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THE NORTH IS OVERWHELMED BY THE WATERS OF ITS COLLAPSED DAM.



My people say you do not list vulture among edible birds. The North would not think so. It got it wrong from the beginning; anything that gave it advantages over others was okay. No one relies solely on money to contest for a title reserved for the strong. The ones who did in history came out losers. At a time other regions were strengthening their children for a future of knowledge, the North was lowering the bar for easy scaling by its pampered team. Now, the vulture meals of that past and the consequential bad breath have poisoned the air for the whole country. The result is the North's current daily doses of violent deaths.

Check out John Campbell's Nigeria Security Tracker Weekly Update: June 6–12. The horrid details tell tales of a house that has fallen: "June 6: Troops killed two bandits in Tsafe, Zamfara. June 6: Sectarian violence led to four deaths in Bali LGA and two deaths in Donga LGA, Taraba. June 6: Herdsmen killed twelve civilians and Nigerian troops killed five of the herdsmen in Guma, Benue. June 6: ISWA fighters killed six Nigerian soldiers in Konduga, Borno. June 6: Nigerian troops killed "scores" (estimated at forty) of bandits in Zurmi, Zamfara. June 7: A Nigerian military airstrike killed "several" bandits in the Kwayanbana Forest in Zamfara.  June 7: Boko Haram killed five and kidnapped nine in Konduga, Borno. June 8: Nigerian troops killed an "unspecified" number of Boko Haram militants in Gwoza, Borno. June 9: Boko Haram killed eighty-one and kidnapped six in Gubio, Borno. June 9: Bandits killed fifty-seven in Faskari, Katsina. June 9: Communal violence led to twenty-three deaths in Lamurde, Adamawa. June 10: Nigerian troops killed "several" (estimated at ten) Boko Haram militants in Gwoza, Borno. June 10: Boko Haram killed four in Damboa, Borno. June 11: Boko Haram released a video of them killing one Nigerian soldier and one Nigerian police officer. June 12: Bandits killed eight and kidnapped nine in Faskari, Katsina."

Today is June 22. The past ten days not captured in the tracker above have recorded even more deaths. I never knew there would come a point when longsuffering Buharists would say enough is enough. Even Buhari himself reportedly told his security chiefs that they had failed. I am waiting for that day he will look in the mirror and identify the real culprit. 

So, this past week saw leaders and youths of the North calling out their governments. They said they were tired of the killings. They were tired also of the government's insensitivity to their plight. There were demonstrations against their beloved Buhari and his government. The government felt it was wrong for children of the North to protest against their hero. The leader of the protesters was arrested and detained. Then, an old man called Bashir Tofa came out firing at the Villa's god of thunder. The last time Tofa was in national consciousness was in June 1993 when he contested against Moshood Abiola in that year's presidential election.

It was this tepid man the North exhumed to issue a flaming order to Buhari to release the arrested protester or face the consequences: “It is unwise and unjust. Not even during military rule would citizens demonstrate peacefully about a matter that worried the entire country and anyone be arrested... He (Buhari) must remember that in three years, someone else will be President..." Tofa said and went further with a direct threat of violence: "If this collective anger is tickled...the 2011 violence, destruction and death...will be a child’s play this time around. Nigerians are very angry! Insecurity everywhere, poverty, joblessness and now COVID -19, disease, despair and desperation have eaten deep into people’s patience and good sense.”

In those lines were threats of violence. The government, notorious for hard-hearing, sat up. It heard and understood the message, panicked and released the detained youth leader. I never knew that day would come when Buhari's government, in its all-knowing almightiness, would eat the humble pie and drop the ball. But that cannot be the end of this discussion. What will wean the North's bandits of their banditry? Nothing. If the killings won't stop, the newly found spirit of protests in the North won't either. But what can the protests do to stop the killings? Nothing. The killers in the North are children of the North, not outsiders. They have tasted blood, they won't stop. Train your children so that they may give you peace of mind. That is the wisdom that eluded the North, and today peace there is scarce from pillar to post. 

The focus of Nigeria's North has always been on political power. It thought to have the power to cheat and enslave all others was all it needed to be well forever. It doesn't work out that way, at least not always. There is a family in Badagry whose wealthy ancestor was Nigeria's foremost slave merchant. Struggling descendants of that merchant today live in cells he built for his slaves. The affluent North has produced an army of unschooled children who are today lords of the bush, killing without a cause. The neglected are grown and are tearing down the house of unconscionable power built by their leaders. The killings won't stop exactly the same way flood from a collapsed dam won't abate. It is a hopeless situation.


By Lasisi Olagunju






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