The serial sectarian violence which broke out in Bauchi on Sunday and which has spread to Borno, Kano and Yobe leaving scores of people dead and unquantifiable property destroyed is yet another confirmation that the rating of Nigeria on the failed states index is not an exaggeration.
Two Islamic groups called “Boko Haram” (Education is prohibited) and the “Taliban” have unleashed orgies of violence in these four States leaving in their trails sorrow, tears and blood.
The series of violence in which the Acting Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ogbona Onovo officially admitted the death of “5 policemen and 60 Islamic fighters”, with over 100 AK 47 recovered from the fundamentalists, has again exposed the porousness of Nigeria’s intelligence network, the failure of governance and the escalation of the unresolved nationality question in Nigeria.
It is sad that while our largely incompetent President is flexing muscles with Lagos State over the Local Council Development Areas which pose no danger to the country, it has taken days of scandalous destruction of lives and property by these zealots before Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua could get out of his slumber to send troops to the affected areas.
Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) also cannot fathom that a President who deployed the Joint Task Force (JTF) to sack Gbaramatu kingdom where pregnant women and children were slaughtered in lieu of freedom fighters in the creeks now appear helpless in the face of wanton killings by “Boko Haram” and the “Talibans”.
It must be understood clearly that Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) has no beef with any section of the country opting for any civilization that suits them.
This is why we have been at the forefront of the campaign for the restructuring of Nigeria along Federal lines in a conference of all ethnic nationalities of Nigeria.
Every section of the country should be able to self-determine in line with the preference of their people. If any section of the country choses nudity as its dress code in 2009 the rest of the country should accept their choice for as long as they are not forcing others to follows suit.
What we object to is a group of people using weapons of death to canvass their civilization and melting such barbarism on people who are not responsible for them not having their ways.
The challenge today for the hegemonists running Nigeria is to know that they can no longer run from renegotiating Nigeria. We must sit down and talk now.
We call on “Boko Haram” and the “Talibans” to lay down their arms and join us to press for a conference of all ethnic nationalities to determine the future of Nigeria. We assure them of our support for their position at such a conference once they are able to show that their people don’t want western education.
But in the meantime, the congenital incompetence running Nigeria has to stop these wanton killings before people start to conclude that there is a premeditated agenda to truncate the present civil rule to pave way for an order that is not constitutional, thinking wrongly such may contain the present crisis.
‘Yinka Odumakin
National Publicity Secretary
Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG)
