Omusu killings: Rage against the dying, by Jerry Agada

 

Rage Against the Dying’ is taken from Dylan Thomas’s poem – ‘Do not go gentle into the goodnight!

A week after I had read the poem, I was invited to a book presentation by an author and class mate, Elizabeth Sigmund. The title of her book was ‘Rage Against the Dying’. In my quest to know why the choice of that title I browsed through and noted that it was not just a bellicose rage against death or the dying but an avowed campaign against chemical and biological warfare because of its destructive nature. In her opening remarks the author took a swipe at scientists who invented chemicals and biological warfare. She said that some of their activities included producing nerve gas, a human insecticide, growing plague bacillus to create epidemics.
She also cited riot control substances such as Cs gas and psychemicals which, according to her, could cause instant death. She spoke of the volume of sufferings victims endure and emphasized her determination to mount a national campaign against chemical and biological warfare because it was dangerous to human lives. I could feel the rage boil in her as she spoke with her hairs raised like hackles. Suddenly overwhelmed by similar instinct I could sense a palpable rage surge through me. I felt like walking up to the podium if only to envenom her outrage all the more. I shouted and demonstrated my support for the cause for which she was fighting.
Bitterly sensitized in me was a rage not just against death through chemical and biological warfare but also at anything that constitutes danger to human lives. The common ground for this position of ours is that it is extremely outrageous to watch helplessly as a loved one trudges to death. Outrageous because sooner or later the loved one would be gone, leaving behind a miasma of grief and pain. This event took place several years ago. Even though many loved ones had passed to the great beyond since then, I cannot recollect a rage so fierce like this against the gruesome massacre of 26 men, women and children by the militia herdsmen in Okpokwu Local Government Area of Benue state. The rage is not just against the dying but the motive behind it all. What do the herders want to achieve? Is it a quest for conquest to take over the land? Is it still about grazing, anti open grazing law, cattle rustling, ranching, colony and all that?
Here is a group of poor settlers in a sleepy farming village of Omusu, waiting on the scanty news that Mr. President would be visiting their state. In their innocence they had thought that even though Mr. President would not come down to their village, his visit to the state would bring them succour out of the prevailing distress in the land. But that was not to be as the marauders had visited just after mid day wielding weapons of mass destruction and massacring men young and old; women (some pregnant); and children sliced into pieces and setting their houses ablaze, leaving in their trail a destruction never known in history. Even though Governor Ortom visited to commiserate with the people and assess extent of damage, what he saw was beyond mere calling for the arrest of the culprits or asking for a better performance more than the combined efforts of Operation ‘Cat Race’ and other security forces including the Nigeria Police which operates using utterances by the IGP as their operational base.
As the state government buries the victims, it is a rage against the dying of these innocent souls who are definitely not resting in peace but awaiting divine revenge. It is a rage against the dying spirit of patriotism and nationhood. It is a rage against the dying conscience of whoever is playing politics or sycophancy to enslave and suffer the souls of innocent citizens. As Mr. President visits Benue in continuation of his tour of troubled spots in states ravaged by herdsmen/farmers clashes and insurgency, the rage is not against a visit which citizens had long yearned for and had even forgotten. It is a rage against the dying today of the hapless victims of Omusu.
Unlike Elizabeth Sigmund whose rage galvanized into a national campaign against chemical and biological warfare, here is a campaign against the killings by killer herdsmen to enable peace prevail in the land. It is hoped that Mr. President’s visit will bring to an end the orgy of killings not just in Benue but also in all the states suffering from ‘rancolonitis’.

Professor Agada is Nigeria’s former Minister of State, Education.

 

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