FEATURE ARTICLE

Temple Chima UbochiSaturday, March 10, 2018
[email protected]
Bonn, Germany

ANALOG NIGERIA IN A DIGITAL AGE (4)

Continued from Part 3

Because of indifference, one dies before one actually dies (Elie Wiesel)

To ignore evil is to become an accomplice to it (Martin Luther King Jr.)

No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices (Edward R. Murrow)

President Muhammadu Buhari has not done enough to stop the killings perpetrated by herdsmen in the state (Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom)

Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph (Haile Selassie)

s this serial continues, I will be accommodating the latest news, within it, in order not to miss any major headline.

Before proceeding, I want Nigerians to reflect on this:

Only an analog country like Nigeria will continue to borrow money that will be embezzled!

I have noted, previously, that the APC has stolen, in three years, what the PDP didn't steal in 16 years. This, below, reinforces my opinion.

From the records: For the 16 years PDP was in power, Nigeria borrowed N6 trillion, but APC has been in power for only 3 years, and Nigeria has already borrowed N11 trillion. Where do we go from here? Let's see who will come to tell us again that Buhari is fighting corruption. See how they're mortgaging our future, that of our children and the generations unborn. At the rate they're going, if Buhari gets another 4 years (may it never happen), they will "sell" Nigeria.

Buhari's visit to five troubled states

Only in an analog country like Nigeria will a president say or do nothing when his citizens are been mowed down by Fulani militants!

For more than two years, Buhari has failed to act against the hoodlums, called Fulani herdsmen, on a killing spree all over Nigeria; he never condemned the killings, his government has not brought any of the culprits to book; he never visited any of those communities that were attacked to commiserate with them. 2018 is here, the election is coming, and Rex Tillerson, the United States Secretary of State, was visiting Abuja, on his first official trip to Africa, and then, suddenly, Buhari remembers that he's the president, and must do something about the killings. Buhari will say or do anything to hang on to power he's fast losing. As I wrote in one of my recent articles, Buhari is doing nothing for Nigerians except planning on how to remain in power in 2019. For him, that's the only thing that matters, as everything else has been relegated to the back burner.

Buhari has now ordered the army to act, and the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Tukur Buratai, has deployed troops to Benue, Taraba, Nasarawa, Kogi, Niger and Kaduna states to contend insecurity there. Unfortunately, the Nigerian Army's Exercise Cat Race, aimed at curbing the activities of violent herdsmen, cattle rustlers, armed bandits, kidnappers and armed militias in those states has not helped much, as the killing spree still goes on. While farmers and other Nigerians were killed by the herdsmen, for almost two years, Buhari pretended he saw nothing, heard nothing and did nothing, but was jolted into action because some of his Fulani herdsmen are becoming victims, as some Nigerians have decided to retaliate. He was even preaching that nobody should retaliate against the herdsmen.

Only in an analog country like Nigeria can a president prefer to attend a wedding ceremony instead of going to empathize with the bereft (forlorn of comfort). His inability to empathize with people has demonized and made him look weak.

Because the American Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, was coming, coupled with national and international criticisms of his inaction, Buhari decided to visit Taraba, Benue, Zamfara, Yobe and Rivers States. While Nigerians were burying those his guerillas, marauding as herdsmen, killed, Buhari didn't respond, but what he did was to travel to Kano for the wedding ceremony, on Saturday, March 3, between the Kano State Governor's daughter and Oyo State Governor's son. There's something wrong with Nigerian politicians. Nigerians are outraged, and according to The Guardian, many, including Governor Fayose, have dismissed the planned visits of President Buhari to those states as a cosmetic afterthought. Nigerians have already formed their opinion of him, and rightly so, as a President that has never shown them concern in their time of need. The Paper wrote further that while the entire nation, especially parents of the 110 abducted school girls in Dapchi, Yobe State, were still in anguish, Buhari went to Kano, last Saturday, to attend a social function, thus sparking negative reactions from Nigerians.

Governor Fayose wondered why the President "refused" to visit the people immediately after the killings and abduction. He likened the President to a selfish king who went on making merry while his people were in agony only to show up when the people had already buried their loved ones that were gruesomely murdered, got over their anguish and moved on with their lives. The Governor then accused Buhari of showing a lack of compassion for Nigerians, noting that obviously the president is more concerned about his re-election in 2019 and his visit to those states he abandoned during their times of trouble is to seek votes, not to sympathize with the people on their loses. Hear him:

The visits are insincere, belated, and a ploy to boost the president's chances of re-election ahead of next year's polls. I hope that the people of Taraba would not be "hoodwinked" by the "cosmetic sympathy, show of concern and crocodile tears he never bothered to shed when hundreds of indigenes of the state were being killed by suspected herdsmen. Nigerians can no longer be deceived by a president who never cared for them when they needed him most. Therefore, no amount of hurriedly organized campaign visits will sway the people.

According to Pastor Tunde Bakare of the Latter Rain Assembly, the wedding, which took place two days after Boko Haram killed UN aid workers in Rann, Borno State, portrays the insensitivity of Nigerian leaders. He wondered why the two governors would stun the public with the pomp of their children's wedding when the nation was still reeling from the horror of dozens of schoolgirls abducted in Yobe State. In his sermon, during a Church Service, Bakare said: "We have reached a stage where our president has become a king and a monarch. His son who rode a pleasure bike that almost claimed his life would be returning from an overseas trip where he had received special health care that Nigerians cannot afford, and it took a whole minister of state to go and welcome him because he (minister) has no job"

Adeyanju Deji tweeted: "So, President Buhari is going to Kano today for the wedding of the daughters of Ganduje/Ajimobi but couldn't visit Dapchi or Benue, Adamawa or Taraba? Kai! Given the way Buhari was screaming when Chibok happened and was insulting GEJ, you would think he would be in the bush now in Lake Chad".

I have noted, from the beginning, that Buhari is one of the patrons of Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen. Buhari knows about the Fulani herdsmen attacks, and that's the reason he never condemned them or visited the affected communities until now. Whatever Buhari wants to do now, after dragging his foot for more than two years, will be deceitful, too little and too late, as the killing Fulani herdsmen have been entrenched, emboldened and will be hard to root out. Now, the Global Terrorism Index says that Nigerian Fulani militants are the fourth deadliest terror group in the world. Only Boko Haram, Isis, and al-Shabab were deemed deadlier than the militant group.

I once wrote that "The president now urges all Nigerians to remain calm and assured of his administration's readiness to deploy all required personnel and resources to remove this new threat to the collective security of the nation, after much damages have already been done without any condemnation or actions from him to nip the attacks in the bud. Nigerians want to know why the president didn't deem it necessary to visit those communities where those attacks were carried out until now. This is a president who loves traveling all over the world, but, found it difficult to travel to the affected communities in order to commiserate with them. This negligence on the part of the president says a lot more to justify his complicity in these issues.

Buhari exposed himself, and his complicity, when, on Monday, March 5, while in Jalingo, Taraba State, he said that the number of persons killed in herdsmen and farmers clashes and other violent attacks in Taraba State, is more than those killed in Zamfara and Benue states combined. Unbelievable! Buhari meant, by this careless statement, that he can't understand why people are making noise about Benue and Zamfara states killings when more people were killed in Taraba State, and still, Taraba State is not fussing over it. How can he say should a thing? For any president with "a brain", even one death is too many and should be condemned. For Buhari, more than 70 deaths are nothing to complain about. This was how Bolarun put it: "He is trying to say "you Benue folks have no reason to complain. See how many were killed in Taraba, so your own is just a piece of cake". You installed Buhari, enjoy him!"

Only in an analog country like Nigeria will militias have direct access to the seat of government!

Buhari has insisted that the death figures being reported by the press were not accurate as "he has a way of gathering his own information on all the crises and killings in the country." Did this sink in? Buhari means that he does not depend on the press or his security forces for the information, but gets it direct from the perpetrators because he knows about the killings, beforehand, and the killers report to him thereafter when the missions have been accomplished. Nigerians, what else do you want to hear; this has confirmed what I have been writing about, all the while, that Buhari is one of the patrons of Boko Haram and the herdsmen, and he knows and has all the information about the kidnappings and killings perpetrated by these two murderous sects.

Reginald Dandeson wrote (Courtesy of PT)

"This is the age of Truth. All truths shall be revealed and are being revealed all around the world. In Nigeria, what many thought was a mere rumor about the current state of the nation has now been inadvertently revealed by the president himself. Did you hear him?

We've read some stories of the killer Fulani Herdsmen doing video recordings of their acts of barbarism, arson, and primitive Jihadist operations. I personally read one touching narration of one survivor of the Herdsmen's January 2018 operations in Benue where he stated that he was shocked to see from his hiding place that while some of the attackers carried out the killing and house burning spree, about two others were busy with the responsibility of video-recording the operations. Initially, I questioned the rationale behind the video-recording of their actions until I chanced upon another report much later saying that Aso Rock Presidential Villa has evidence of the activities of the Fulani Herdsmen who often send recordings of their actions to the president in Aso Rock Villa.

And here, today, is the president himself confirming this by saying he "has a way of gathering his own information on all the crises and killings in the country." O' My God!!! Buhari knows everything about the killings in the country, and has refused to issue national addresses concerning each killing nor swung into immediate action except for cases where the Fulani are the victims of the killing by aggrieved communities".

While in Jalingo, Taraba State, Buhari said what he has never said before, and we know that he didn't mean it, as it was to deceive the gullible. There, in Jalingo, Buhari directed that any Fulani man found in possession of AK-47 rifles should be charged to court. How can that be possible when Buhari is one of their patrons, and the police that is supposed to carry out the arrest is being headed by an Inspector General of police, who is sympathetic to the herdsmen's cause? In fact, Buhari and the Inspector General of Police are the reason the herdsmen are operating with impunity, as the two men have emboldened them. Even, Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State, on Saturday, March 3, accused the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, of being an accomplice to the recent attacks by suspected herdsmen on Benue residents, a day after the police chief reportedly demanded a suspension of anti-open grazing law.

Buhari's order for the arrest of any herdsmen with a gun is a window dressing - he said this publicly but will encourage the herdsmen privately - after-all, who provided them with guns. Even, the herdsmen can beat the order by dropping their guns while using machetes to carry out their killings. Tomorrow, they will arrest two killer herdsmen to deceive the world, and they will be released through the back door. With the flawed judicial system, weak law enforcement, nepotism, and corruption in Nigeria, the herdsmen are unstoppable until their patrons like Buhari order them to.

Rather than disarm the killer herdsmen, the Inspector General of Police is trying to disarm civilians and groups who have resolved to protect themselves from the herdsmen, since the police is looking the other way while innocent people are being killed. What's the meaning of divesting innocent people of their guns and their licenses if not to leave them bare for more herdsmen's attacks on them? Only in an analog country like Nigeria can a government be aiding the killing of its citizens instead of protecting them.

I agree with this statement credited to Governor Ortom of Benue State, because it's the truth, even when they've forced him to debunk it now.

"Boko Haram has been rebranded into herdsmen but Nigerians are unaware. The Fulani Caliphate in collaboration with Chad, Niger, and Mali has orchestrated a deadly plan on Nigerians and their Land. The FG, presidency and the Fulani elders are all part of it, including the Emirs, are all part of it�. Cattle colony is a pretext. Chad, Niger, and Mali are presently on a full-scale invasion of Nigerian territory. Nigerians must rise against it. The government now works with Boko Haram to kill citizens. I am an APC member but I must tell you this government has failed the people."

Read this and you will understand that Buhari and his Inspector General of Police are accomplices:

https://scannewsnigeria.com/news/igp-orders-disarming-of-vigilante-groups-bought-no-me

To be continued!

TIT BITS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbMj-AQ4Qsg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eVxUBz-_KI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-fw2isCppI

THE THANX IS ALL YOURS!!!

Continued from Part 3

IMAGES IN THE NEWS