In the last few years till now, Northern Nigeria has witnessed
bloodsheds like never before. Much more than that of civil war and the
usual argument by the Northern elites is that North has always been
peaceful before the emergence of President Goodluck Jonathan.
History has proven this claim to be wrong. The North has always been
known for bloodsheds. Killings began in the North during 1966 riot that
started in May and lasted till October where thousands of people mainly
Igbos were killed. Some were buried alive, others were crucified and
killed gradually by having their eyes plucked out, their ears chopped
off, their tongues cut and their manhood hacked off. The luckier ones
just had their heads severed from their body. Women were raped and
thereafter broken bottles forced into their womanhood and President
Jonathan whom the North loves to blame for their crisis was probably
still in secondary school at the time.
If today, powerful people in the North, for reasons best known to them
chose to make Nigeria ungovernable for Jonathan, who bears the brunt of their Boko Haram activities? A
visit to Borno, Yobe, Kano, Kaduna, Bauchi, Barkin Ladi (Jos) and parts
of Adamawa provides one with views similar to that of the remnant of
nuclear war scene. The other time, despite assisting Kano to repair some
affected areas with some undisclosed billions of Naira, Sanusi Lamido
still lamented that #50b cannot restore the damages Boko Haram activities
caused the State and that was just Kano alone.
Anyone who visits some of these affected areas would not need a
soothsayer to tell him or her that North is dying and gradually may
become history. Killed by the Northerners themselves and not Jonathan or
PDP. Why? Because a Northerner started Boko Haram and most prominent
people that have been arrested so far in connection with these killings
are core Hausas. Kabiru Sokoto, Nuhu Mohammed even a serving Senator
Alli Ndume linked to this dreaded sect are all from the North. It's
possible original Boko Haram may have been hijacked by foreign forces
but why start a war when you cannot predict the end in your own soil?
Things are getting worst everyday over there; over 200 kidnapped
school girls are still in the custody of the dreaded Boko Haram,
businesses are closing down, textile companies are dead, factories
closed; students can't go to school for fear Boko Haram, still, everyday
people get killed. If head counts is taken today in all the affected
states in the North, I am sure more than 10million would have gone yet
the killings hasn't stopped. Indeed the North has murdered its own
sleep.
This is the same North that can boast of extremely powerful and rich
individuals many of whom are ex-rulers and are still relevant in
governance today. None of these individuals in the area has moved into
the trench to assist in efforts to stop Boko Haram. These are people who
made their names, fortunes and positions due to their geographic area
of origin. Atiku for instance, owns one of the best private universities
in Nigeria with several other giant investments all over Nigeria; Aliko
Dangote, the richest black person in Africa is from same region. What
about the powerful and super rich retired military generals, T.Y
Danjuma, Ibrahim Babangida and Muhammadu Buhari?
These are persons with quality pedigree and enough clout to rouse the
North into action against Boko Haram. Babangida once threatened to fight
whoever preaches disintegration in Nigeria but his region is being
troubled today and the old general doesn't seem to be moved.
If elders in the Niger Delta made the militants to dropped their guns,
these individuals and the so called Northern elders and Arewa should be
proffering solution to the incessant killing of innocent Nigerian by
Boko Haram instead of concentrating of anything of lesser values while
innocent folks get killed everyday.
Few months ago, a report has it that in one of the communities in
Borno State, there has been several cases of some families losing almost
all their family members to these killings. If things continue
unchecked, many families in the North will be wiped out almost
completely!
This is therefore a wake up call to the Northern elites to swing into
action before the North gets wiped out. If the sincere intervention of
the likes of Atiku and Buhari could stop this large scale killings, they
would have saved thousands of lives, which is far better than the badly
dreamed-of Presidency.
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