Loud from Katsina

I have been reading and comprehending newspapers now for over 43 years and not once have I have seen an Obituary placed by a Fulani person. It is a little point that says a lot about what troubles Nigeria.

When all the Balarabe Musas, Junaid Mohammeds and their likes rolled out recently on why the West must not be allowed to protect itself through Amotekun, you were tempted to check if any of them ever commiserated with the victims of killings by “their boys” all over the South and Middle Belt and it would occur to you that it was easier for marble statue to shed tears than getting our compatriots to show little human compassion…

When 71 people were killed in Benue state on January 1, 2018, and Governor Samuel Ortom was invited to Abuja to receive a lecture on how to live in pace with killer-neighbours,the uninitiated could not relate with what was going on.

It was in the way that those of us who could not come to terms with such civilization did not understand a former Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Ibrahim Coomasie, the day he took the floor of the National Conference in 2014 to defend jailbreak by Boho Haram members at a DSS facility near the villa.

The man whose duty was to clamp pro-democracy activists in gaol with Decree 2 in the dark days of Abacha with no incident of jailbreak but challenges in court was not ashamed to say in an assembly of distinguished Nigerians “We just read about those Boko Haram boys breaking DSS jail, why would they not do so when they are being detained without trial?”

For all those who are ignorant of the mental frames that make up the non-country, a loud message that should open their understanding came from Katsina last week when the ones we have just given this nice-sounding name (bandits) killed 30 people one day.
The mass killings in the home state of Mr President was expected to get some tough words and a promise to flush out the killers and reassure the victims of government protection against criminals. Not in Nigeria!

The President instead came out to say, bandits had been subjected to jungle justice by the affected communities, causing the miscreants to return to the communities to wreak havoc.
Buhari, however, condemned the attacks, insisting that no one had the right to take the law into their own hands without telling the country what the government would do to the”bandits” who took the law hands against farmers.

In a statement titled, ‘Revenge killings in Katsina State unacceptable’ which was signed by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, the President said the authorities must be allowed to do their work, the way they have been doing it in the last five years that has seen not one killer-herdsmen in court after thousands of deaths.

The statement read in part, “President Muhammadu Buhari has condemned the latest round of attacks on farmers by bandits in Damkal and Tsanwa villages in Batsari local government area of Katsina state, saying that killing people in the name of revenge is not acceptable. Bandits read herdsmen these days!

“Reacting to the incident in which many homesteads were razed by the fire with many people killed at weekend, the President on Sunday warned that no one in the country has a right to take the law into his hands by the way of self-help or revenge.

“Local communities that catch bandits should hand over the suspects to law enforcement authorities instead of meting out capital punishment, leading to a cycle of revenge and counter revenge.

“The authorities must be allowed to investigate and deal with any breach that occurs. There is no place for violence in a decent society,” said the President.”Only “bandits” violence is tolerated in this descent society?

The governor of Katsina State, Alhaji Aminu Masari gave more direct insight to somehow make a succinct case for the bandits. He said the security report at his disposal indicated that the killing of two Fulani herdsmen in the settlements stirred the reprisals that eventually claimed 30 lives besides the looting of personal effects and injuries to others by the attackers. Masari who condemned the onslaught that he described as the greatest in the last seven months, made the clarification in Malumfashi council area during the disbursement of empowerment packages by the senator representing Katsina South in the Senate, Bello Mandiya. , cautioned the locals against attacking nomads to forestall a repeat of the ugly incident at Batsari. What is the “is equal to” of all the above as Baba Gebu would ask?:

1 The ones Masari called Fulani herdsmen and the President describes as “bandits” are above the law as revenge is of Fulani. Recall the 2013 el-Rufai tweet of the life of a Fulani taken being a loan repayable no matter how long it takes?. That every case should close with Fulani revenge as it is their right and the cycle will continue if you don’t let them have the last take.

2 The Fulani are a superior race in Nigeria.

It is that mindset that is opening Nigerian borders to Africans (bandits?) for visa-on-arrival policy in the midst of an insurgency. A suggestion that pursuing a clannish agenda is more of priority at this stage than securing the country.

That was from where the bill for the establishment of a national agency for repentant Boko Haram terrorists that just passed first reading at the Senate incubated.

A bill to establish a national agency for education, rehabilitation, de-radicalization and integration of repentant insurgents in Nigeria was sponsored by Senator Ibrahim Gaidam on Thursday, February 20, 2020.

Introduction of the bill by the Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi, attracted reactions from the lawmakers during plenary.

The bill, however, scaled first reading after it was put to a voice vote by the Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, who presided over plenary.
The federal government commenced an amnesty programme for repentant Boko Haram terrorists who are still troubling Nigeria in 2018.

Despite criticisms, about 1,400 suspected Boko Haram terrorists were recently released by the federal government in a recycling process that makes a joke of the whole war against insurgency.

Only the totally dumb with not getting what is going on in Nigeria at this stage: there is an agenda.

But the dumbest are those who think this is all they need to precipitate chaos within

Nigeria and take all the space they need.
The most stupid idea conceived in modern history like thinker Odia Ofeimun said to me on Friday is to think that bringing in guns and drones is all you need to drive people away from lands thru have owned for centuries. You can win round one for the element of surprise as you are doing because the other side thought it’s all disputes among compatriots. You won’t win round 2.

Madam Mimiko’s farewell takeaway

Friends and well-wishers swarmed the Minikos in Ondo town on Friday to join them in saying eternal farewell to their matriarch, Madam Munirat Deborah who passed on at the age of 88.

Ondo State Governor, “Rev” (Arakunrin) Rotimi Akeredolu during the Church Service kept jocularly referring to his predecessor, Dr Segun Mimiko as “Abdurahman”, to play on the contention of faiths within the Mimiko family.

It is one family with a Muslim background that has turned mostly Christian. Even the matriarch accepted Christ in her lifetime but was buried as Munirat -Deborah.
I guess the combination was because of Brother Abass Mimiko who still remains a strong Muslim faithful. You are bound to think he is a brother to Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola than Dr Segun Mimiko ar first.

I learnt that while his siblings took their mama to church for a final farewell, he organized his own Islamic prayers to bid her bye. But that was where the difference ended. They didn’t have yo share their mum”s remains in different caskets. They all threw her into the same grave, wore the same attires and had one party.

That was Yoruba in action, the Ebi culture is stinger than religion. The Mimiko’s are one family in spite of the interplay of faiths. Dr Segun Minimko and his brother -Professor are strong Redeemers still known as Rahman and Nassim.

The Mimikos did not have to war over Munirat and Deborah as their mum all on her own is going to meet her maker.

Anyone who thinks he can use religion to put a wedge among the Yoruba is a fool, compound fool!!

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