Hardly is there anyone not concerned by the orgy mindless killings going on in Southern Kaduna in which dozens have in the past couple of months been dispatched to early grave. Predominantly Christians, the rivers of blood flowing in the zone has expectedly stoked up the embers of religious tension with the umbrella body of Christians in the country CAN and Muslim groups trading blames on who is responsible for the lingering bloodshed. Bottled in the belly of avalanche of lacunae, the 1999 Constitution has domiciled on the hands of state governors the responsibility to ensure the adequate security and welfare of their citizens and resident. This accounts to why they are otherwise referred as the chief executives and chief security officers. As the head of government, the governor wields enormous influence and the buck stops on his table.
Interestingly, daunting security issues have nearly become a global concern, with no country thumbing its chest to enjoy immunity from the scourge. From terrorism to banditry, unprovoked shooting, civil conflict, organised crime, small arms, border dispute, drug trafficking etc, the world is firmly held under the grip of protracted security questions of which Nigeria has harvested its fair share. Intuitively, what appears to be more baffling among patriots is the lethargically cold response of government of the day to the myriads of security challenges. There seems to be a systemic acceptance of needless shielding of citizens’ blood as a norm, leaving them in a state of helplessness and vulnerability even as the government looks the other way while marauding elements fell our people for fun. For those who want to be politically correct, we must also not be oblivious of the fact that if we continue maintaining a sealed lips in the face of impunity and lawlessness, the rat that ate our neighbour’s Christmas fish may find its way to our kitchen before the new year day.
Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna state is one man who enjoys feasting on the pillage of controversy. He came to power amidst high expectations in 2015 when the then opposition party, APC was on aggressive sweep of the states and the centre from the PDP with their imaginary change agenda. Whether these expectations that sprang from inclusiveness, education, infrastructure, poverty alleviation and security fret have been addressed five years later will be a discussion for another day. The governor has never disappointed in using any opportunity he lays his hands on to create the impression that he presides over two of the three geopolitical zones in the state, with Kaduna South being treated as an orphan. As someone who has for nearly two decade hobnobbed around decision-making table at various levels, including as FCT Minister, the governor ought not to operate in such a way that leaves one with no option but imagine that the former Director General of Bureau of Public Enterprises has lost touch with the sensitive and precarious nature of our country’s diverse religion, culture and ethnicity.
The governor took his campaign of alienation to a new height when in 2019 he nominated a fellow Muslim, Hadiza Sabuwa Balarabe, as running mate for the governorship election, in replacement for Barnabas Bala, a Christian and indigene of Southern Kaduna who ran his first term with him. In the spirit of fairness and justice, could the governor not have found one person worthy in the entire eight local government areas of Kaduna South as deputy for another four years in office? The governor’s action is a sad reminder of the age long provocative maginalisation of the so called minority groups in the Nigerian project. The governor’s action smacks of open insensitivity and a pre-arranged agenda to run a government of disintegration, designed to stamp a palpable suspicion and antagonism in the mind of the people. Governor El-Rufai’s response to the renewed Southern Kaduna killings did not come as a surprise to many of us when he summarily dismissed it as a guise to get ‘peace money’ from his government during a recent television interview. In the governor’s view, these killings are instigated by Southern Kaduna against Southern Kaduna to extort money from him and receive foreign donations.
Inadvertently, what the governor is telling the world that anywhere killings take place in his state, the victim is looking for money. Of what need is currency to a lifeless corpse? Is the governor also saying that the 1992 Zango Kataf mass killing was engineered by jobless people looking for ‘envelop’ from his administration? How long will the citizens pay over the failure of their government? How long will they remain a pawn in the chessboard of power brokers? Admissibly, in an environment where the people have resolved to live in animosity and rancour, peace will only be a mirage irrespective of the number of security agencies deployed. However, raising a toast for the oppressor and vilifying the victim is ungodly, unpatriotic and satanic. Are the killings not enough for the governor to pay a visit and personally take on-the-spot report, the same way he went about begging cap in hand for votes just few months ago?
We should begin to place premium of the lives of our people irrespective of religion or tribe. Even though the governor’s presence may not raise the dead, it may just be the magic wand that will calm the already frayed nerves and prevent a possible reprisal attack. Who would have forgotten how brother El-Rufai serially called out former President Goodluck Jonathan over perceived failure to deal insecurity a bloody nose while in office? El-Rufai must begin to put on the toga of a chief security officer and not as an opposition he used to be. He must take a cue from his Kogi counterpart, Alhaji Yahaya Bello who has demonstrated that he came to office prepared. Kogi today is about the most peaceful state in the country on the account of the spirit of inclusion, equity and justice the governor has fostered in running the affairs of the state. Added to this is the community policing approach he has deployed to put straying hoodlums in the state permanently on their heels, making Kogites to sleep with their eyes closed. Posterity will judge El-Rufai only by how he affects his people’s lives and not by the number of excuses he reels out for his failure.
Enemanna is an Abuja-based journalist.
