The burning question for many Nigerians today is, how did we get here? In recent times, a quick review of the path that led us here shows that many were carried along in a deceitful campaign of redemption, change and a better country. Obviously, they all know better now. This is not a time or place to apportion blames, or else we will play into the hands of our enemies who will exploit our divisions to execute their devious intentions for our beloved country, Nigeria. How come the value of human life today is not worth the price of a cow or chicken. What manner of people live in such absurdity?
Too many of us are way too afraid to challenge our circumstances. We are afraid of the things around us, the things we don’t see, the things that confront us every day! We fear to fight for our rights, we fear to fight for freedom, we always have a reason to fear, we don’t want to die, we don’t want to stand up for our rights, because we have a family, we have children and so on and so forth and thus remain under perpetual oppression. Reference Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Sorrow, Tears and Blood.
One is forced to ask, what manner of people are we? The #EndSars protest across the Southern parts of the country and the FCT, together with a few states in the North has become a new reference point for Nigeria’s movement towards a better and drastically more equitable society. The excessive use and abuse of force in the dispersal of protesters and forceful takeover of the Lekki Toll Gate without addressing the alleged deaths recorded has given effrontery to the Bully State. This has also encouraged the recent manhandling of Macaroni and his fellow protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate on February 13th, 2021, when they assembled to demand justice for the October 10, 2020 massacre.
Let it be said over and over again, all Nigerians are equal from North, South, East and West. From the President to the Governors, to the Speakers, the Bricklayers, Taxi Drivers, Seamstresses and every ordinary citizen of Nigeria, we are all equal before the constitution. The constitution is Supreme over all religious, ethnic, Ideological and sundry sentiments. That constitution must always be upheld at all cost, constitutionally. Those who subvert the constitution by abusing authority must pay the price today, tomorrow or sometime soon.
Foreigners have no rights to take up arms within our country, kill innocent, law abiding citizens and then walk around freely, lodge in our forest reserves (of States) and our political authorities are mocking about with all forms of ludicrous explanations about the issue of insecurity in the land. A minister of defense just told citizens to come out barehanded, to fight the ubiquitous bandits after the State Authorities revoked licensed weapons from Nigerian citizens while foreign and local terrorists/bandits of Fulani extraction run around with Rocket Propelled Grenade Launchers, AK47s, GPMGs etc., killing and maiming across the country. Why you may ask, will a nation accept to be led on this path? It must be said repeatedly that the right to life is inalienable. Nigerians must not lay back and allow foreigners supervised by strange fellows in positions of authority massacre us all in cold blood!
We are forced to ask whether the current Nigerian Regime is one for foreigners? Because, we have been told that the bandits are foreigners by people with the highest authorities in the land and nothing has happened to them. So, from Boko Haram who we were told stand for Western Education is a sin, to foreign bandits and kidnapers that we are now told need some kind of amnesty and have been uncharitably compared to the Niger Delta Agitators, (who had strong ideological orientation and never killed or maimed innocent citizens), we are now faced with foreigners on a free killing spree across the country.
For the avoidance of doubt and benefit of those who don’t know, the Niger Delta Agitators strictly targeted the oil exploration industry who they claimed had destroyed their environment. In one of the cases they instituted at an international court, they got a recent judgement from a Dutch court against one of the major oil exploration companies for environmental destruction.
Indeed, these foreign bandits have been on a killing orgy for many years now, with many gruesome videos that have gone round the world. Foreigners have no such rights in Nigeria to kill its citizens while our authorities fiddle around and take turns in performing different jokes in the tragic comedy that Nigeria has become.
We have found ourselves in a situation where the government is unwilling and seemingly unable to defend its own citizens and has gone as far as being seen to be protective of these foreign invaders and bandits. In the words of the late Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General (1997-2006), “where leaders fail to lead, the people can lead and make them follow.” We have reached that point where we must assert that our rights to life is inalienable and we must now stand up from all the corners of Nigeria to chase out these murderous foreign bandits of Fulani extraction.
The issue of foreign Fulanis being the ones responsible for the mayhem across the country can be resolved with the active support of patriotic Nigerian Fulanis who must tackle their Brethren from across the border. The issue of speaking a single language across political borders cuts across North to South of Nigeria. There are Yorubas in our neighboring West African countries like Benin Republic and Togo. However, this does not give them rights to come into Nigeria to kill our citizens. If they did, the Yoruba Brethren here will expectedly call them to order.
Finally, the Editorial Board of Crossfire Reports recommends Community Policing and Well-Armed Local Vigilantes to help support our armed forces in protecting our citizens and defending our home land at this critical time. This is also, in our opinion, the best time for RESTRUCTURING the Nigerian State or we simply Break Up.
