By Chuks
Iloegbunam
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen
the side of the oppressor.” – Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
“The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty
by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
Vexed voices have, in exasperation, been asking where
Reverend Father Ejike Camillus Mbaka is. They are absolutely right who expect
the priest to speak up. People should ask where Bola Tinubu is, the one who
covets the feat of unknotting Pandora’s Box. People should be asking where many
other previously vocal Nigerians are. People should conduct an investigation on
the seemingly abrupt dryness of Niyi Osundare’s inkpot, for he has put an
incongruous halt to his fondness for poetizing on national questions. All
those experts on radio and television, all those incisive analysts on
cyberspace and concourses – know you one thing! People have a right to ask what
sneaked in and stole your voices. What crept in and rendered you incapable of
standing up? What stealthily stymied your very humanity?
People also have another responsibility, which in fact
is more fundamental than pointing accusingly at the supposed guilty. People
should be asking themselves where they stand.
People will, perhaps, temporarily desist from wondering
whether Wole Soyinka had embarked on a journey out of the planet Earth. The
Nobelist’s voice finally crashed against the wall of eviscerating injustice:
“Impunity evolves and becomes integrated in conduct when crime occurs and no
legal, logical and moral response is offered. I have yet to hear this
government articulate a firm policy of non-tolerance for the serial massacres
have become the nation’s identification stamp.
“I have not
heard an order given that any cattle herders caught with sophisticated firearms
be instantly disarmed, arrested, placed on trial, and his cattle confiscated.
The nation is treated to an eighteen-month optimistic plan which, to make
matters worse, smacks of abject appeasement and encouragement of violence on
innocents.
“Let me repeat,
and of course I only ask to be corrected if wrong: I have yet to encounter a
terse, rigorous, soldierly and uncompromising language from this leadership,
one that threatens a response to this unconscionable blood-letting that would
make even Boko Haram repudiate its founding clerics.”
Fantastic! Except that Soyinka’s reaction is like that
of a fowl on virgin territory that stands tentatively on one leg. For the
murderous activities of Fulani herdsmen, he faulted “this leadership”. Well,
“this leadership” has at its head someone with a name. Why is the man’s name
unmentionable? On Soyinka, there will be much more to say as the unfolding
scalping encompasses the variegated swathes of the entity. For now, it
requires to explore and expand his observation.
The Government of Enugu State received intelligence on
the impending carnage by Fulani herdsmen. Dutifully, Governor Ifeanyi
Ugwuanyi summoned a 10pm State Security Council meeting attended by the
following on the state government’s side: Ugwuanyi, the Deputy Governor, the
Secretary to the State Government, the Governors’ Chief of Staff, the State
Attorney-General, and the Chairman of the State Traditional Rulers Council.
President Buhari’s government was represented by the following: Brigadier
General Olufemi Akinjobi, the Commander of the Enugu Garrison (representing
the GOC 82 Division of the Nigerian Army); the Enugu State Commissioner of
Police, Mr. Nwodibo Ekechukwu; the Enugu State Director of the Department State
Security Services (DSS), Mr. M. Abdul Malik; the State Commandant of the
Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, Mr. Lar Stephen; and the representatives
of the Nigerian Air Force, the Federal Road Safety Corps and the Nigerian
Prison Services, who attended as observers.
Yet, the carnage took place, costing anything between
60 and a hundred precious lives; leading to widespread destruction. Would this
have happened if the threat had been on Muhammadu Buhari’s hometown of Daura?
The attitude of three politicians in this dispensation –
Buhari, Fayose and Ugwuanyi – best illustrates contemporary Nigerian antinomies.
About Buhari, his inertia and nonchalance hardly surprise. Hadn’t he told the
world that his stance on governance was preferentially tied to the quantum of
votes he amassed from different constituencies during last year’s presidential
ballot? On Governor Fayose, there is clear evidence of leading from the front.
He has not, since his election, shied away from meeting the aspirations of his
people upfront, doing so fearlessly, clearly conscious of the fact that he owes
his gubernatorial mandate to the good people of Ekiti, not some potentate in Abuja .
Gov. Fayose of Ekiti State |
But, what has been happening to Fayose? His own people
mostly – not those who elected him, mind – but his own people, nonetheless,
have been vociferous in damning and condemning him at every juncture, to
sustain an untenable patchwork coalition of Masters and Slaves. Some have hung
a label of Afonjaism on the perversity.
And then, there is Ugwuanyi. This man looks and sounds
pathetic. This was how he started his statewide broadcast: “Four days ago on Monday April 25, 2016 many
of our brothers and sisters in Nimbo in Uzo Uwani Local Government Area of the state
were murdered in cold blood by suspected Fulani herdsmen…” Four whole days
passed before this man deemed it necessary to address his massacred and
traumatized people. What was he doing in the interim, apart from leaving his
handkerchiefs sopping wet with tears? He found time to be “very grateful to the President and Commander in Chief of the Armed
Forces, Muhammadu Buhari, for his prompt and decisive reaction to the incident
in Nimbo.”
Someone certainly is trapped in cloud cuckoo land. The
President hadn’t visited the scene of the massacres. He hadn’t sent a
condolence message. He hadn’t ordered an investigation. When he met with
Ugwuanyi, it was at the Governor’s instance. Still Buhari got effusively
thanked for his “prompt and decisive reaction”. This beggars belief. This
provocative condescension was voiced in a broadcast that had the following only
paragraphs away: “In less than three months, violent clashes have occurred in Enugu State
in Awgu, Nike, Abbi and Nimbo between suspected Fulani Herdsmen and our
people,” with absolutely no reaction from Abuja .
The genocide of 1966 happened in front of my eyes.
Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, the then Governor of Eastern Nigeria, did
not respond to that anti-Igbo pogrom by grinning ear-to-ear before the
murderers of his people; he didn’t go about salaaming them. It is inconceivable
that Governor Fayose, were he in Ugwuanyi’s shoes, would have allowed a single
night to pass before taking exception, before acting like a man with his
people’s mandate. That recommends itself as the stuff of commonsense.
The bloody trail of mass murders by Fulani Herdsmen is
unfolding in front of all our eyes. Think of the quotes from Archbishop Tutu
and Martin Luther King Jr. above. Think of the dictate of conscience. Think of
the sacredness of life. Think of the impunity of these mass murderers. Consider
that “Impunity evolves and becomes integrated in conduct when crime occurs and
no legal, logical and moral response is offered.” Then ask yourself this
question: Am I sitting on the fence, deadening my senses in silences?
*Chuks Iloegbunam, an eminent essayist and author is a
columnist with a national newspaper. He could be reached with iloegbunam@hotmail.com
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