By
Gbemiga Olakunle
And God sent an Angel
into Jerusalem to destroy it, and as he was destroying the LORD beheld and He
repented Him of the evil, and said to the Angel that destroyed, it is enough,
stay now thine hand. Chron. 21:15, KJV.
There is no doubt
that violence has become the order of the day in Nigeria since the advent of
Boko Haram in the Northeast and the increased militancy with some elements of
criminality in the Southsouth. The situation has already been compounded and is
getting worse by the day with the unprovoked attacks that are being unleashed
on the citizens of this country by some rampaging herdsmen.
In Nigeria today, to
know the real value of a cow, what a farmer needs to do is to kill just one for
destroying his farmland. And he will be lucky if his whole community members
are not compelled to pay dearly for such effrontery/audacity with their lives
in form of reprisal attacks from the herdsmen.
Anybody who is still
in doubt should please read the pathetic accounts of the Southern-Kaduna
killings where nothing less than 808 people have been killed with several
others injured and property worth of millions of naira destroyed. The affected
communities were reportedly paying for the sins that their fathers allegedly
committed against the cows of some herdsmen who were caught up in the riots
that erupted in the aftermath of the 2011 Presidential Elections.
While the
authorities, especially the Kaduna State Government are claiming that these
assailants are foreigners, these merchants of death have continued to spread
their unprovoked attacks to other parts of the country until the Governor of
Ekiti State, Peter Ayodele Fayose, checkmated them in his own Area of Jurisdiction (AOR) and put a final halt to it through decisive actions
including a legislation. On its own part in addressing the issue, the Nigerian
Army has announced that it would send some of its personnel to Argentina to
learn Animal husbandry with a view to acquiring suitable acres of land
throughout the federation for the purpose of establishing ranches to raise
cattle – a move that many have suspected to be another way of introducing the
contentious Land Grazing Reserves Policy through the back door and riding on
the back of the military.
