The Senator representing Kaduna Central in the National Assembly, Senator Shehu Sani has revealed why Northern elite are quiet on the incessant killings of innocent Nigerians in the North.
The lawmaker, who has continued to voice out on the killings of Nigerians in different parts of the country said most political elite from the North were quiet just to avoid being tagged or labelled, “anti-Buhari or anti federal government.”
Sani said with their continuous silence, the elite have succeeded in saving their neck while the necks of the masses are massacred.
He wrote on Facebook, “Most political elite from northern Nigeria are not loudly speaking out against the mass murder going on in northern Nigeria, perpetrated by bandits, armed herdsmen or organised criminal gangs out of fear that they may be tagged or labelled as anti-Federal Government or anti-president.
“The elites save their necks by their silence and the necks of the masses are continuously slaughtered.”
Meanwhile, a former Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, and spokesperson of the Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF), Prof Ango Abdullahi has vehemently defended the incessant killings by Fulani herdsmen across the country.
Abdullahi also said that the herdsmen menace was politically-motivated by the South to disrupt the politically-united North ahead of the 2019 general elections, adding that this was how Boko Haram was introduced during former President Goodluck Jonathan’s government which led to his failure in the 2015 polls.
Justifying the killings, Abdullahi said that the herdsmen are killing members of their host communities in order to defend themselves, adding that the herders were free to take the cattle to any part of the country the same way an Igbo man does his business.
In an interview with newsmen, last Saturday, Abdullahi said, “I have been involved in debates against some respected people from the southern part of this country who believe that this country is not balanced because the North is too big; because the North is too politically united, so there must be a way of disrupting this unity, and this is what we are seeing on ground today, and the elements that are being used are the Fulani herdsmen.
“This matter would be looked at properly; political alliances and so on are welcome. You don’t need to lose blood, or property to engage in political alliance or whatever you want, or still, you don’t need to introduce excuses that will lead to loss of lives. We saw this when the Boko Haram was on ground; they said northerners created the sect to disrupt former President Goodluck Jonathan’s government, which led to his failure in the last election, and so on.
“Now that Boko Haram is out of the way, the new excuse is the Fulani herdsmen. This is what is happening in other places except in areas that you are talking.
“We have seen what they called a new handshake across the Niger; it is political, and we have seen the mourning that has taken place in Benue and other places to show that the monolithic North is not in tandem with the Middle Belt; it is all politics. Our Middle Belters don’t need to take the agenda that appears to be a thing of distrust. We are not going to force anybody into a relationship politically or otherwise. We see this as a political agenda.
Asked if herdsmen are not the ones committing the murders, he added, “The truth is, if you want to kill me and I have a chance first, I will kill you, or do you want people to be killed and not defend themselves? By your reporting, you have denied them justice and government also has denied them justice by not going to arrest those that are killing them. So, they defend themselves.
On the herdsmen that kidnapped, raided and set Chief Olu Falae’s farm ablaze, he said, “My uncle was kidnapped last week in Kaduna, my cousin’s children were also kidnapped and they had to go and find N2.5 million to pay. Why is Olu Falae case different? Is it because he was Secretary to the Federal Government? He is a Nigerian just like my uncle and my cousin whose children were kidnapped. The right of every citizen is important under the law. Why is he so special?
“What about the impunity of the people killing herdsmen? The herdsmen in Nigeria are reacting to the injustice meted out daily to them?
“You people, you Nigerians, including you who are biased, who are not prepared to protect the rights and interests of herdsmen. They are killed but not reported, that is not acceptable.
“Herdsmen operate in these places you mentioned because the country has denied them the traditional routes which the British created for them in 1914 when they occupied this country because they realised that, like cars require tracks, herdsmen also require tracks they can use to graze and drink water.
“The British provided it for them and gazetted it but people have denied them these routes. So, where do you expect the animals to follow? They have to follow somewhere and the easy road is the one other people are using. We are all living in Nigeria.
Asked if he was trying to justify the menace of herdsmen, he maintained, “I am justifying it very strongly because herdsmen are being unjustly treated in this country.
“They are businessmen just like the farmers whose crops are being destroyed. They should invest in their business; buy ranches like the farmers bought their parcels of land.
They are businessmen. If an Igbo man could go to my state and set up a shop, why shouldn’t herdsmen operate elsewhere? Or are you the one who planted the grass the animals are feeding on? Are you the one who created the water they drink?
“The land belongs to Nigerians and herdsmen are Nigerians. If an Igbo man can go to the North and set up a business, why won’t herdsmen go to the South, including your village, to graze their cattle?
“Where we come from, you don’t pay for land, you only ask for permission to use it. That is why I said you people are biased against other people and that is why the peace of this country will be very difficult.”
Meanwhile, the Senator representing Kaduna Central in the National Assembly, Shehu Sani says blood is becoming cheaper than petrol in today’s Nigeria.
Sani, who spoke, last Saturday, while x-raying the challenges facing the country and the way and manner political leaders value the lives of the citizens, said that Nigeria has now become a country of “mass murder, mass burial and continuous bereavement”.
The senator said when a country is no more shocked by tragedy; it has lost its humanity.
“In Nigeria today, blood is becoming cheaper than water and PMS. The most tragic of all tragedies is when tragedy becomes a routine in our daily lives,” he said.
“We are in an era where our political class are toasting champagne on the tiles of new sepulchre. The silence and cowardice of the northern political elites to the mass killings going on in the north is out of fear that they can be labelled or blackmailed as being anti government.
“When a nation is no more shocked by tragedy, it has lost its humanity. When people are being killed every day, they are buried along with the integrity of their government and the honour of their leaders. When the right to life is not sacred, all other rights are incinerated.”
The senator said President Muhammadu Buhari must stop the “sycophantic” culture of governors leaving their duty posts to visit him.
“The new sycophantic political culture of governors leaving their duty post, in their respective states, almost on a daily basis to climb the Rock of Aso in order to pledge loyalty, leave their citizens in the hands of moribund and powerless deputy governors and at the mercy of well armed killers,” he said.
“President Buhari must ban state governors from the daily ritual of visiting the Villa while their home states burn,” Sani added.