man who used to give me food anytime I was in the state. I warned him to quickly leave town to avoid being killed.”
“Zurai said he was invited to take part in the killing by one Buba. He identified leaders who participated in the killing as Alhaji Suddi, Alhaji Kuriya, Alhaji Dula and Ardo Dula (living in Enugu State) while others, Mallam Adamu , Alhaji Chiroma, Adamu Sarka, Alhaji Botdo, Alhaji Iro Kogi and Alhaji Fanya are from Kogi State.
“Despite these revelations, the public is yet to be enlightened on steps taken to apprehend the alleged sponsors.”
Fulani herdsmen arrested over the slaughter in Nimbo Community.
But something far worse occurred six days after the attack. And it came from the Presidency. Direct from President Buhari.
It came in President Buhari’s May Day speech to Nigerians six days after the slaughter of the Igbos by the President’s own people.
Buhari spoke on Boko Haram, Pipeline vandalisation, MASSOB, Kanu, Biafra…
But on the rampaging Fulani herdsmen and the massacre of Igbos six days earlier, the Fulani President said nothing. Whoever thinks that is the way to go to keep a country united is not on this side of sanity.
Do sane governments, truly desirous of unity fuel hate, genocide, mutual distrust? Nigerians have never been as divide as this in its turbulent history.
Now that the Igbos talk of marginalisation, separation and the Yorubas talk of YOLICOM, the Middle Belt agitates, the Niger Delta talks of a Republic, the North drops subtle threats of Rwanda…
Financial corruption remains a major problem of Nigeria today, and any regime that fights it frontally deserves commendation. However, socio-political corruption evident in an insane jihadist mentality that seeks to dominate other Nigerians by savagery, violence and force of arms is by far worse. The current regime pretends to be unaware of the latter and many Nigerians continue to live in denial, joining the real separatists to mouth “unity” — a medunmbu brand of unity. The real separatists, the real enemies of Nigeria are those “elements” that set sections of Nigeria against the rest in bloody attacks and those in government who fail to expose the criminals behind the insanity.
Of course, anywhere in the world, insanity is sufficient ground for divorce…
Unity with the North as it is today is doom, slavery, perpetual backwardness. The North must cleanse itself to make itself fit for unity. And it can be done if Northern youths and other sane adults summon the courage and unite to bring about a “Northern Spring” by ridding the region of its dinosaurs, hyenas and jackals.
Seeking unity at gunpoint is insanity…
