Before ECOWAS’ bloody sacrifice in Niger

THE war in Sierra Leone shattered humanity, and Gbanabom Hallowell documented the horrors in dark lines: “Dinner tonight comes with gun wounds/Our desert tongues lick the vegetable blood.” Before Hallowell’s dark vision Nigeria’s Fuji lord, Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, “slept and dreamed a dream, a terrible dream.” He saw that “we were fighting a war in Nigeria.” His words: “Mo taji eru ba mi, ala ti mo la, ala ti mo la loju orun.” (I woke up, fear gripped me about the dream I had, the dream I had in sleep). Barrister is dead and Nigeria is fighting no civil war, but may it not lay the groundwork as ECOWAS heads to Niger for a festival of blood and daggers. One big half of Nigeria has spoken strenuously against the war and if the Hausa of Niger die in droves, the Hausa of Nigeria will give (Southern) Nigeria mean looks.

The warmongering leaders have wars within their own houses of hunger, but they want to create more misery. Consider the terrible report from Benue State, where Terna Jacob, camp manager at Agagbe Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp in Gwer West Local Government Area, is lamenting that pregnant women are using toilets as delivery rooms! Hear him: “The pregnant women do not have money to go hospital. Even a place to give birth is also a problem here. There is a space here – a toilet built by Medecins Sans Frontieres. It is the one most women here use to give birth. They use the toilet to give birth since we are currently congested in the rooms.”

Conditions in IDP camps are decidedly subhuman, but our leaders are making the drumbeats of war more resonant than ever. Only this month, the estimated number of IDPs in Benue, Niger and Plateau states alone reached 548,751, yet those are not the states carrying the heaviest burden of displacement. According to the International Organisation for Migration’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) report issued in February, the number of IDPs from the six states in Nigeria’s North-East, the zone most affected by conflict,  was a total of 2,375,661 by November last year. That is not strange because Nigeria has the third highest number of IDPs in Africa. In 2020, it had 2.7 million IDPs. Of course, the IDP figures are ballooning on a daily basis: right now, at least 23 local government areas in three North-West states are currently under the control of terrorists. Imagine what is actually going on in the headquarters of pain, the North-East.

These are indeed terrible times. As Robert Mugabe once noted, “We are living in a generation where people ‘in love’ are free to touch each other’s private parts but are not allowed to touch each other’s phones because they are private.” This generation is decidedly perverse, and so leaders pouring money into bloodshed amidst widespread anger is no surprise. They are poised to sacrifice other people’s children on the altar of democracy, the same democracy that has dehumanised the people of their countries for years. Indeed, animals in the wild live better lives than West Africans raped by rapacious leaders, the same leaders who want to shed blood to reverse a bloodless coup. Human sacrifice was a routine in the days gone by while celebrating certain festivals and the death of royalty: the war in Niger is another human sacrifice. Our leaders are going to war while pregnant women displaced by war are using toilets as maternity centres!

Leaving leprosy to treat ringworm and mired in their own contradictions, the FRANCOWAS warmongers running their countries aground with massive corruption aim to swell the IDP population, piling pressure on their lean resources. According to Steven Woolf of Virginia Commonwealth University: “Just as errors of omission cause harm, inattention to how priorities are balanced can indirectly claim lives, contribute to disease, and generate costs that would not occur if priorities were in greater harmony with potential gains.” Exactly. The warmongers see themselves as 2023’s Churchill, except that there are no churches on the hills of war, only charred remains. War in Niger will breed more terrorists and lay a siege on West Africa’s lean resources.

The Niger mutineers have given a specific timeline for the return of power, something Nigerian mutineers never did, yet our leaders, including the fraud enjoying an illegal third term in the coast of ivory, are poised to go to war. As Dr Nwankwo T. Nwaezeigwe of the Institute of African Studies, University of Nigeria, notes, “a successful coup automatically assumes the toga of legitimacy whether popular or unpopular, as in the cases of July 29, 1966 led by Lt. Col Yakubu Gowon, July 29, 1975 led by Brigadier Murtala Mohammed and November 17, 1993 led by General Sani Abacha, with its leaders afterwards celebrated as national heroes and statesmen. On the other hand, an unsuccessful coup, even though popular among the masses, like the cases of Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu-led January 15, 1966 and Major Gideon Orkar-led April 22, 1990 coups, automatically adorns the garbs of  illegitimacy, with its leaders stigmatized as villains.” The coup in Niger was successful, and the FRANCOWAS knights may wish to press the pause button. The big beneficiary of the war will be the colonial criminal, France, now a pariah in Mali and Burkina Faso and other places after companies like Orano (Areva) made its robberies so blatant as to beggar belief.

Who goes to war without counting the cost? FRACOWAS leaders, a horrid cast of political frauds. Nigeria is one of the most terrorised countries in the world and when you anger the Nigerien military riding on the ways of resentment against French economic terrorism in their land, you remove one of the most important layers of Nigerian security.

 

Clarification on Ilorin

I have received representations from Yoruba indigenes of Ilorin who argued that they have no issue with the practice of traditional religion in Ilorin in private space but are against its propagation in Muslim-sensitive areas, as it may breed conflict. They also affirmed their Yoruba heritage. Since my interest in Ilorin is principally the Yoruba provenance and my piece is a response to certain historical distortions, I have to say that I am in full agreement with such people. My piece was not meant to say that traditional religion must be imposed on Ilorin Muslims. That would be both prejudiced and unfair.

 

 

YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

Before Appeal Court determines Atiku, Obi, Tinubu’s fate

Since Nigeria became a sovereign country, 10 presidential contests have taken place, producing seven winners; Presidents Shehu Shagari (1979-1983), Moshood Abiola, (the only one not officially sworn in), Olusegun Obasanjo (1999-2007), Umaru Yar’Adua (2007-2010), Goodluck Jonathan (2010-2015), Muhammadu Buhari (2015-2023) and the incumbent, Bola Tinubu (May 29, 2023-date...….…

Niger coup: Tinubu in meeting with Touray, Abubakar, Ribadu

President Bola Tinubu is currently meeting with the some critical stakeholders in the ECOWAS as efforts intensify to resolve the logjam caused by the recent military coup in Niger Republic...……

Oyo state govt releases Omituntun bus intracity, intercity routes, fares

As part of palliative measures to cushion the effects of naira and fuel scarcity on residents of Oyo State, the State government has rolled out the fares and list of intercity and intracity routes of Omituntun Buses.....…

Obi debunks rumoured merger talks with Atiku, Kwankwaso

Presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 elections, Peter Obi, has debunked report that he was in talks with Atiku Abubakar and Rabiu Kwankwaso for a possible merger to wrest power from the All Progressives Congress (APC), ahead of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) judgement.……

FLICKERS: Obi, Atiku, Tinubu: Judgment day beckons

The Nigerian Presidential Election Petition Court has reserved its judgment. Apprehension and expectation are playing hide and seek in the air. Judgment Day is here. Theologians, writers and musicians have painted poignant colours of the judgment day….…

EDITORIAL: Herdsmen’s renewed onslaught on communities

LAST week, a  newly-wed couple were killed and another person injured when suspected herders attacked BECO Comprehensive Secondary School in Kwi, Riyom Local Government Area of Plateau State. ..…