Leaders whose father’s land is not Nigeria.

By Bolaji O. Akinyemi.

Peace is still on holiday on the Plateau and the people are far from respite.
Palpable fear of what may happen still rule the atmosphere in apprehension, almost in tangibility.

Trust our politicians, the rush to make the episode serve a political rallying point at the heels of the judgement of the Supreme Court in the Governorship Election petition is blurring reasoning and compounding the force of hatred. Local comments criticize the euphoria of the incumbent administration that’s heavily engaged in other celebrity activities in State when private for profit pursuits have been shelved. In Mbong Hamlet visited by The Para-Mallam Peace Foundation led by some community leaders yesterday, it was reported that they saw a room in the house of the pastor of the Christ Apostolic Church where his wife and five kids were burnt to ashes; no sign of human carcass but just ashes !!!

The Church building was also burnt and pulled down!

In all, more than 200 lives were destroyed & yet a commensurate level of empathy is not demonstrated by the administration!

How can you declare a weeklong mourning & still be engaged in celebrity activities in the same period?

How I wished time can be reversed! The root of our community crisis in the north was laid in the hospitable disposition of our fathers to strangers.
“Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares”.

But God in his wisdom never forgot to warn us that the devil had the capacity to transform itself into an angel of light. Today, the Indigenous communities are paying for lack of discernment of our fathers who took in devils, fed and sheltered them for angels; whether Christians as on the Plateau, Benue, Southern Kaduna, let me say the middle belt as a whole. And Muslims as in Sokoto, Kastina, Zamfara etc!

This is complicated by the unfortunate demand of our national anthem; to serve our father’s land. But we are often led by people whose father’s land is not Nigeria. Whose distant relatives from across our borders are given strategic positions in our Armed forces!

This is actually the crux of the matter. How do you explain the undeniable fact that the terrorists invading, killing, maiming and displacing indigenous people across the North and the middle belt are Fulani herdsmen? And just after the locals are chased out, Fulani components of the Nigerian Army are deployed to guide the territory beaten, burnt and “conquered” by their marauding cousins!

Since the unfortunate incidence, I have been in touch with Communities affected, reading every information coming out of there.

Someone wrote from Bokos;
“99% of the soldiers are fulanis so what do you expect? I saw most of them at sector 5 today, mostly fulanis. Our people should know this. If youth come out to protest against the activities of the STF, they get the ground to kill most of them.”
They are beating and injuring our youths. Fulani soldiers sent to protect herdsmen massacre in Bokkos, what irony of life, Fulanis from Fouta Djalon in Guinea and Guinea-Bissau want to settle on the Jos Plateau by force!”

The visit of #verydarkman is no longer news but the twist to that is the fact that the world has to rely on informal sources on news from affected areas!

The Punch, a leading Newspaper was recently dragged on “X” formerly Twitter for its unholy silence on such magnitude of carnage!

A public report shared on the WhatsApp, read; “BOKKOS BOILING AGAIN: Since morning today 4th Jan. 2023, the STF soldiers sent to quell the crisis in Bokkos have been intimidating innocent people and we need help!

My information has it that the town is boiling with IDPs who are angry and for 3-days, herdsmen corpses have been found.

The Soldiers are simply just arresting youths without investigation while the herdsmen who displaced them from their villages are occupying their farming homes!
This is barbaric as this morning, they beat up a Reverend’s son to stupor and this evening, they arrested six youths randomly who have nothing to do with the corpse of a Fulani man.
The youth are satisfied with the new sector commander but complain that he is surrounded by Fulani foot soldiers who are there to protect herdsmen and not get indigene homes returned to them from fulanis in the villages!
PLEASE HELP BOKKOS RESIDENTS!”

Another report from one of those who visited some of the affected locations shared with me on Boko Local government read; “I was part of the Team that visited some of the Hamlets attacked by Fulani criminal gangsters.
Use of some words, such as “conquered” tend to unwittingly become highly valued by the aggressors as pointers or key performance indicators of the level of their nebulous efforts!

Indeed, the Hamlets were beaten, burnt and are bleeding but NOT conquered. The conflict is an internal civil disobedience to governing laws, which amounts to criminality.
In a similar vein, the use of the word unprovoked attacks conveys a sense that negates the need to rely on governing laws and civility in grievance handling by citizens. No one is permitted to resort to gangster self help in grievance handling other than a lawful process of seeking redress for justice, equity and equal rights!

Lawful grievance handling is what natives and Christians grew up knowing that has now portrayed their meekness as a weakness being exploited by criminal gangsters!
Yes, the aggressor cohorts often dominate the Hamlets after attacks in order to loot the properties of the fleeing residents as well as have unfettered access to exploit natural resources, especially solid minerals and gemstones. The properties of the fleeing residents consists of an assortment of farm produce, different species of livestock, movable assets such as vehicles, motorbikes, generators for electric power and water pumps for irrigation, cash and other items of monetary value.

The role of the defense and security forces of Nigeria has been questioned vide a deluge of commentaries including one titled Whose Safe Haven in Plateau State, Middle Belt and Nigeria?; regrettably, the recent covert and overt ban placed on Media news services by the federal government of Nigeria will end up stoking criminality by gangsters as no one will expose such ungodly acts anymore!

Additionally, the well documented criminal gangsters of fulani ethnic tribe will be emboldened to exploit their transborder networks for grandeur criminality.
The fulani problem of Nigeria, as the 4th deadliest terrorist group in the world vide Amnesty International, is the greatest evidence of divisiveness of sovereignty and the propensity of threats or compromise to the status of indissolubility of Nigeria as a sovereign country. It is only trite to ignore the fact that the media ban cum doctrinal paralysis of defense and security forces will not quicken the collapse of Nigeria as a State”.

Nigeria is no doubt split and shared among different terrorist groups; bandits, herdsmen, etc. The attitude of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu led Administration will determine who the Commander in Chief of the armed forces truly is. Vis a vis the recovery of territories taken over by Aliens. If this goes on unchecked into the end of the first quarter of the year then, the sovereignty of this state is lost and disintegration of Nigeria will be inevitable!

For there is no need for a wife to stay with a husband who looks away while she is being raped and wouldn’t turn around to rescue her even when calling for help!

The ethnic nationalities in the middle belt should be tired of staying with their unconcerned and uncaring Nigeria as a husband!

Asking for a divorce from this marriage of inconvenience is about the only reasonable thing left!

I look forward to see the readiness of all ethnic nationalities as they massively turn out to make the statement “enough is enough” through their scheduled peaceful protests tomorrow the 8th day of January 2024 in Jos!

All eyes is on the Plateau!

Dr Bolaji O. Akinyemi is an Apostle and Nation Builder. President Voice Of His Word Ministries and Convener Apostolic Round Table; ART.

To read more, please visit www.bolajioakinyemi.com

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