By Christie Doyin
I heard and later read of the gruesome murder of chairman of Michika Local Government Christian Association of Nigeria in Adamawa state, Rev. Lawan Andimi by the Islamic terrorists and extremists, and I couldn’t help the tears streaming down my face.
The question is how long will the government of Nigeria continue to lie to us that Boko Haram has been decimated and that government is in control? How long would we as citizens continue to fold our hands and look on? How long would we continue to depend and rely on the government for our security?
These are some of the questions running through my mind as I weep and lament not just the killing of this Reverend, but also the abduction, raping and killing of several others across the country.
A colleague said, “yesterday’s survivor is today’s victim and today’s survivor is tomorrow’s victim”. I want to add, who is safe in Nigeria today? The answer is not far fetched majority of us are not safe except the Fulani terrorists who comes in both male and female.
Just as been said every where, there is a planned out agenda to make the Fulani people dominant in this set up called Nigeria, it is a strategic plan to use the Fulani terrorists against all other Nigerians so as to put the other tribes in perpetual servitude and also silence the Christians but God forbid it. The true God we worship will never allow that to happen.
Like I’ve said before, we have entered a ‘one chance bus and there is no going back except we are ready to confront this big challenge head long.
Conspicuously quoting Reno Omokri, he wrote, “Recently, the firebrand ex Second Republic member of the House of Representatives, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, warned or threatened that Nigeria may experience another civil war if the Western Nigeria Security Network, better known as Amotekun, is allowed to go ahead”.
His response to the above goes thus, “With the way Nigeria is currently so polarised, politicians and pundits risk living in an echo chamber, which is an environment where they encounter only ideas and agenda that corroborate their preconceived notions, with the resultant effect that their opinion becomes crystallised and appears to them like the prevailing opinion, and other more reasonable alternative views, are not considered.
My question therefore is, are we going to be easily frightened to leave a cause we believe in and that which we all know will take us out of the doldrum we are in now?
Rather than we getting respite from the Fulani and Boko Haram’s notoriety, the worst scenarios are being unleashed on the citizens and those at the helms of affairs are not in the least bothered, or so it seems. Perhaps this is because it is their agenda. To decimate the other tribes so that the Fulani terrorists can have field day and subject the rest of the people to servitude.
It is a fact that since former president Goodluck Jonathan left, progress has stalled in the fight against Boko Haram and ISWAP as we daily witnessed and hear of severe and increased occurrence of attacks, kidnaps, abduction and suicide attacks and against not just the civilians but also against military formations. Many have been made widows, widowers and orphans while the military are being attacked and our soldiers killed in their numbers on daily basis.
Situation in the Nigeria state has become so pathetic that travelling has become a nightmare and moving within your state, town or city is dreaded by many. As a matter of fact, insecurity has pervaded the household so much that parents are scared of their children and children of the parents, it is same among spouses since you cannot explain or ascertain if your spouse has become compromised or is under some threat that would make him or her sell out.
I don’t know how long it will take Mr President and government at all the levels to come out clean and open about the situation in the country and accept that he is (and them are) not capable of subduing the insurgents. I’m also at a loss as to what Nigerians are doing severally and collectively to help our situation. I think it is about time we start being our brothers’ keepers and also take up arms for arms against the animals called men that have infiltrated the country and causing harms and death to us.
I’m in tandem with Omokri when he wrote that “With the way Nigeria is currently so polarised, politicians and pundits risk living in an echo chamber, which is an environment where they encounter only ideas and agenda that corroborate their preconceived notions, with the resultant effect that their opinion becomes crystallised and appears to them like the prevailing opinion, and other more reasonable alternative views, are not considered”.
Also, the Global Terrorism Index revealed that Nigeria is now more terrorised now than it was in 2015, with Boko Haram/ISWAP appearing to operate almost with ease in the Northeast quadrant of Nigeria. “According to the index, Nigeria is now the world’s most terrorised nation and has two amongst the ten groups listed by the Global Terrorism Index as the world’s most deadly terror group (herdsmen and Boko Haram/ISWAP)”.
The saddest part is that concentration is now turned towards killing the Christians though we know that not even the Muslims are left out of the massacre spree of the terrorists. It is just that with the ISWAP, the Christians are the high concentrate of victims.
For instance, it was reported that the same affiliate of Boko Haram, the ISWAP, killed 11 Christian captives in Borno on Christmas eve and a bride to be, as its revenge for the deaths of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, late leader of the Islamic State and Abul-Hasan Al-Muhajir, its spokesman, who were killed in Syria in October. Imagine, for something that is not any business of theirs. Sad, very sad!
It was also reported that on January 19, 2020, Boko Haram killed at least 17 soldiers, and an unknown number abducted by the Islamic terror group, with large quantities of military hardware captured.
While this was going on, we read in the papers that the government of General Muhammadu Buhari is releasing so-called ‘repentant’ Boko Haram members in their thousands, which is why some wondered that repentant chronic killers where released but a repentant husband killer was sentenced to death by hanging. Actually I’m not in support of any spouse killer but this is what I read.
It is a fact that bandits have taken over vast territory in the Northwest, but sadly, the southeast and southwest are not spared. Just recently, was the gruesome murder of the Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Michika Local Government Area of Adamawa State, Rev. Lawan Andimi, by Boko Haram because he refused to be converted to Islam. Although, the group initially demanded for the sum of N50 million and when against all odds, the ransom was ready, they asked for €2m. Two million Euro! It was in the process that they reached out to the people in Adamawa State to notify them that since the gentleman had refused to be converted to Islam, they had decided to behead him. And that was what they did. In the same state, a clergyman, Rev Denis Bagauri was murdered by unknown gunmen in his residence at Mayo Belwa of Adamawa State, all because he was a Christian. Again, and more recently, four seminarians of the Good Shepherd Catholic Seminary in Kakau, were kidnapped along Kaduna-Abuja Road and we have not heard anything about them. In Kaduna State, the most recent happenings were those of 35 people killed and 58 persons abduction when bandits raided 10 communities in the Chikun and Birnin Gwari Local Government areas on January 13, 2020. These criminals are everywhere operating with impunity and they have been stopping commercial and private vehicles asking them to come down and telling them to say what their religion is. Whoever claims to be a Christian is either killed on the spot or abducted and a demand for a ransom issued.
Obviously, Christians have become endangered species in their own country! Nigeria is under a siege orchestrated by the murderous blood-thirsty and criminally- minded Boko Haram terrorists, Fulani terrorist herdsmen, bandits and kidnappers who are all armed to the teeth, dressed in army uniforms, and gradually overwhelming our security agencies.
President Muhammadu Buhari has not ceased telling us that the criminals are coming from Libya, as though Nigeria shares borders with Libya. As if that were not enough, the Miyetti Allah the Fulani herdsmen have claimed responsibility for the killings and justifying their actions. Some two, three years back, my in-law’s fenced farm was ravaged and those in charged of the farm killed in cold blood. In other instances, the Miyetti disown the killers, telling us that there are other herdsmen who are not their members but who also register with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
It is reprehensible and saddening that each time the government comes out to claim the defeat of the insurgency, more killings of Nigerians are carried out.
The situation got so bad that the Governor of Katsina state, Aminu Bello Masari, decided to ‘negotiate’ with bandits and arranged a meeting to appeal to them! In Zamfara state, the governor also negotiated with them and signed a treaty with these groups, which led to their being granted amnesty. You cannot blame the man. Bello Matawalle has shown prudence in governing Zamfara, but his hands are tied. These bandits have overwhelmed the police and resisted the armed forces. Even Kwara state is not left out of the siege, an actress, Toyosi Adesanya, escaped death by the whisker, but she lost one of her aides, Juwon, to the sporadic shooting of some Fulani herdsmen attack along the Omu-Aran -Ilorin road a few days ago.
General TY Danjuma has warned citizens to defend themselves in 2018. His said:
“You must rise to protect yourselves from these people, if you depend on the Arm Forces to protect you, you will all die!”
It is about time the Federal Government and leadership of the Armed Forces own up to the fact that government has failed in terms of security of the people and that it is better for every state, every local government and every ward and individual to find ways to defend themselves and families in the face of any attack.
So how long will it take us to do the needful in the face of all these?
*Doyin writes via e-Mail: [email protected]
