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Season of violence By THE cycle of religious and ethnic violence in Nigeria has taken on a more dangerous form. In the past the massacre of southerners by northerners, the incineration of churches and other places of worship by unidentified criminals in some northern cities used to be associated with the activities of a few disgruntled religious zealot. That is no longer the case. These zealots are no longer few in number. They have mustered support and their membership seems to be on the rise. Now the radical youths in Kano have shifted their yearly season of madness to a monthly mayhem during which innocent citizens are slaughtered like animals. A few weeks ago, many lives were lost and property damaged in what arguably has been described as the most violent uprising in the history of Jos. In all these galling events, the state governments where the incidents occurred responded in a knee-jerk fashion. It appears that the various centres of violence in the north are competing among themselves to establish a notorious reputation as the killing fields of Nigeria. This is a major challenge to the government of Olusegun Obasanjo.
The federal government's response to religious and ethnic violence in the north has been most disappointing. Sending in troops to restore peace has been the federal government's common approach to serious cases of law and order collapse. No sooner do soldiers restore peace than they are withdrawn. The perpetrators of violence return to finish off their unfinished business. They understand the pattern of government response an they know when to strike and when to disappear. Offenders are neither apprehended by law enforcement authorities nor are the villainous criminals prosecuted in court to serve a warning that those who flagrantly abuse the law in civil society can never get away without being subjected to the due process of the law.
Anyone visiting Nigeria in a time of peace will depart with the impression that there is still something called the rule law in the country. But you only need violence of the kind and proportion we witnessed recently in Jos and Kano or in Kaduna last year to realise that there is a deep undercurrent of tension in the Nigerian society. All is not as calm as it appears on the surface. Nigerians are increasingly becoming intolerant of one another. Certain elements in certain parts of Nigeria are sending a wrong and profoundly deadly message that violence is the best way to express dissent or settle disagreement. Ethnic hatred is rife. Religious intolerance is common. Inter-communal feuds linger for years and decades. The reluctance of the governments in the north and their inability to rein in the criminal activities of residents of their states must be regarded and treated as a serious threat to the unity of Nigeria. Worst still, the unwillingness of the federal authorities and the law enforcement agencies to clamp down on these groups of miscreants can only convey the wrong impression. The message must be sent to all state governors: no ethnic group or members of any religious faith has the right to kill or maim members of other ethnic groups or religious organisations with whom they do not agree. In a true democracy, non-violent forms of dissent constitute one of the features of a healthy society.
The real danger in government's insensitivity to the massacres in the north, in particular the recurring incidence of ethnic and religious violence, is that the southerners are being portrayed as being incapable of retaliation and unable to defend themselves. The danger is that some groups in some parts of Nigeria want to convey the impression that they are superior and people from other parts of Nigeria are either inferior or should accept their ways of doing things. That must never be allowed to happen. Based on past experiences, those who stoke the religious fires that are currently burning in Kano will be the last to fight when people of other ethnic groups and religious faiths take the real battle to them. The people who commit the atrocities in the north under the guise of religious intolerance must realise that there are other northerners residing in various cities and villages in the south. Once the killings are perceived to be ethnic in nature, they are likely to spark off retaliatory strikes against northerners in other parts of Nigeria. When that happens, everyone including the so-called ethnic and religious leaders who are feigning silence at this moment must realise that it is normal to expect equal justice to be served to the kith and kin of northerners living in the south. This might sound like jungle justice and inflammation of an already volatile situation. However, there are times in the history of nations when the Mosaic law of an "eye for an eye" (no matter how conservative it might appear) could be justified regardless of what anyone might say.
Those who like to preach the gospel of peaceful co-existence in Nigeria must start to do so now and quickly too. Tolerance has its limits. Our past history informs us that when a particular ethnic or religious group is being hunted down, slaughtered or persecuted in another part of Nigeria on a regular basis, there is bound to be a response of some kind. Whether that response is retaliatory or not is a moot point. Last year when southerners in Kaduna were killed in large numbers and their houses burnt, a group of youths in some southern cities went on a mission of vengeance and hunted down people of northern origin. It was a gory experience but also one that served and should serve a lesson to everyone, in particular the radicals in the north who seem to believe their lives were more precious than the lives of people in the south. No one, northern or southerner, has the right to terminate the lives of other people based on their religious faith, ethnic origin or other distinguishing personal attributes.
It is as dangerous to keep silent over the continuing violence in the north as it is to not find a lasting solution to the problem. Nigeria is a multicultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious country. People who cannot respect this feature of diversity in the composition of our society should perhaps find another country and migrate to that part of the world. As long as the constitution of Nigeria recognises the religious and ethnic diversity of our people, so long shall Nigerians continue to live and work in any part of the country they like. This is a right guaranteed in the constitution. This fact must be acknowledged. Silence over the most recent riots in Kano can only engender more inter-ethnic an inter-religious hatred. The federal and state governments must be proactive in their efforts to check violence of all forms in Nigeria. The current and violent response mechanism is not working. Apart from the economic performance of the country, the Obasanjo administration and other state governments will be judged by the way they protect the rights of Nigerians to live in any part of the country, as well as the extent to which they protect the lives and property of other all Nigerians irrespective of where they reside in the country. What is going on in some part of northern Nigeria is nothing but armed banditry under a different name. The government must halt the orgy of violence before the Bakassi Boys and the Odua People's Congress pick up their guns and amulets and embark on a dangerous vengeance mission. There is still time to put an end to this nonsense. October 2001
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