By Ata Ukuta

About 4 years ago Deacon Eunice Olawale of the Redeemed Christian Church of God was murdered in cold blood by suspected Islamic extremists in Abuja. She was beheaded and her head was placed on her Bible while preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ early in the morning. Since then such religion-inspired killings have been commonplace in Northern Nigeria especially in Christian communities. The recent killings in Southern Kaduna where the majority are Christians, have again shown the callousness of the present leaders of Nigeria. The killings are representative of what has been happening in the fertile lands of the middle belt of Nigeria that is reasonably known as the food basket of the nation. From Plateau, Kaduna, Benue, Adamawa, and all the middle belt states these killings have been a regular reoccurrence with a similar motive – grazing land or RUGA that the Buhari administration has been trying to pass into law. And one group is always present in all these killings – herdsmen. But to say herdsmen is to be politically correct. The real perpetrators are Fulanis who are the herdsmen in Nigeria. Supported by federal might via the presidency and religious might via the Islamic emirate headed by the Sultan of Sokoto as head of Miyetti Allah. The farmers-herders clashes have been happening for decades but the killings in the last 5 years are genocidal. And this has continued to happen without any government intervention because the president is Fulani. Last week Muhammadu Buhari traveled to Mali to intervene in the crisis there because Fulanis were involved and he needed to protect them as they do not enjoy the kind of military support they enjoy in Nigeria.

It is a known fact that Fulani herdsmen are not only armed all the time but enjoy extraordinary political and military support whenever they kill. Though this phenomenon goes way back because of the composition of Nigeria’s military personnel, it has taken a new momentum because the perpetrators and organizers know they enjoy federal support and they cannot be arrested or eventually prosecuted. It is also this assurance and mindset that has infiltrated into the political class whereby politicians steal public funds without any fear of retribution. A prominent northern elder recently said that all the present probes in EFCC, NDDC, and other agencies would end up being entertainment to prevent Nigerians from addressing real issues. Big Brother Nigeria has been added to this entertainment mix that would prevent us from doing what other nations did in similar situations that produced a change of government before elections were due. Everyday kidnappers, bandits, and terrorists continue to terrorize Nigerians. Politicians and political appointees continue to steal like never before. Government parastatals invent new levies to strangulate small businesses and earners. The SARS division of the Nigerian police continue to carry out illegal arrests, extortions, and extrajudicial killings, yet Nigerians remain docile concerning their plight.

Religious and traditional leaders continue to keep a criminal silence in the light of these killings and killing situations. The pastorate of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, arguably the biggest ministry in Nigeria have not pursued the killing of their ordained minister who was beheaded 4 years ago and continues to be silent about these killings of Christian communities in Southern Kaduna. It is this total neglect, nonchalance, and irresponsibility by all constituted authorities that led our mothers to protest naked. Let it be known to all that whenever African women protest naked sincerely to address real issues there are consequences. And those who have the powers to prevent these killings who should have acted before it became necessary for our mothers to show their nakedness would pay. In the coming days, they will continue to lose all that they hold dear from power to people and positions. God empowers us to help the helpless. When we renege from this responsibility, we make our replacement imminent. And this will happen in the political, religious, and traditional arena because this genocide cannot continue, and the cries of our mothers would yield vengeance.

Article Two of the UN Convention on Genocide defines genocide as “any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such”:

• Killing members of the group.
• Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group.
• Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.
• Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.
• Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

As the chief security officers of Kaduna State and Nigeria respectively, Nasir El Rufai and Muhammadu Buhari should be charged at the International Criminal Court at the Hague, Netherlands, with negligence of duty resulting in genocide, another charge of abetting genocide by inaction and a third charge of ensuring the continuation of genocide by protecting perpetrators. These charges can be substantiated if proper investigations are carried out. If are you reading this, please share and send an email or detailed report if you have evidence that can help to bring culprits to book. Send your evidence via mail, email, or fax to:

International Criminal Court

Information and Evidence Unit

Office of the Prosecutor

Post Office Box 19519

2500 CM The Hague

The Netherlands

otp.informationdesk@icc-cpi.int

Fax +31 70 515 8555