Editorial: Complacency In Self-Defense; A Curse At This Point In Time

By Chukwuemeka Chimerue, Editor-in-Chief, The Biafra Times

April 4, 2018

After a careful examination and assessment of the operation of the Nigerian Army, a former Defense Minister and Army Chief, Lt. Gen. Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma (rtd.), asserted that the Nigerian military is not in any way neutral in its dealings, adding that they collude with armed bandits(killer Fulani herdsmen) to wreak havoc and unleash mayhem on innocent citizens of the country.

Danjuma, after sensing the dangers and repercussions of one trusting or depending on the Nigerian Army for protection, called on the citizens especially those afflicted and/or susceptible to the Fulani terrorism menace, to embrace self-defense because according to him, “you must rise and defend yourselves, else you will die one by one.”

When Danjuma spoke, he was not admonishing the Nigerian political class because obviously, they are being secured by heavy security details that hang around everywhere they find themselves, while most of them are discreetly armed with weapons to protect them from anticipated invaders. Danjuma was referring to the average and vulnerable citizens of Nigeria who felt threatened by the menace and nefarious activities of these marauding Fulani terrorist sect in guise of herdsmen.

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However, since after his admonition, many groups, organizations and well-meaning individuals have rendered support to Danjuma’s speech at the Convocation ceremony of Taraba State University, but as rightly observed to be the norm, little or nothing tangible has been put in place by indigenes of these communities, to checkmate the activities of these rampaging killer herdsmen.

For one, Nigerians are known to be highly complacent on issues that should be taken seriously and not looked at while lying down. The suffering and smiling virus has eaten so deep into their cranial capabilities that they always neglect the most important issues in life. They are considered the happiest people in the world even at this point when they experience bad governance, starvation, insecurity, terror, and horror at its climax as a result of the actions and inactions of a few microscopic greedy politicians.

And the big question is: isn’t there time for everything? Isn’t there time to be angry, curious and circumspect? Isn’t that time now? Isn’t it scary that a people are complacent with such critical conditions as Nigerians are? Isn’t it an anomaly that they enjoy sufferings and afflictions? Wouldn’t it be defeatist and foolhardiness for these marauding and bloodletting herdsmen to strike any community without self-defense or resistance after listening to Danjuma’s warnings?
Democracy in Nigeria is defined in reverse: the people of the government, for the government and by the government. Nigeria’s democracy is all about the people in government and not the citizens of the country as against the original motives of its founding fathers, democracy being the government of the people, for the people and by the people. In this case, however, there are no innocents; the people are always the reflection of the caliber of leaders they choose to represent them, thereby, allowing this mess in the first place.

The whole of Nigeria has been far too long rife with sufferings, retrogression, evil oppression, conflict, insecurity(terrorism), subjugation, corruption and savagery that has plagued her for over 50 years. Now, faced with the gloomy and painful reality that its Armed Forces would be in complicity with Islamic fundamentalists, armed bandits, and terrorists, is only but a tip of the iceberg. In fact, the exposure of the complicity of the Nigerian security forces with armed Islamic terrorists has left much to be desired and has been an eye-opener to those who easily confide in these agencies for valued protection. It has rendered credence to most ardent observers in the Nigerian political scene that the Hausa/Fulani controlled Armed Forces cannot be trusted or taken seriously for its words and statements.

According to the National Christian Elders’ Christian Forum (NCEF), that such conspiracy between the Nigeria Armed Forces and killer herdsmen through the protection they receive from the former could exist, is confirmed by the flagrant violation of the Federal Character Principle in the Constitution by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration whom have through showing of ignorance, narrow-mindedness and ineptitude, woefully failed to bring to book the perpetrators of these carnage and unholy acts.

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Needless to emphasize that the situation appears to have aggravated beyond remedy via the deliberate and ignorant concentration of key positions of the nation’s security infrastructure in the hands of bigoted/fanatical Muslims from the core North. This undemocratic, unconscionable, selfish and irrational constitution of the Armed Forces has succeeded in making its operation so much bigoted, sentimental and biased in most critical issues affecting the security situation of the country.

Evil is recalcitrant and as such have thrived even more in the midst of a people with lackadaisical attitude so alarming. They are mute in the face of the most absurd policies and inhumane treatments ever that their silence has become loud and almost deafening. The federal government and its occupants on its own had been one almighty dummy who folds their arms watching as the situation grows in disarray and awry in the society.

Terrorism, poverty, unemployment and high cost of living are no accident, like slavery, they are man-made and can be eradicated by actions of men. But action in this instance is beyond mere complaints or rants on social media or on the streets. Actions needed at this point in time must be deliberate. The people must willfully, courageously, consciously and intentionally reject their taskmasters who have made a project, their vulnerability, who have failed to provide adequate security against alien invaders and killers in our society.

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They must understand that inasmuch as it is normal for dogs to bark and for birds to sing, it is also normal for the wicked to do evil, also is normal, our right to self-defense. However, what seems abnormal is the good doing absolutely nothing while the wicked are diligently getting worse at perpetrating evil.

The people’s complacency is laziness at its peak(which at this point in time, very detrimental to our survival) whereas the gluttonous and selfish politicians in our midst expand their proactive measures in building structures that aid their evil runnings and enterprises. And until the people’s Will to reject poverty, terrorism, and hardship overpowers that of the politicians’ Will to keep afflicting them, their story is not going to change any time soon.

Like T.Y Danjuma said, the people should rise in self-defense to collectively avert the evil wiles, viles, and machinations of our common enemies, otherwise, we risk being swallowed up by these state-sponsored insurgents.

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It is now time for us to begin to set our own standards different from that of these present set of dealers rather than leaders who have been recycling themselves for many decades now, polluting our economy, dancing shamelessly on our collective interests, looting and plundering our treasury at the end of the day.

We have been collectively afflicted by a generation of political scavengers and it is high time we unanimously reject them as a people. In view of the foregoing, this point in time is the period all concerned individuals should rise up and put adequate measures in place for their self-defense since the Buhari-led administration has ignored and failed to take immediate corrective measures to curb the reckless murder of innocent citizens of the country but has rather chosen to enthrone and promote sectional interests at the detriment of the lives of other citizens.

Let’s end the complacency now and rise-up against the conspiracy, discriminatory and deliberate mischievous operations of the Nigerian military in fending for the killer herdsmen while thousands of innocent citizens are being maimed and decimated at their behest. Well-meaning Nigerian citizens should make adequate arrangements to defend themselves since it is now certain that the security forces in the country have become willing tools in the hands of Islamic extremists and insurgents in the promotion of Jihad and Sharia ideologies over and above democracy which is the authentic ideology of the founding fathers of Nigeria.

The Biafra Times 2018
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