There is a consensus that our
country Nigeria, currently
grapples with the worst
level of insecurity ever
experienced by her citizens over the
years. From the East, West, North
and South, the grim harvest of death,
sorrow, blood and tears resonate. Very
credible local and international voices
have been unanimous in piecing
together the patterns, with warning
of the consequences of trivialising the
signs. The recent killings of Rev. Frs.
Paul Offu in Enugu State, and David
Tanko in Taraba state, among many
others, by armed men suspected to be
herdsmen is a pointer to the serious-
ness of insecurity across the country.
It is also an incontrovertible fact
that whatever efforts or measures
being taken by government to arrest
the rather increasing and frightening
number of her citizens killed daily,
kidnapped, unaccounted for, robbed
or even dehumanised by bandits
and some security agents, are at best
ineffective and inadequate. Chilling
tales of gory killings, sacking of whole
communities, rape, burning down of
worship centres and razing of farms
and ancestral homes have numbed a
helplessly bemused nation. Repeated
promises by our Security Agents to ar-
rest the tide and bring to justice these
culprits have yielded very little result
and are increasingly greeted with
disparaging sneers. Unfortunately, this
failure has expectedly emboldened
these bandits and is, undoubtedly, a
worrying motivation for other crimi-
nally minded elements.
We note also the escalating ethno-re-
ligious tension, pervasive suspicion
and the rather worrying recourse to
primordial cleavages, resulting from
fear of a contrived ethnic and religious
dominance. This has not been helped
in part, by the government’s inability
to manage the above malaise which
negates the Federal Character Princi-
ple, one of the pillars of justice, equity
and fairness in the constitution of our
country. In spite of several comments
and observations by well-meaning
Nigerians, which have been seeming-
ly ignored, we are all still witnesses
to certain acts in high places which
undermine national cohesion.
We are worried that an episode that
started from an innocuous looking
demand for grazing route metamor-
phosed to grazing reserve, grazing
colony, proposal for the importation of
grass from Brazil for cattle, to setting
up of RUGA enclaves in all the States
in Nigeria. This has been followed by
mind boggling killings, brigandage
and kidnappings which have left a
good number of Nigerians maimed,
rendered homeless and orphaned. The
huge economic waste and the irre-
deemable cost to our national psyche
and integration is immeasurable. We
have indeed crossed the rational elastic
limits and are heading for implosion!
The Knights of Saint Mulumba Nige-
ria (KSM), founded upon the princi-
ples of Catholic action, and aspiring
towards a high sense of social justice,
fairness equity, order and discipline in
our society has in its earlier publicised
admonitions, called for our leaders
to always be nationalistic in their ac-
tions. In a pluralistic nation like ours,
neglecting the needs and interests of
the federating units is a fragrant recipe
for engendering deep seated animos-
ity, ethno-religious conflagration and
instability. It will undoubtedly negate
every effort of nation building.
We the Knights of Saint Mulumba
Nigeria (KSM), will continue to insist
that security of lives and properties of
citizens is an enshrined, inviolable and
inalienable right of every Nigerian.
We posit that failure to rein-in these
miscreants, bandits, killer herds-
men and other security infractions,
reinforce criminality and amount to
denial of justice for victims and their
families. We shudder at what thoughts
plague the minds of these victims who
have lost husbands, wives, parents,
whole family and whose only claim to
existence is a dingy space in any of the
now burgeoning IDP (Internally Dis-
placed People) centres. What hope for
them? What justice for them? What
gory miserable hope Nigeria holds for
them!
We advocate, on account of the
glaring inadequacies and challenges
of current policing efforts, regional
policing, which simply is a multijuris-
dictional police force, comprised of
people from that region, known to the
people and not acting as an occupa-
tional force.
We support the views of the Catholic
Bishops Conference of Nigeria and
aver that there is now a compelling
need, more than ever before, for a na-
tional dialogue, with a view to dousing
tension, restating and affirming our
common shared values, and addressing
the grievances of the federating units.
This is the Nigeria we must strive to
build today. This is the sure panacea for
lasting peace, rapid development and a
just, egalitarian and equitable nation.
We urge Nigerians to continually
stand up for justice, hold their leaders
accountable and reiterate our hope of
seeing Nigeria soar and aspire to its
obvious strengths, where all Nigerians
have equal sense of belonging.
God bless our country Nigeria.
Sir Diamond Ovueraye, KSM is the
Supreme Knight, Knights of Mulumba
