Southern Kaduna Genocide: A Threat To Our National Unity

I n recent times the reports of insecurity and the incessant killings of innocent individuals have flooded the social media. And these killings have largely been centered in the Northern part of the country. The killings in the southern part of Kaduna have really become worrisome and have sparked various protests. The reccurrence of these gruesome and horrendous murders and the silence of the governments over decades really leave much to be desired. Southern Kaduna has as its populace, Christian-dominated communities, and some residents have termed the crisis as an attack on Christians. Others on social media have gone so far as to call the violence genocide. Kaduna state is predominately occupied by the Fulani-Hausa Muslims who are mostly based in the northern part and the Christians who are based in the south. The river that runs through the city of Kaduna, the state capital, highlights the starkness of the divide: the northern half is unofficially called Mecca; the south, Jerusalem. Series of confrontations over property rights as well as the right to express and practice deeply held religious beliefs have been the roots of the violence in Kaduna between the northern Fulani Hausa Muslims and the Southern Christians. Since 1981 there have been series of confrontations and violence; the land dispute in Kachia 1981, the Kafanchan crises of March 1987, the Zatob Katabriots of February and May 1992 and the violence accruing from the hosting of the beauty pageant in 2002. One of the more significant disputes was the politically motivated violence in Zonkwa and Kafanchan in the wake of the 2011 presidential election which led to the burning of Churches, Mosques, homes, the Kafanchan market, and a heavy death toll. Since then, the violence has only escalated. As at December 2016, the Catholic Archdiocese of Kafanchan, in a statement issued by the Vicar General of the diocese, Reverend Father Ibrahim Yakubu, reported that 53 villages had been attacked with 808 people killed and 1,422 houses, 16 Churches, 19 shops, and one primary school destroyed (Channels, December 29th 2016) and attacks have continued in an increasing velocity up until now. The fact that the Hausa-Fulani Muslim abstraction of Kaduna people has played more influential roles in politics and governance and the resulting disenfran chisement of the southern part of the state has led to deeply held grievances and the suppression of the less politically influential Christian populace. The failure of the Fulani-Hausa Muslim based government to respond swiftly to these pockets of violence through the years has as its outcome “a poorly-tracked cycle of bloody inter-communal violence mainly involving nomadic or semi-nomadic Fulani herdsmen and local farmers” as opined by Dr. LeenaKoni Hoffmann an associate fellow of the African Programme and published in The Chatam House (The Chatam House, February 15th 2017). These Fulani-Hausa Muslims, ‘herdsmen’ as they are now famously called today wield sophisticated weapon such as the AK-47 in tending to their flocks, the cows. They raid farms and villages and they massacre hundreds, with military grade hardware, acquiring land in the process, land dominated by the Christians. And little next to nothing is being done to curtail this menace. Various organizations have come up to decry the situation. The Southeast Based Coalition of Human Rights & Democracy Organizations-SBCHROs; a body of over 20 rights and democracy groups based in the Southeast part of old Eastern Nigeria have spoken out about the ceaseless, systematic and coordinated attacks on mostly indigenous Christian communities in Southern Kaduna. (The Nigerian Voice, May 22, 2020). The Southern Kaduna Peoples Union, SOKAPU, has also spoken up drawing attention of the government and people of goodwill to fact that the Southern Kaduna communities have been under constant invasions and massacres which is fast assuming a genocidal Proportion. The National President of SOKAPU, Jonathan Asake, in a press statement published in the Daily Post stated, “The ongoing attacks on our communities point to the fact that there is a deliberate ethnic cleansing ripping across Southern Kaduna which the authorities have turned a blind eye to.” (Daily Post, May 15th 2020). Christians, under the aegis of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Kaduna State chapter, has accused the Federal Government of aiding killings in Southern Kaduna. The position of CAN is that “the killings of innocent lives, maiming and destruction of lives and property across the nation, particularly the fresh attacks in the southern part of Kaduna State, have reached an extraordinary height and are a matter of grave concern; hence, require that the FG takes a proactive approach instead of taking sides” (The Guardian, July 23rd, 2020) When quizzed about the killings the president, a Fulani-Hausa Muslim, responded in a press statement published in the Premium Times that: “The violence and killings in Southern Kaduna have persisted because of the “evil combination of politically-motivated banditry, revenge killings and mutual violence by criminal gangs acting on ethnic and religious grounds,” (Premium Times, July 21st, 2020). Also, the Governor of the State, Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai, a Fulani-Hausa Muslim have reduced the killings and massacre to a “Cycle of Attacks and Reprisals” (This Day, July 25th, 2020). But one truth remains, that nothing significant is being done while lots of lives are lost on weekly bases due to the difference in ethnicity and beliefs and the indifference and somewhat silence of everyone who has the power to put an end to this crises. Despite curfews and the numerous troops claimed to be deployed to salvage the situation, these killings still persists as reports on the media still carry titles such as “Carnage: Outrage as gunmen defy curfew, attack Southern Kaduna communities” (The Punch, July 26th, 2020). Nigeria is a unity of very diverse people, multi-cultural and multi-lingual. This ought to be her strength but we have allowed this diversity threaten our unity as members of a particular religion have to stand by and watch her brothers and sisters die in the most horrifying ways almost daily. But there is still hope if indeed actions are taken swiftly. The greatest challenge to this Southern Kaduna genocide is the fact that we have lived in denial for long. We have been made to believe there is no problem or it is an infinitesimal issue, just clans fighting. We have not seen it as a serious problem demanding serious interventions and that is why it has pestered for a long time. The government needs to sincerely set up the appropriate apparatus needed to checkmate this act of killing which has truly reached the status of genocide rather than silently watching or taking sides, or belittling the issue. She should act in support of unity as the issue is fast becoming a “National Crises”. And as much as possible we are all encouraged to constantly pray that God Almighty through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary may intervene and restore peace to our land. Amen.