Northern communities need to unite against insecurity

By Abdul-azeez Suleiman

The latest massacre of more than 100 innocent farmers in a single attack is significant in proving that northern votes were wasted in electing President Buhari in 2015 and 2019.

It shows that northerners did make a mistake in putting up a solid, united front for him in spite of their ethno-religious differences only to be abandoned to suffer the effects of such level of insecurity, poverty and poor governance.

For us in the North, policing lives and livelihoods of communities is now a major problem, it would not be an exergeration to say bluntly that Buhari is the single problem of Nigeria today.

We all heard of Zabarmari because the number was huge and it all happened at the same place and hour.

The truth is, these incidents are constant all over the North which is today virtually a battlefront, and a hostage of Boko Haram, kidnappers, bandits, rustlers and rapists who roam about and operate freely while President Buhari and his government persist in denial.

Northern leaders and elite fortified in their comfort zones and living far away from the effects of this devastating insecurity may be tolerated if they downplay the signifince of insisting that Buhari has failed in the vital area of protecting the lives and properties of a significant component of the nation, the North. We the everyday northerners however, understand what it means, and we daily pray to God that we have a change of situation because, without a doubt, this administration would certainly abandon the North to be routed completely by criminals who understand that weak political will, insensitivity, incompetence and corruption have weakened government’s resolve to challenge them.

All northerners feel the pains of this insecurity that is already frustrating all hopes that the government could discover a more permanent solution to recurring violence across the region.

We therefore insist that in the face of this glaring failure, the people must consider taking steps to protect themselves and their communities.

While we don’t doubt that governments are important in deciding how we live, but citizens and communities who speak and understand each other make stronger building blocks for sustainable peace and public safety.

We urge all northern communities to unite against this pervasive dangerous security situation with resolve and awareness of their obligations under the law, as well as the knowledge that victory will only be pronounced when the region achieves full cessation of hostilities, disarmament, demobilization and reintegration.

Instructively, when ISIS began invading the Kurdistan region of Iraq, the Kurdish Peshmerga, comprising of regimented and volunteer forces, fully armed and backed by their regional authorities fought in defence of their homes and family. They prevailed. Imagine they surrendered their hope and destiny to the Iraqi forces.

ABDUL-AZEEZ SULEIMAN, SPOKESPERSON, COALITION OF NORTHERN GROUPS