The holes in our hearts

By Clement Udegbe

TAKING sides is an unsettling trend in our country today, with the level of dividedness that has engulfed our people like never before. There is disagreement within and amongst Igbos, Hausas, Yorubas, Ijaws, Efiks etc, like never before.

The change we embraced in 2015, has become the chain against us in 2017. What many feared is taking hold, while the holes in our heart continue to widen, as righteousness prepares to take a flight from our nation.

Statistics from reputable and trusted international organisations say our population hovers around 178 million, confirming Nigeria as the most populous black nation of this planet, with a Gross Domestic Product per capita of about $5000, with an average life expectancy of 52 years, against 70 years of most other competing nations in this new world. Adults have failed to show mercy for their children, thus  under-nutrition among children under five is 37 percent such that out of every 1000 live births, over 117 die!

Lack of commitment to change this is our greatest wickedness to mothers and our future- a huge hole in our hearts.

Nigeria is not in a war situation, except we want the world to think so, yet the UN Human Development index ranked us 92 out of 104 countries ranked in 2015. Today, we are complacently sliding down to about 98 from 92 out of the  same countries ranked in the Global Hunger Index. The killer resides in the north of Nigeria, and Islam is its harbinger. Boko Haram, an Islamic born resistance of annihilation, held sway for a long time in the Nigerian North Eastern axis, nurtured by extreme greed and covetousness by political leaders from the north, compromised by religious correctness, and encouraged by accomplices from the south. Under their noses the Chibok Girls saga was born in April 2014, bred, used by celebrities and now dumped two years later because they found change for themselves only, to the shame of mothers and their children who have continued to suffer hunger. And while the world has looked away, the crisis in North Eastern Nigeria has morphed into something much more deadly. Insurgents are no longer the biggest threat. Now, it’s hunger.

More than three million people are affected by what is becoming one of the world’s largest humanitarian disasters. UNICEF has warned that as many as 75,000 children could die in Borno and two adjacent states over the next year unless more assistance arrives. How assistance can come to a nation like Nigeria, remains the dilemma facing concerned citizens of the world. Boko Haram fighters are still launching attacks around Borno state, preventing aid workers from accessing as many as two million people, seven times the population of besieged eastern Aleppo that is widely covered by the Western Media. Nigeria hunger crisis deepens, spills over into Lake Chad Basin, crossing border to Chad, Cameroons and Niger, driven by Violence and Displacement, the twin weapons of Fulani Herdsmen, another new creation of Northern Nigerian Islam.

In 2014, Fulani herdmen killed and destroyed a Village in Enugu State of South East Nigeria. Between 2014 and today, they have killed over 3000 persons and wiped away thousands of families in Benue State.

About six months ago, they wiped away over 800 lives and destroyed over 1400 houses and families in Southern Kaduna.

These  agents of Islam are spreading like wild fire into the Southern Nigeria, while government pretends to be fighting it  “behind the scenes” according to Minister Lai Mohammed.

Recently, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, said “the prevailing activities of the Fulani herdsmen had over the years led to the killing, maiming, raping of Igbo people and destruction of their farms. Not one of them is ever arrested for illegal possession of firearms. Even those arrested in Nimbo for mercilessly killing our people remain unprosecuted by the Northern dominated law enforcement agents…..Ndigbo have been compelled to experience a life of extreme bestiality, violence and brutality, which is alien to their culture”.

In Ebonyi State, Chief Abia Onyike, said that the Fulani herdsmen have recently become a militia group charged with the continuation of the Igbo genocide in Nigeria- “The attacks have led to the loss of innocent lives in Igboland resulting in a culture of pestilence, fear and sometimes defiance.”

In Abia State, Secretary to the Abia State Government,Dr. Eme Okoro, lamented the menace of the Fulani herdsmen, who frequently attack his people who are mainly farmers adding: “There is no Bende community that the Fulani herdsmen have not invaded. Ozu Item has come under attack by Fulani herdsmen too.”

The Association of South East Town Unions, ASETU, has accused the Federal Government of treating the invasion of communities and killing of innocent Nigerians by the rampaging Fulani herdsmen  with kid’s gloves-“As leaders of town unions in the five states of the South-East zone, we are disturbed by the activities of rampaging Fulani herdsmen, who have continued to destroy farmlands, rape women and kill innocent people. The Fulani herdsmen attack did not start today, but the question is: were they this daring in their attacks before Buhari emerged President? ASETU however, thinks that only Buhari can stop the menace of these evil agents. I beg to disagree, because only Ndigbo can stop them from daring our farmers. Unless we resist this devil he will not flee!

Meanwhile, a group, World Igbo Youth Council, WIYC, has called on Ndigbo to be vigilant and defend themselves against Fulani herdsmen attack as the farming season sets in. The group in a statement warned that intelligence reports available to it revealed that more attacks may be carried out by suspected Fulani herdsmen during the planting season.

In Delta State of South South Region, it was reported in the month of May, that there was a community of Fulani Herdsmen where their suppliers were delivered by helicopters.

Violence and Displacement are the goals of these evil Islamic agents in the Southern Nigeria especially in Igbo land to spread hunger. They must be identified, resisted, and repelled or crushed!

 

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