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Demonising Northern Christians before 2019 elections

By Sunday Adole Jonah
04 November 2018   |   3:00 am
These days, political pundits are all in agreement about the fact of the matter that the swing regions for next year’s presidential polls are the Middle Belt and the Southwest. As it stands today, the government of President Muhammadu Buhari has not done any meaning engagement with these regions other than its overarching desire to…

[FILE PHOTO] Election

These days, political pundits are all in agreement about the fact of the matter that the swing regions for next year’s presidential polls are the Middle Belt and the Southwest.

As it stands today, the government of President Muhammadu Buhari has not done any meaning engagement with these regions other than its overarching desire to establish “cattle colonies” in both places to the detriment of the peace that exist there.

The people of the Southwest region simply want a country that is fair to them in terms of the component contributions that they make into the unitary polity, and the people of the Middle Belt region simply want peace so they can continue to till the lands they have inherited from their ancestors. Simple demands and expectations.

Regrettably, instead of seeking avenues to ensure lasting peace in the Middle Belt region, the “intellectual think-thank” of this Buhari administration headed by a serving governor of a Northwest state is coming up with lots of balderdash to ensure that elections would not hold in some key anti-Buhari locales because of “security reasons.”

We are now witnessing what would lead to INEC declaring those parts “no-vote” areas in the shape of the virulent anti-Christian and anti-Southern Kaduna rhetoric that Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has been spilling on TV and radio interviews.

It is really strange and highly condemnable that a sitting governor who was voted in as the chief security officer of a state would go on air to spew lies and twist facts whilst threatening a segment of a citizenry on account of their religion.

Yet, this is the governor our president considers as his “brainbox” and one who is known to pull his weight at Aso Rock and disagree openly with the president on the choice of a senatorial candidate for Kaduna Central.

Right now Kaduna is burning and Mallam El-Rufai is threatening to rain brimstones on the Christian enclaves of Gonin-Gora, Narayi, Sabo, Television, Angwan Sunday, etc., because the folks there dare to protest the kidnap and cold-blooded murder of a Christian monarch after ransom was paid.

This latest flare-up was just on the heel of self-defensive measures that Christians adopted when they came under attack at their enclave of Kasuwan Magaji.

I am old enough to say without contradiction that the Kaduna I know is not a town where Christians go berserk and do offensive riots because the Northern Christians as a rule are known as some of the most peaceful neighbours you would ever wish to have.

No one knows of Christian preachers who incite violence in their sermons at Kaduna, which is why in their quest for peace Christians chose to move out of the heart of troublesome Kaduna city-centre and found enclaves of Gonin-Gora and others.

Thus, segregation has guaranteed that Christians would not be molested by raving Islamists and this is why it is so sad to hear Gov. El-Rufai condemning Kaduna-city segregation.

Any observant person who journeys through the Trikania-Kawo Bye-pass of Kaduna city would observe that, between Trikania itself and Kabala West Junction, there are abandoned and burnt-out hunks of Christian cathedral buildings of the CAC, JAWOM, and ECWA denominations that have been standing in absolute desolation because Islamists rioters gutted these out in the era of desegregation.

Between the Kabala West Junction and the grounds of the Old Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), there are abandoned homesteads of the duplex nature that were once owned and occupied by Christians and this stretch of area was exactly where the parents of the Nigerian international, Victor Moses, were brutally murdered by Islamists.

We can see that it does not make sense one bit for Gov. El-Rufa’i to condemn segregation whereas he was on air demonising Christians and inciting Islamists to violence.

What is presently playing out in Kaduna is concurrently being played out in Jos over the “missing General” charade.

Now, some Islamic groups are urging President Buhari to go all out and give the Beroms that “Obasanjo Treatment” in the moulds of the infamous Zaki-Biam massacre in Benue State and Odi massacre in Bayelsa State.

Anyone listening to the recordings of these incitement would detect a subtle pro-Buhari political-campaign by these Islamic groups (note that the intolerant Islamic sect known as JIBWIS has its national headquarters in Jos and the site approved for the proposed JIBWIS University falls smack in the heart of Christian Berom Chiefdom where genocidal ethnic cleansing by the Fulanis, and now the military, have been ongoing).

The questions the proponents of this “missing General” charade need to answer are the following: How come a just-retired important Army general close to 60 years would drive himself with no companion along the tortuous road from Abuja to Bauchi in an old automobile?

How come the photo of this general has not yet been published in the news media?

How come our army that has not been able to locate Abubakar Shekau and his hordes knew exactly where this general went missing and correctly identified the pond where his car was “dumped?” How come, with no inside knowledge and help, the army has now located the “shallow grave” where this general was buried?

Lookey, here, sojas, all this hullaballoo about a “missing general” was to divert attention from the wanton Fulani genocidal activities at Beroml and now that the 2019 presidential election is nigh.

Aren’t we this moment being reminded of late Bob Marley’s maxim that “you can fool some of the people all the time but you can’t fool all the people all the time?”

Sunday Adole Jonah wrote from Department of Physics, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State

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