Kajuru Killings And Our Common Humanity, By Danjuma Musa

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“I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” Malcolm X

The killings of last week in Kajuru Local Government Area and the reactions to it not only shows how divided we are as a people,  but how frighteningly dehumanized we have become due to differences more in terms of religious beliefs ,than our  political differences. Most disappointing was the reaction of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) led by Rev. Joseph Hayab a one time member of the Peoples Democratic Party which grudgingly acknowledged the massacre of the 66 fulanis but bluntly refused to condemn it,because the government hadn’t reacted to the killing of the 11 Adara natives which happened earlier. Like they say assuming the government didn’t,do two wrongs make a right? 

Basically those who have reacted to the Kajuru carnage can be classified into two broad categories; the first group being avowed opponents of Governor Nasir El – Rufai , who for political reasons have and will never see any good in anything El-Rufai. Their hate for El -Rufai has gotten to the point that they have become sickeningly cynical. They deny the truth because it’s fashionable and politically correct to be seen to be giving El-Rufai hell. This category know for certain that the two attacks took place but have deliberately clutched to any issue no matter how minute, especially the “timing” of the governor’s  announcement to deny that  the reprisal happened. So their denial of the obvious is borne out of the desire to inflict maximum damage on him in an election year. 

The other category are those who ab initio  were part or privy to the sinister plot to use kaduna State as the springboard for a nationwide crisis. Kaduna State has become very predictable in the kill me ,I kill you or they kill me, I kill anyone that is not of my faith or tribe. It’s this predictable  pattern of killings and reprisal killings that the plotters wanted to cash in. It this category that were very vehement in the denial of the massacre of the 66 fulanis and that were at the forefront in demanding for evidence in form of dead bodies of the victims,unknown to the uninformed so to actualize the plot of precipitating reprisal killings in other parts of the state and eventually the rest of the country.

The big question which  CAN, the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union, and the Adara Peoples Association – have positively answered – is that indeed people – human beings who happened to be Christians and Muslims were killed. There is no doubt or question about that. The other question which is equally settled is the timeline of the first killing and the retaliatory killing,which from the press releases issued by the three bodies indicate that both  killings  happened between Sunday the 10th of January 2019 and  Tuesday the 12th of January 2019. The two main issues which the three bodies have stridently tried to make a huge mountain out of are; the presumed wrong timing of the governors announcement of the killings – the eve of the presidential elections and his failure to visit the family  of the Adara 11 whose killing in the first place led to the massacre. 

The self indicting statement by CAN issued by its Chairman Rev. Joesph Hayab reads, “The press statement by the spokesman for Kaduna State Governor, Mr Samuel Aruwan, suggests that “the killings in Kajuru Local Government were carried yesterday (Friday) 15/2/2019. This is false in its entirety. From the statement the quarrel of CAN and it’s leadership is that the government statement issued by Aruwan conveyed the wrong impression that the attack took place on Friday,which is not true because the  government statement was very categorical that the security agencies had just brought to the attention of government the sad events in the area. “Security agencies today (15th February 2019) reported the recovery of 66 bodies that were killed in attacks by criminal elements on various dispersed hamlets in the Maro Gida and Iri axis of Kajuru LGA. The settlements affected include Ruga Bahago, Ruga Daku, Ruga Ori, Ruga Haruna, Ruga Yukka Abubakar, Ruga Duni Kadiri, Ruga Shewuka and Ruga Shuaibu Yau.” I know understand vehement reaction of Aruwan that some people lack comprehension.  

The question is the government having been informed about the crisis what were the options open to the state government- keep quiet about the crisis,pretend it didn’t happen or manage the crisis? The state government in its wisdom after series of consultations preferred managing the crisis by announcing it , rather than allowing rumor merchants announce it to deadly consequences. More importantly it reached out to the aggrieved community which in the first place had cried out. The Adara community on its part didn’t reach out to government,rather it resorted to self help by attacking the Fulanis,even without any shred  of evidence that they carried out the attack on the Adaras. The question is how would  the governor have commiserated with the Adara community if he wasn’t in the first place aware that they were attacked? The truth is that the Adara community took laws into their hands. 

But how can CAN, SKOPU and  the Adara Peoples Development Association accuse the governor and the State government of all manners of crime when they tacitly acknowledged that there were killings and counter killings as contained in the various statements they issued? Is it that they didn’t read what they wrote? Even the maverick Senator Shehu Sani a well known political opponent of Nasir El-Rufai admitted that there were killings in the area,his only grouse like that of his co-travelers was that the killings were made public on the eve of the presidential elections. In the view of these groups who have made so much capital  out of the fact that the governor announced the attack,and that even if it was going to be announced the governor shouldn’t have been the one to announce it  or better still the state government should have been mute about it. For God sake what difference would it have made if the police  announced the killings and not the governor? Would that have changed the fact that people were killed? What has happened to our common humanity when we play stupid politics with the death of men, children and women? 

Clearly there are no advantages that making the killings public would have and has conferred on El-Rufai in the elections which was eventually botched. The governor rather than condemnation deserves commendation for seeing himself as a governor rather than as a candidate in the forthcoming elections and for valuing human lives above winning elections. He had a responsibility to discharge and he discharged it creditably. But for the able manner El -Rufai addressed the issue kaduna State would have gone up in flames,which is the motive of those behind the killings. 

Unknown to most people is that the Kaduna State Government  was long aware of the plot to ferment crisis using Kajuru Local Government Area as the staging post of a crisis that would hopefully spread to other parts of the country. Governor Nasir El – Rufai  working on credible intelligence reports of the plots by the “opposition elements” to precipitate crisis in at least 4 Local Government Areas of Kaduna state had aggressively embarked on an interactive session with the various communities to alert them of the plot and to avert it. It’s a shame that in spite of the efforts by the governor that Kajuru Local Government which has in the last few years acquired notoriety for riots between the major Adara  ethnic group and others tribes like the hausas, Yorubas,Fulanis etc succumbed to the machinations of the merchants of death,who see nothing wrong in precipitating crisis as part of a larger strategy  to achieve the defeat of Muhammadu Buhari, and of Nasir El-Rufai the governor of kaduna State , one of the leading lights of the All Progressives Congress(APC) in the 2019 General Elections. 

 The Kajuru attacks vindicate the Kaduna State Government,the minister of information Lai Mohammed and the National Security Adviser Babagana Monguno who had earlier alerted Nigerians of the plot by opposition elements to cause mayhem. The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, was emphatic that mercenaries had been mobilized to cause mayhem during the elections in order to instigate a constitutional crisis with a view of installing an interim national government. He said and I quote  “desperate opposition is orchestrating widespread violence with a view to truncating the elections, thus triggering a constitutional crisis that could snowball into the establishment of an interim government”.  But for the swift intervention of Governor Nasir El-Rufai Nigeria would have been engulfed in a crisis as the attacks  was intended to precipitate a reprisal attack by Muslims against christians. 

Moving forward every one resident in Kaduna State has a responsibility to help work on the poor image of the state of a place where at the slightest provocation people will resort to violence. This image hurts the State and not Governor Nasir El-Rufai. And once that sinks in hopefully there will be better relationships. CAN, SOKAPU and the Adara Development Association by their actions and inactions must work hard to change the perception about them of being promoters of hate and working against peaceful coexistence. 

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