Genocide in Nigeria and the Trump threat

If you have not been to the site of a mass grave, it will be easy for you to talk glibly about the horrendous killings in the north of Nigeria which did not start with this government.
It has been with us since the 80s as far as my memory can carry me.  That was the days of Maitaisine and other isolated religiously influenced riots.

But it took another dimension during  the second term of President Olusegun Obasanjo. And it has grown to become a monster ever since. There seems to be no end in sight.

The recent debate has however been on the nature of the attacks. There are the two divides. Those  who believe it is aimed at wiping out Christians in the north and then gradually move down south for a whole scale implementation of an Islamic agenda. And those who believe it is war against all Nigerians  irrespective of religion .

We fall on either side of the divide depending on our political and religious persuasions. it is an irony that president Bola Tinubu who coined a tweet in 2014 acknowledging that Christians were being killed in the north is now saying such a thing does not exist. His media handlers are pushing hard to change the narrative that there is no genocide.

But that was not his position when he was not in government. He was championing a move against the then President Goodluck  Jonathan   and did castigate him for not handling the security situation well.

Now that he is the president rather than work assiduously to stem the tide he wants to bury the reality and by that make a mince meat of people’s lives. He would rather be politically correct than ditch his ambition for a second term in office.

Present reality

The reality is that the activities of Boko Haram have since developed different legs of crime and criminal entities. It gave birth to kidnappings, ritual killings, banditry and all sorts of unimaginable crimes spread across the length and breath of Nigeria. The Boko Haram sect also gave birth to the Fulani Herdsmen.

We can’t deny that fact. It has also inspired other dissent groups like the IPOB in the east and the Ighoho led Yoruba agitators.

The genesis of all these agitations and insecurity can no doubt be traced to the free reign of Boko Haram which has been  energised by the legalisation of sharia in some parts of the country.

President Obasanjo had dismissed the introduction of Sharia in some states of the north during his tenure. He thought it was a child’s play and indeed he tried to make it look like one.

But the birthing of that legal system in the north has become the nemesis of  Nigeria. it  is believed to be a fallout of the 1989 November conference of Organisation of Islamic Countries in Abuja. One of the highlights was the need for Muslims to fight for the introduction of the Sharia law in Nigeria.

Several other decisions were reportedly reached during the conference which many observers believed are being implemented gradually.

t is therefore no surprise that the attempts to wipe out the terrorists groups  have continued to fail. And no thanks to their backers. There are insinuations  that they are in government and have continued to hold prominent positions in strategic places in the military and other institutions. 

Former President Jonathan gave a hint of this. Prior to the coming of  President Mohammadu Buhari to power some mercenaries  were also allegedly brought into Nigeria with the intent to help facilitate his win.

Those mercenaries were allegedly the Fulani herdsmen who stayed back after the election in the country.. They are believed to be the ones that accentuated the killings during Buhari’s tenure as president.

Sultan of Sokoto and imama

If that is far fetched  what about the quotes credited to the  Sultan of Sokoto, the spiritual leader of Muslims in Nigeria

He told a meeting of religious leaders in 2011 that “We cannot solve violence with violence” while condemning the crackdown on Boko Haram by the military during the tenure of President  Goodluck Jonathan.

Pray, how best should a terror group be treated? Given a banquet and entertained for killing innocent lives? Is that why repentant Boko Haram members  have been serenaded with aso ebi and given a palatial treatment while their victims mourn. Some have even been allegedly absorbed into the military. This clearly shows that the activities of Boko Haram are in sync with some interests in the country..

Mass graves

In the early years of the killings I had the privilege of being among a team of World Council of Churches who came visiting Nigeria from the  US.

For the first time in my life I found myself in Dogonahawa in Jos Plateau State at the site of the mass grave of about 500 people.

The grave had not  been  covered as at the time we visited. It was a horror. The image has since been etched in my memory since then. I am talking about over 15 years ago. From then till now nothing has changed.

It was during that trip that I had a full picture of the systemic ethnic and religious  cleansing going on in the north of Nigeria. The war theatre has always been the middle belt.
We visited many parts of that region during that trip and spoke with village heads who gave a rundown of what they have been experiencing.

The trend is that these people are wiped out of their ancestral homes and their traducers take over their land. It’s easy for them to do this because most communities in the north are isolated and far apart.

For instance you have to drive about two kilometers to get to Dogonaha from civilisation. It’s only a vehicle with the Hilux stamina that can successfully navigate the path to the community. There was no clear road to the place.

So it’s easy for insurgents to wipe out communities and leave the scene without being apprehended. This is perhaps one of the reasons it is easy for these terrorists to get away with their crimes.

Only Christians being killed?

Those who say only Christians are being killed are right. And they are wrong.  The islamist agenda is sacred and the prosecutors are pursuing it with an utopian zeal.
Liberal  Muslims are not spared. We know the division in islam. We know Shia Islam and Sunnies don’t share the same theological beliefs. So it would be naive to say Muslims are not also being slaughtered in this game.

The issue is however beyond who is being killed. It is about those who are sponsoring the killings and their queer agenda. The sultan and a number of imams show clearly by their utterances that they are in support of the killings of innocent Christians.

The media space is replete with incendiary comments by Islamic clerics every time a Christian is being killed by overzealous Islamist. it’s sickening that anybody will  justify the murder of people because they don’t align with their faith.

But then we should not lose sight of the fact that the  vast majority of Muslims are wonderful people especially the liberal ones. They are tolerant and accommodating. President Tinubu seem to fall into that category.. But he is being held captive by his ambition.

If he is not, he would have dealt headlong with the insurgents. I can’t trust that any other politician will not fall into the trap that President Tinubu has found himself. Politicians are looking for votes so they will always want to play a safe game

But we are talking about lives and we can  no longer pretend that all is well when all is not well. People are being killed in their hundreds. Whole families are being wiped out. How does it feel to lose a whole family to these criminal elements?

The real pain is perhaps not even the killings. It is the fact that the government is handling it with kid’s gloves. There are people who should be behind bars now, paying the supreme price for being accomplice in this horrendous killings. But they are being awarded with a place in government.

Incendiary comments

The Chief Imam of the Abuja National Mosque, Prof. Ibrahim Maqari, who justified the dastardly murder of  Deborah Samuel a Christian female student of the Shehu Shagari College of Education in Wamakko, Sokoto State a few years ago is still walking freely.

In  justifying the murder on his X page Prof Maqari warned about the grievous consequences that await those who cross the redline. What redline was he talking about; that people should say no evil about their prophet? Does that sound like an intelligent utterance?

He said: “It should be known to everyone that we, the Muslims have some red lines beyond which MUST NOT be crossed. The dignity of the Prophet (PBUH) is at the forefront of the red lines. If our grievances are not properly addressed, then we should not be criticized for addressing them ourselves,”

Like Prof Maqari, a news medium quoted a government official of  Sokoto State, Anas Mohammad Sani, who also justified the murder, saying Muslims don’t tolerate insults against their beloved prophet.  

He said: “Muslims don’t take insults against beloved prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم in whatever form,” he warned.
According to him, the Shehu Shagari College of Education student was brutally murdered because of her reckless comments regarding the Islamic faith.

Sani said, “The earlier our Christian brothers and sisters understand this, the better for all of us. May the recklessness of our tongues never drive us to (an) early grave.”
Miss Samuel, a 200 level Home-Economics student accused of blasphemy, had complained bitterly over the influx of religious broadcast messages shared to her department’s WhatsApp page.

Her Muslim colleagues considered the tone used in the complaint to be blasphemous, for which she was stoned to death with her lifeless body set ablaze.

This is just one of the many cases of atrocities committed against Christians. The list of isolated killings for alleged religious infractions and blasphemy is endless. Apart from this, there are mass graves all over the north especially the middle belt. This year alone there have been several killings in both Plateau and Benue States.

Trump’s threat

We cannot run away from this reality. President Donald Trump’s designation of Nigeria as a country of particular concern came just when Nigerians are getting overwhelmed with the killing of innocent lives and the apparent lacklustre posture of government.

Now that Trump has ordered the Defense Department of the US to prepare for possible military action in Nigeria as he continues to accuse the nation of not doing enough to stem violence against Christians, it is only hoped that President Tinubu will take the bull by the horn and deal decisively with the insurgents.

The first place to start is to trace elements in government and public space that are sympathetic to Boko Haram and other terrorist organisations and deal with them.

Trump wrote in a social media post that the United States would “immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria” and warned the Nigerian government to “move fast.”

Referring to Nigeria, he said the US “may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities.”

Trump said further,  “I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and swift, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians! WARNING: THE Nigerian GOVERNMENT BETTER MOVE FAST!”

The  US Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth posted on his social media with a screenshot of Trump’s comments saying “Yes sir,”

“The killing of innocent Christians in Nigeria — and anywhere — must end immediately. The Department of War is preparing for action. Either the Nigerian Government protects Christians, or we will kill the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities.”

The onus is now on the government to act now. We need not have waited in the first place for the US to wake us up from our lethargy..

By Gbenga Osinaike

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