The national coordinator of the Conference of Autochthonous Ethnic Nationalities Community Development Association (CONAECDA), Dr Zuwaqhu Bonat, in this interview by ISAAC SHOBAYO in Jos, speaks on the predicaments of the minority groups in the North, terrorism and other salient issues.
What is your opinion on the perceived marginalisation of the minority ethnic groups in the North?
The marginalisation is real and historical. When the British came, they found us ruling ourselves but they conquered us and placed other people above us. Since that time, we have been having the problem of subordinating the native people of the Middle Belt to powers outside their structure. Even in terms of education, if the missionary had not started the process of education in the Middle Belt, we would be nowhere; we would not have been able to get to the level we are today and that is a very important factor to some of us. The governments of Northern Nigeria used the instrumentality of the Federal Government to take over our mission schools and destroyed them. That further impoverished our people education-wise.
The other issue confronting us is discrimination on the basis of religion, ethnicity and culture. We are having the problem of people taking our lands either by force or by fraud. In many cases, they have taken over our assets, mineral resources, in the name of Nigeria. Some people are now talking about indigenity. The United Nations has a declaration on the right of the indigenous people. In Nigeria, the big tribes often lord it over the smaller ones because they are migratory; they move here and there to take over the land of minorities but we cannot move the way they do because of our size. Some of them are destroying our native institutions. They are changing the names of our traditional institutions. They are making laws to change these instructions. When we select our chiefs, like what happened in Bileri in Tangale chiefdom, the governor moved in to destroy everything. There are governors in the North that are busy cancelling our chiefdoms, splitting them and appointing Emirs in places where we didn’t have them before.
What is CONAECDA doing to change the narrative?
We have started telling people and the rest of the world about it but, you know the kind of government we have in this country, they have refused to listen to us. We have a House of Assembly in Kaduna, for example, where nobody does anything except what the government tells them to do. The House passed laws without public hearing. It recently passed a law that enables the governor to change the title of our traditional rulers, the names of our chiefdoms… everything that has to do with our culture and tradition. The governor now has the power to appoint kingmakers. The members of the assembly did not tell their people because the governor dictates to them. If you approach the court, for instance, the judiciary is intimidated in most of these things.
We want the rest of Nigeria to know our predicament. A lot of people in the southern part of the country don’t know what the people of the Middle-Belt are passing through because they cannot imagine that somebody will stand and say he is changing the titles of traditional rulers or names of institutions. But in the Middle-Belt, they are deliberately separating the ethnic nationalities from their lands and traditional institutions. As far as we know, most of these Boko Haram and ISWAP hostilities are a deliberate plan to scare us from our ancestral lands and that is happening presently and in other parts of the country. They are busy grabbing the lands of the minorities in Zamfara, Kaduna, Plateau and many other places. With what is happening all over the country, people now know what the people of the Middle Belt are passing through. The southern part of the country just woke up and found bandits in their backyard. They are making demands that they cannot make in their enclaves in the North. They are insisting because the powers that be keep tolerating them. This is part of the fundamental problems confronting the country. We have a constitution that enables some people to impose their will on the rest of the country and there is nothing anyone can do about it. We have a constitution that is so manipulatable that children of 12 years are declared adults and they go to vote. Other Nigerians are watching and so it is no longer a Middle-Belt problem.
And what is your group’s strategy on sensitising the people towards reclaiming their lost lands?
Only the elites in the Middle-Belt used to have meetings but today, CONAECDA has brought every group together, especially the leaders, women and youths. We have created a platform for our people to work together, to discuss strategies and work out modalities on how to address our common problems. One thing we have realised is that when you are left alone as a small group or individual facing an overwhelming problem, you might not have a solution to that problem. The only thing to do is come together to address such a problem. We are in 15 states in the Middle-Belt and we are more united than before.
Do you have statistics on communities presently being occupied by bandits and other elements such as Boko Haram in the Middle-Belt?
The Federal Government cannot tell us they don’t know the villages and communities presently being occupied by bandits, Boko Haram and ISWAP. Apart from local human rights groups, international organisations such as the European Union and the African Union have the records, state by state, in Nigeria. We also have the data of displaced people. It is not that the government does not know them; it is either they don’t have the will to do what is necessary or we have a leadership that is overwhelmed and does not know what to do. For instance, are you telling me that the federal and state governments don’t know that communities in Zamfara, Katsina and other places are in trouble or under siege of these elements?
What is your suggestion on the way forward?
Our position is very simple. The government has the responsibility to maintain security in this country. We have been telling the government that they cannot maintain security under the present security architecture and system. Communities have to be empowered to take their own security into their own hands and then collaborate with the government security agencies. I don’t see how they will be able to address this pathetic situation and defeat these terrorists with the security arrangement on the ground.
Recently, some governors said the Federal Government should declare bandits as terrorists. The Conference of Nigerian Speakers of Houses of Assembly also made the same pronouncement, as did the House of Representatives. The international Agency for Global Terrorism Index said most of the terrorist groups, especially ISWAP – described as the fourth largest terrorist group in the world – presently in Nigeria are the most vicious, but the Federal Government has refused to categorise them as terrorists. When you categorise them as terrorists, you must apply terrorism panacea against them but the Federal Government said they are criminals.
These elements are better armed than our military. If they could attack railway and are capable of bringing down helicopters and the Federal Government is still saying they are just criminals, it means that something is wrong somewhere. What is the interest of the Federal Government? Why are they not being realistic? These are some of the questions we are asking them. What interest do they have by not giving them these elements the right label, terrorists. They should be addressed as terrorists so that the international community can assist us in tackling the situation. ISWAP is taking too much space in Nigeria. Everybody knows that it is the most dangerous group in the world. They are operating in Nigeria in the name bandits. It was the government that gave them that name but we know that they are terrorists and the government should treat them as such.
YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
Lagos Is Second Least Liveable City In The World For 2021
Lagos is the second least liveable city in the world for the year 2021. This is according to the most recent annual ranking put together by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)…
CLAIM 1: A Twitter user claims UNICEF said any efforts to block children from accessing pornography might infringe their human rights.
VERDICT: MISLEADING!
and then