Govt has interest in Southern Kaduna crisis —CAN’s national legal director

Evangelist Kwamkur Samuel Vondip is the National Director for Legal and Public Affairs, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). In this interview with ISAAC SHOBAYO, he speaks on the raging hostility in Southern Kaduna and other related issues in the Northern part of Nigeria. Excerpt:

What is your assessment of the killings in the southern part of Kaduna State?

If you have been following what has been happening in Nigeria, you will know that what is happening in Southern Kaduna is not anything strange; the only difference is in type and location, type of people that are being attacked and the location of the people.

But as per the perpetrators of the attack and purpose of the attack, they are the same as far as I am concerned. If you look at what happened in Plateau State, the story has always been Fulani militias, herdsmen and unknown gunmen attacking different communities and causing heavy damages and destructions to those communities, leaving the people traumatised and mourning. From Plateau, they shifted to Benue State, from there, they moved to a part of Nasarawa and some parts of Taraba State. In the southern part of Nigeria today, we have similar attacks by the same people.

The unfortunate thing is that people will say they are unknown or Fulani militias as if they are not operating within the nation. I feel that this is just ethno-religious cleansing, targeted and planned to wipe out certain people and to replace them with some certain group of people. And there has been a deep complacency within the government, security agents and so on. It is a complicated setup that is difficult to stop.

But the belief in certain quarters is that the cause of the crisis in Southern Kaduna is quite different from any other place.

I don’t believe that, because I have been following the trend of attacks; they will tell you that somebody attacked and there was a reprisal and that led to the crisis or tell you that some Fulani communities were torched sometime back and because Fulani don’t forgive, they are retaliating. They will attack and somebody will tell you that they are foreigners. Even the Kaduna State governor said they are people from Mali, Niger and so on. You wonder why foreigners would pass by so many states, with security in place, pass through all the checkpoints to attack communities in Kaduna State. They would have to use the locals as the starting point. So, I don’t see Kaduna attack as anything different from other attacks in the country, especially in the northern part of the country.

Southern Kaduna is prone to crisis, with similar incidents having happened many years ago in the area, leading to loss of lives. Do you think there is any link between the past and the present?

It is not the same; the crisis that happened in Southern Kaduna before was as a result of the disagreement between communities. But the big question the government needs to answer is has anybody tried to find out where these attackers are coming from? Every Nigerian has his ancestral home and I expected that these people that are attacking, whatever name they call them, unknown gunmen or Fulani militias, they have their homes, can’t somebody in authority tell them to go back to where they are coming from. Must everybody move round the way they are doing? Today, you will find a Yoruba man who has lived for so many years in Plateau State; he will tell you that he is a Yoruba man from Oyo or any part of Yoruba land. You will find an Urhobo man who has stayed in Plateau State for many years and he will tell you that he is still an Urhobo man and mention his village. Nigeria is not like countries where anybody can claim anywhere. Here, you find somebody who hailed from the North and tell you that he is the founder of Barkin Ladi without any explanation and he wants the authority to support him. If natives resisted he will say they don’t allow his cattle to graze and that is why he is attacking them. I also discovered that there are people that are interested in all these attacks.

But why do you think the crisis persisted over the years?

Those that are perpetrating this evil act have been able to replace the people of the communities after killing them and destroying their properties. It is like a war that is being won, with nobody to prevent it. Secondly, the security agencies seem not to be doing their work very well. It will amaze you that in most of these crises, perpetrators were allowed to go scot-free. Another thing is the interest of those in government, you will remember that the former President Goodluck Jonathan said his government was infiltrated by Boko Haram and that is the fact. So people in government have interest, it has not changed and despite the change in government, it has not changed. It will not be out of place to say some people are making huge amount of money from the crises. And why did I say that, you will understand that each time there is crisis, government spends a lot of money without solution to the crisis. And also when you have some security agents or officers that are doing their best, before you know it, you will hear that one of them has been killed or the person has been transferred. Who is transferring these people?

Do you agree with the allegation of government complicity in the crisis in the Southern Kaduna?

I believe that government has interest, when you know what to do and you do not do it, you have admitted that you are interested in that thing. If you have been following the trend of event in this country, it easy for the government to comment on things or happening in other areas but in some places it will take time for government to respond. Look at the issue of Southern Kaduna, it was until people started calling on the international community to intervene that the Federal Government responded.

What steps do think should be taken by the government to bring lasting peace in Southern Kaduna?

I understand that more security personnel have been deployed to the affected areas and they are trying to arrest the situation; that should be encouraged. Secondly, the security agencies should find out those behind the crisis; this is necessary to get to the root of the incident. Let the security agencies fish out those behind the killings, because as I am talking to you, perpetrators of such horrendous crimes are still roaming the streets waiting to unleash mayhem on innocent people. Thirdly, let us check bigotry among our security settings, there are people that don’t know why they are there, so when they are there, they are either fighting for their pocket or fighting for their religion. Let us encourage our military men to be firm, because people depend on them for their protection and they must do that as a service to the nation and to God.