I must state that the university teacher and frequent commentor on national issues, Dr Ik Muo has again got me going on this topic. We thank God that Chief Olu Falae is still alive. He cannot but be committed to the final resolution of this man made problem.
If this menace was checkmated in far away Agatuland, Sen David Mark's strange silence notwithstanding, we would not have had to address the massacre at Nimbo and other places further down south.
Now can anyone explain to me what business the Inspector General of Police has with the committee just mentioned? Police in any guise does not make policy. They endeavour to implement policies made by civil society. That is when they do not take sides and join the fray as is usual in this polity. It is up to us to take our powers back. That includes firing the top cop who begins to imagine that he is bigger than we his employers. We have our work set out for us. The abiding chase for daily bread does not exonerate us from delivering on our responsibilities. Take away IPOB and many of our countrymen cannot imagine any other serious matter worth agitating for or against. However when they get home, their wives and children will not hear "one" for them as they rave and rant in front of the television. Everyman is a lion in his home!
It must be obvious that announcing the formation of the so-called committee was meant to be a master stroke of PR. Convince the populace that a president who has been hard of hearing has finally deigned to look in their direction. That should calm them down for a while. Committee on "Fulani" herdsmen? Which committee? . That's it folks!
There are enough laws in our books to take care of all classifications of violent criminal activity. Even the extant provisions concerning self-defence is being deliberately undermined by a combination of all the state apparatus of coersion. Victims are prevented by the authorities from defending themselves. It is a fact of life that fear of one's potential victim often provides a vital input in the balance of terror. . Si vis pacem, bellum pera!
Why should anyone bother to go to Yazidi-land, Rwanda or South Sudan, for illustrations of genocide? Nigerians are living that reality right now. That being the case, what will a committee set up by a complicit party, consisting of the Federal Government, the Nigerian Army, Police and DSS, do? Meanwhile the Legislature slumbers on. Lord have mercy.
I dare say that the activities of the "Fulani" herdsmen can be brought to a brutal halt in a forthnight if and when the government decides to do the right thing.
One other possibility is when the masses take up arms against both the herdsmen AND the government. I cannot imagine anyone who would want this horrible outcome. Instead of negotiating our way out of the current morass, the country will then go to pieces. The damage will not be collateral but direct. Do we want to prevent that?
Our future is entirely up to us.
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