Stop the bloodbath, Muhammadu Buhari

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari’s recent lamentation over the prevailing bloodletting and insecurity in the country was cold comfort to Nigerians. His vivid observation of the self-destructive impact of violence and its abhorrence by major faiths also failed to reassure his fellow citizens who are sorely disappointed in his government’s inability to protect lives and property. He should adopt a hands-on approach and fulfill his campaign promise to dispassionately stamp out lawlessness and punish offenders.

Buhari has not only dashed hopes, he has also polarised the country afresh; his distraction has facilitated impunity by criminals and security chiefs, while failure to swiftly apprehend and punish mass murderers has emboldened deviants, most notably, Fulani herdsmen and militants, who are competing with Boko Haram in delivering the mounting body count.

For once, however, Buhari appeared to appreciate the pain of millions of Nigerians caught in the vortex of violence, terrorism and brigandage. No culture or religion, he asserted, supports such disregard for the sanctity of life. His appeal that people should embrace peace and tolerance is coming rather late in the day. Buhari’s mandate is to stop the carnage, not to lament.

Though the seeds of violence and bloodletting – mutual hostility, terrorism, kidnapping, armed robbery, arson, gang violence, political thuggery, and the Fulani carnage – were sown before his Presidency, he has not made the difference that his military background suggested to the electorate. True, he has degraded Boko Haram’s hold on the North-East region, but insecurity has continued to ravage the country. Fulani herdsmen and militants, encouraged by the persistent justification of their incursion into farms by top government functionaries, operate with murderous impunity.

Too much blood is flowing in Nigeria. Fifty-five persons died in the latest round of inter-communal violence in Kasuwan Magani, Kaduna State, that prompted Buhari’s appeal for tolerance; the International Crisis Group estimated that 2,500 were killed 2016 in “herders-agrarian communities clashes” and an average 2,000 per year 2011 to 2016, “in some cases, exceeding the toll from Boko Haram insurgency.”

The toll from terrorism 2010 to 2016, according to Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, reached 100,000 dead with over 2.5 million displaced. One tally put the number of persons killed in the first 10 weeks of 2018 at 1,351 from herdsmen attacks, kidnapping, communal and sectarian warfare. In Zamfara State, local and cross-border bandits have rustled thousands of cattle, razed entire villages and killed policemen and soldiers in audacious attacks. A dozen villages were destroyed during a four-day killing spree in which 200 persons died in Plateau State in June. Bandits killed 1,135 persons from 2011 to 2015 in Zamfara, says the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps.