Murder in the cathedral 

By Erasmus Ikhide

This week Sunday, Fulani terrorists attacked St Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Owo, a sleepy town in Ondo State, attended by spewing gory scene where over twenty-five persons were allegedly slaughtered in broad daylights that looked more like horror movie. The beastly Fulani terrorists reportedly detonated bombs before entering the church auditorium with guns and knives for the actual massacre.

Reports had it that the assailants abducted one of the Parish Priest after nearly an hour unhindered. As usual, President Muhammadu Buhari has issued an indifferent, evasive and terse press statement, ‘saying the perpetrators would meet their punishment somewhere else!

“No matter what, this country shall never give in to evil and wicked people, and darkness will never overcome the light. Nigeria will eventually win,” the President said. The President’s self-absorbed statement was followed by Governor Rotimi Akeredolu’s regular twitches about hunting down the maraudering Fulani herdsmen. “We shall never bow to the machinations of heartless elements in our resolves to rid our state of criminals,” he said.

As the smoke was still bellowing in Owo from the Catholic Church attack, another attack was quietly going on in Ute/Arimogija axis, Ondo state where several persons were killed and wounded, spontaneously. Reports had it that same yesterday one or two communities were attacked in Southern Kaduna to continue the Islamic bandits’ vows to expand the coast of bloodletting.

For Nigeria, it is truly a black day for a nation and a people whose leadership prioritises dubious crave for power without responsibility. Up to this moment, the confused and overwhelmed Nigerian government has yet to come clear with a road map as to how to contain the appalling state of security that has completely collapsed in the last seven years. All we hear is a repeat of rehearsed lamentation, handicap, messages of hopelessness, and callousness of a political leadership that came to power on the agenda to resolve security problems.

President Buhari’s incessant lamentation, deliberate dedication to archaic policies, romanticisation with killer herders and the approbation about going after the assailants wouldn’t change the fact that Nigeria has become an abattoir were human beings are butchered on an hourly basis. His northernisation of the nation’s security architectural system, his myopic and outlandish worldviews about insecurity containment in 21st century and deafness, deadness of his conscience wouldn’t allow for positive thinking.

Nigerians must not forget how we found ourselves in this seedy hole of dead. In 2011, (800) eight Hundred people were slaughtered across Nigerian (19) nineteen northern states in post-election violence on the instigation of General Muhammadu Buhari in genocidal fury perpetrated by his Fulani brothers who were misinformed that their hero was rigged out in that election. Because he escaped with all his atrocities as the precursor of violence politics, his ethnic brothers have now been emboldened, visiting complete terror on other tribes part from themselves.

By 2019 Presidential election Buhari had gone monstrously overboard by importing mercenaries from Niger Republic and other African Countries boardering northern Nigeria axis to campaign for him in the Kano rally of February 2nd of that year. Those mercenaries fully armed with small arms and light weapons, who remained with us till date are the monsters rolling the nation in blood.

Buhari’s atrocious politics is one tragedy that would remained with us for several decades to come. Even if Nigerians managed to vote out these current crop of corrupt and rutherless leaders in 2023, it will take more than ordinary power rotation to undo the damages of the past seven years. The masses should reject shallow politicians who are presently campaigning to continue Buhari’s legacy of asphyxiation, economic collapse, barefaced looting, pervasive bloodbath, and primitive animal husbandry where Buhari has been insisting on retaining ancient grazing routes for his terrorists Fulani herders – instead of allowing individuals to ranch their cattle –which is the standard practice, globally.

In President Buhari’s and APC’s slave market democracy, we would be saying the obvious that Nigeria is at a tipping point waiting for supplantation. Nigerians either extricate themselves from the hangman’s noose with their Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVC) next year or remain in the dungeon of deaths.

Ikhide Erasmus wrote in from Lagos Nigerian and can be reached via: [email protected]