By Paul Danbaki
In Southern Kaduna today,
many are desperately searching for answers right now. Southern
Kaduna indegenes have seen their loved ones slaughtered, raped and
brutalized. Some have watched their homes, businesses, villages, and religious
places set ablaze and destroyed.
Husbands
have helplessly watched their wives raped and humiliated.
Ordinary
people have been killed and burned publicly. For years, Southern
Kaduna has been experiencing economic, political and structural
siege. Thousands of people are traumatized, resulting in a range of different
cognitive, emotional, physical, and behavioural effects which impact
communities negatively. Hearts are hurting and the suffering is deep!
From
the aforementioned, I join myriads of good people of Southern Kaduna to welcome
the decision to launch an independent investigation with a mandate to cover
allegations of human rights violations since the unabated genocide in Southern
Kaduna; I have confidence that the UN panel would indeed be independent,
transparent, thorough and effective, with a view to establishing the veracity
of the facts before it with a view to bringing to justice the perpetrators of
the genocide in Southern Kaduna.
I
am confident that the indegenes of Southern Kaduna
are ready to assist in ensuring that the investigation is undertaken in line
with international human rights standards. I also reiterate our request for
access to the affected areas, as the situation on the ground makes it very
challenging to access because of the ‘lies’ put forward by kingpins of the
heinous attacks in the region.
More
so, given the tense situation in southern Kaduna where a large security
presence has reportedly been deployed only on the main streets and NOT in the
bushes and hills/mountains where the brutal killers commit their crimes and
withdraw to; in the midst of all these, there are still reports of ongoing
arbitrary arrests, intimidation and harassment of people, a majority of whom
are the victims, this call becomes vital for the survival of the Southern
Kaduna nation.
I
call on the UN to use its arsenals to ensure that the people’s rights to freedom
of peaceful expression are fully protected and guaranteed, and that those
detained for exercising these rights are promptly released. Until these are
observed, we are afraid the UN intervention might end in the usual “Nigerian
way”.
The
people of Southern Kaduna have confidence in
the UN human rights personnel who are part of what is known as the Special
Procedures of the Human Rights Council, an independent, fact-finding and
monitoring mechanisms of the Human Rights Council that addresses either specific
country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special
Procedures’ experts work on a voluntary basis independent from any government
or organization.
It
therefore behoves on the honourable panel to find suitable ways and means of ensuring
an independent and impartial investigation without the use of government
institutions in whom the people have lost confidence.
This
will send a strong signal that everyone has the right to live, and those who
take away life will NOT go unpunished.
UNDERSTANDING THE
TIME FROM A THEOLOGICAL STANDPOINT
As
a theologian, I have been trying to understand the theological significance of
this moment in our history. It is serious, very serious.
For
very many Christians in Southern Kaduna , this
is the KAIROS, the moment of grace and opportunity, the favorable time in which
God issues a challenge to decisive action. It is a dangerous time because, if
this opportunity is missed, and allowed to pass by, the loss for the Church,
for the Gospel and for all the people of Southern Kaduna
will be immeasurable.
Jesus
wept over Jerusalem
A PROPHETIC THEOLOGY
Our
present KAIROS calls for a response from Christians that is biblical,
spiritual, pastoral and, above all, prophetic. We need a bold and incisive
response that is prophetic because it speaks to the particular circumstances of
this crisis, a response that does not give the impression of sitting on the
fence with a pacifist/defeatist mood but should be clearly and unambiguously
taking a stand.
HOPE FOR MY PEOPLE
At
the very heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ and at the very center of all true
prophecy is a message of hope. Nothing could be more relevant and more
necessary at this moment of trial in Southern Kaduna
than the Christian message of hope. Jesus has taught us to speak of this hope
as the coming of God’s kingdom. We believe that God is at work in our world
turning hopeless and evil situations to good so that his “Kingdom may come” and
his “Will may be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We believe that goodness
and justice and love will triumph in the end and that tyranny and oppression
cannot last forever.
One
day “all tears will be wiped away” (Rev 7:17; 21:4) and “the lamb will lay down
with the lion” (Isa 11:6). True peace and true reconciliation are not only
desirable, they are assured and guaranteed.
This
is our faith and our hope. Finally, I call upon our Christian brothers
and sisters throughout the world to give us the necessary support in this
regard so that the daily loss of so many lives may be brought to a speedy
end. United we stand, divided we fall! Long live Southern
Kaduna !
*Dr. Paul
Danbaki Jatau is a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Kafanchan. stdanbaki4u@yahoo.com
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