Notable cleric, Bishop Taiwo Akinola, has faulted the Federal Government on its handling of the activities of Fulani herdsmen leading to the killing of farmers in states such as Benue, Plateau, Taraba, Adamawa and Ondo.
Akinola who is the Pastor-General of Rhema Christian Church and Towers, said the indifference of President Muhammadu Buhari to the menace of Fulani herdsmen is appalling and pathetic.
In a statement issued to the media on Sunday on urgent matters affecting the country, he called on security agencies to live up to their responsibilities, noting that they have a duty to ensure the safety of lives and properties of Nigerians and arrest the current slide into social anarchy.
Here’s the full text of Bishop Akinola’s statement:
With the love of Christ, I welcome you all to this year's Bethel Day Peace Service, the Grand-Finale of our annual new year prayer and fasting program. We praise God for His faithfulness and tender mercies over us all, and I equally commend your personal commitment, devotion and discipline which you showed during the entire Bethel period. I pray that God's loving kindness towards us all will never cease. This year 2018, we all shall soar to higher heights of kingdom accomplishments in Jesus name. Amen.
It has become pertinent to offer our standpoint on some issues relating to body polity in our dearly beloved nation, Nigeria. Hitherto, I had refrained from making public comments on some of these issues, not because I do not want to be seen as playing the ethnic, political or even the religious card against the myriads of government apologists and political iconoclasts, but rather I had been prayerfully hoping, all the while, that these contentious issues will fizzle out one way or the other, and that situations in our civil polity will get better. But that has not happened till now.
Government apologists, their co-travelers and all those who feed very fat on the general confusion, apprehensions and gross uncertainties seem to pervade the entire length and breath of our beloved nation, Nigeria. Through their regular responses, they show great readiness to vehemently stand down all constructive engagements on these pertinent national issues. Meanwhile, in the midst of all of these, I was prayerfully and patiently hopeful that those at the helms of our national affairs, the leaders that Nigerians voted into power and their appointed delegated authorities will swiftly act to improve upon the situations, instead of yielding or giving bends to boot lickers and sycophants who just want security for their political future rather than cultivating the common interests of our nationhood.
Quite frankly, these worries and uncertainties in the nation appear now to be spiraling out of control, and we must all act right by speaking out to our leaders to wake them up right away from their slumber and arrest the ugly situations before it becomes too late. The South African cleric and human rights activist, Archbishop Desmond Tutu said: "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor". Furthermore, he said: "my humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together". And, the acclaimed genius, Leonardo Da Vinci, was even more audacious when he asserted: "He who does not oppose evil, commands it to be done".
Now, some of the pressing national issues requiring urgent attention include the following:
Gruesome Killings and General Insecurity.
The Proposed Cattle Colony.
Justice and Fairness to All.
1. GRUESOME KILLINGS AND GENERAL INSECURITY
Before now, it was the Boko Haram that was generating steams of grave concern across our national landscape. But, as soon as their threats seemed to be abating, the escalating carnage and the pure destruction unleashed by the suspected Fulani herdsmen are now taking the central space of our national concern. Notably, the activities of these rampaging and ravaging Fulani Herdsmen, and their incessant and gruesome killings of farmers in Zamfara, and particularly in areas noted to be the abodes of Christians in Benue, Taraba, Plateau, Adamawa, Nasarawa, Kaduna, Ondo states and so on, are terribly divisive, very worrisome and certainly leave so much sour taste on the taste buds of every true and genuinely patriotic Nigerian.
Watching from the sidelines, and judging by the mayhem, the carnage and the huge death toll associated with the activities of these Herdsmen, it is both pathetic and very appalling to equally observe the apparent indifference of our leaders to this unfortunate circumstance in which we have found ourselves.
Moreover, given the recent utterances by some government officials and patrons of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, it has become very imperative for all leaders of thought, be it in the political, religious, academic or socio-economic circles, to speak out on the issues in order to prick the consciences of our people in government and to compel them to be more alive to their constitutional duties of curtailing these devastations that are being caused by these suspected Herdsmen. At this point, I consider that the musings of an Italian-born American human rights activist, Ginetta Sagan, ought to prick our consciences in this regard: "Silence in the face of injustice is complicity with the oppressor".
For God’s sake and for the sake of our common goodness, these brutality, arson and blood curdling violence and murder inflicted brazenly by a certain group of people should not become the reality of our national life. Lives of innocent citizens should not continue to be wasted in a nation in which we are all supposed to be seen and treated as fellow countrymen and equal stakeholders. We all should do better in this regard by speaking out sincerely and appropriately.
In particular, our security agents should live up to their responsibilities by impartially ensuring the security of our lives and properties without any sense of fear or favour. And, most importantly, our leaders at all levels of governance should rise and act now, or else they should be reminded that they are carelessly and/or unwittingly charting paths for Nigeria to become a pariah among the committee of nations.
By the way, are our leaders truly thinking of a better future for Nigeria? Are they even considering the terrible impacts these killings and continued destruction of farmlands could have on our national food security, both in near and far future? It is time to think well as a nation and as individual citizens.
To say that the activities of the Fulani herdsmen over time, especially most recently, have become our nation’s number one security threat after Boko Haram is just stating the obvious. In my humble and well considered opinion, which is predicated upon a logical and rational assessment of the issue at hand, it seems that this pathetic problem has continued to linger on and become more problematic because of the perceived kid-glove approach of government in this regard.
We have heard it, and we consider it as a very unacceptable excuse for the government to state that these herdsmen are non-Nigerian cross-border terrorists. Even if this explanation holds some grains of truth, it is not only trite but very embarrassing and self-defeating as it calls to question the ability of the government to fulfill its constitutional obligations. If anything, such narratives can only embolden the rampaging Herdsmen to become more daring and shameless in their genocidal activities, and the only logical and civilized means of defense for the targets of these murderers is meaningful government’s intervention and engagement by our security agencies.
Please note that government cannot and should not decline, show reluctance or shy away from this role of intervening to curtail this wanton carnage because her failure to do the needful will inadvertently lead the target communities to the only other option of taking up arms in self-defense. May God forbid this in Jesus name.
No segment of any sane or normal society should be guaranteed a monopoly of violence. And, that kind of scenario where a segment of the society rightly feels abandoned to a life of constant jeopardy is an open invitation to avoidable anarchy and internal wrangling along our nation's regional, religious and ethnic fault lines. These, if not quickly averted, could be very disastrous. Again, may God forbid this in Jesus name. Amen. However, as people often say: "prevention is better than cure". Hence, we are calling out loud on the central government of President M. Buhari to quickly arrest the situation by immediately apprehending and sincerely prosecuting these killer herdsmen and their faceless sponsors. A nation as advanced and developed as Nigeria must not be seen to be placing a mean value on human life.
We have heard it said that the crisis is basically economic in nature, and that it has no political, religious or ethnic colourations. Even if this is so, as the case appears to be with the killings in Zamfara, do we then justify murder on the excuses of some people's economic gain? Besides, as things stand now, this so- called "economic" argument appears to be without much merit because these herdsmen belong to a definite ethnic group, who practice roughly the same religion or at least from a particular regional sector of the country. And, on the other hand, the majority of victims of the killing spree are people or residents of the Middle Belt and Southern States, and the overwhelming proportion of these victims are Christians. Thus, this development has led to insinuations that, perhaps, government itself is scheming and pursuing an evil agenda that is inimical to unity and wellbeing of the totality of Nigerians. This sort of insinuation is hard to ignore, especially with the obvious reluctance or inability of government to swiftly arrest and prosecute these marauding bands of murderers.
The media was awash a few days ago with news that a federal minister blames herdsmen killings on the anti open-grazing laws enacted by some states in the federation as well as grazing routes blockage. Very loud, the advice we hear from government these days is that people should be more accommodating to fellow Nigerians as well as strangers in the various communities, and that the killings would stop. However, to be sincere, we all know that this issue at hand goes beyond all of that.
On the average, Nigerians are generally very accommodating and hospitable even without government promptings. Everywhere I go in this country, North, South, East or West, I feel the basic and generous affection and brotherhood spirit that Nigerians have for one another. But, the scenario changes when visitors turn to acts of criminality by destroying the means of livelihood of their hosts with reckless abandon.
Yes, every Nigerian deserves the right to live and work in any part of the country, but nobody has a right to override the right of others. The acceptable norm is: "my right ends where your right begins". If this holds true, why then do some people still feel that any cattle owner could just graze on the farmlands of other people anywhere, destroying both the farm and the farm products in the process? Let’s think about it; anyhow, it is not right and Nigeria should be more civilized than that.
Even the Bible gives a ruling in this regard: “If a man shall cause a field or vineyard to be eaten, and shall put in his beast, and shall feed in another man's field; of the best of his own field, and of the best of his own vineyard, shall he make restitution” (Exodus 22:5).
Meanwhile, I speak in faith, believing that God will certainly arise to defend His heritage in Nigeria. Cases abound in the Bible to show that whenever God rises on behalf of His people, all evil imaginations and machinations are cast down and totally destroyed. Pharaoh and Senacherib, the Assyrian King, are reference cases. Nigeria is the common patrimony of all Nigerians, and it is my firm conviction that no evil plan will ever be successful over her. No! God won't let it happen, in Jesus name. More so, given the fact that Nigeria is a secular state, God, the final Authority in heaven and earth, will not sit by and allow His goodwill over Nigeria to be vanquished, and we the Church will also not allow evil to prevail over us, in Jesus name.
2. THE PROPOSED CATTLE COLONY
Recently, the government came out with a proposal of cattle colonies in all states of the federation, which it opines would bring lasting solution to the farmers/herdsmen's crisis. But, when subjected to rational analysis, we found that the idea is infeasible and simply diversionary in contents. Rather, it would actually aggravate the existing volatile situation in a matter of time. Why? The idea of establishing cattle colonies all over the nation is obnoxious and outrageous in that it connotes that these herdsmen are being rewarded for their heinous crimes with the land of the same people whom they assaulted. This could make the original land owners feel rudely insulted and humiliated, and so arise to rebel. And, for these reasons, I call that the idea be buried and forgotten immediately.
Meanwhile, in as much as we oppose this cattle colony proposal, we believe that the cow owners could be encouraged to have private ranches as we have in other parts of the world, including some African countries. After all, this is business and individual business owners should not expect to run their private businesses at the expense of the nation's treasury, and they should not feel free to destroy other people's businesses in the attempt of carrying out their own businesses without commensurate consequences.
Which way out? The way out of this situation is total submission to the rule of law and justice by all. If these murderers are apprehended and sincerely prosecuted, it would serve to deter other criminally minded people in Nigeria and restore people’s confidence in the government.
Government cannot afford to keep paying lip service to her constitutional duties and electoral promises. The security of lives and properties is a social contract between the government and the governed, and that should supersede all other personal, ethnic or religious interests or agenda. Certainly, having a lackadaisical attitude to this serious national issue or talking tongue-in-cheek in ways to suggest tacit support for criminals is a consuming time bomb waiting to happen, which everyone should work to avoid.
Permit me to give this piece of free advice to all our leaders across the board, be it political, religious, business leaders, and all other leaders of thought in Nigeria: all those who think rightly should take note that other people are also thinking. Only fools do honestly think that other people are not thinking. Yes, it is quite easy to fool some people some times, but it is absolutely impossible to fool all the people all the time. A word is enough for the wise.
3. JUSTICE AND FAIRNESS TO ALL
Without prompting, every rational mind ought to know that when conflicts arise in a society, it is only the principles of fairness and justice (which all parties can accept as reasonable) that can offer a path to lasting peace and resolutions. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said: "Without justice, there can be no peace. He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it".
Fairness and justice to all is the foundation of an egalitarian society, such as the Nigeria of our dream. And, we all should work harder to be fair and just to all people, irrespective of religion, tribe, age, gender or social class. And, not only should we be fair and just, we should be seen so to be.
Where justice is glaringly absent, an ordinary household conflict can turn to open nationwide conflagration. If indeed we hope to build an egalitarian society that will be a pride of all and sundry, then, justice and fairness should be our waking thoughts and our walking passion. Let's see what the Holy Book has to say about this:
Psalms 82:2-3
How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.
Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
Proverbs 21:2-4
Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the Lord pondereth the hearts.
To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.
An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin.
Justice and equity dictate that whatever is good for the goose is also good for the gander. At this stage, while not holding brief nor playing an advocate for any group(s) agitating for the breakup of Nigeria, yet I hold the view that a system or situation where an ethnic group is proscribed for clamoring for self-determination while another that kills and maims human beings in the name of cattle rearing is being confronted with kid gloves negates this principle of natural justice and leaves much to be desired.
Moreover, a sad situation where it appears that some sensitive national appointments are skewed to favour a tribe, and only members of a particular regional sector are qualified to head over 80% of the State’s security apparatus in a nation of over 250 tribal groups is just appalling and altogether repugnant. Yes, I believe in absolute loyalty among core leaders of any organization, but I equally believe that justice is the bedrock of any society that hopes to earn any human respect from other global citizens of the world. There is no part of this country that is not endowed with highly qualified and responsible citizens.
Justice, fairness and equity are the hallmarks of social intelligence. Certainly, God sets up kings to administer the rule of justice to all citizens (2 Chronicles 9:8; 2 Samuel 8:15). A good leader must rule justly and be fair to all because there can be no real lasting peace under any unjust rule. May God show us mercy and increase the tempo of fairness and justice in our beloved country Nigeria, in Jesus name.
CLOSING COUNSEL TO ALL AND SUNDRY:
LIVE THE WAY YOU WISH TO BE REMEMBERED
It strikes me very vividly that one of the basis of our national troubles is rooted in the fact that many of our leaders - political, religious, socioeconomic etc - rule as if they will be there for ever, or worse still, as if no one will ever remember their actions, inactions, deeds and misdeeds. Take it or leave it, whatever a man does today is captured in the long memories of fellow men, especially in these age and time of info-technology.
Generally speaking, our actions today lay precedence for the future reactions we will see. Believe me, posterity has never in history failed to judge past actions and inactions of we humans. And as such, let our leaders remember that every evil acts and evil doers are never forgotten nor their memories blessed. The Yoruba people say and I transliterate: "the king that rules and the community enjoys peace will ever be remembered, and the king that presides over the eventual ruin of the community will never be forgotten" ~ (Yoruba adage).
Let's make no mistake about it: all our political actors at the center stage of power as well as the hardened gladiators today, from head to toe, shall become subjects of historical scrutiny and, sometimes, cruel discourse tomorrow. And, their children and other family members shall equally share in the glory or the ignominy and public odium, as the case may be, of their present deeds. Please let's us all be very careful of what we say or do today because of tomorrow.
SOCIAL INVOLVEMENT OF THE NEW CREATION MAN
As another election year draws closer, I am advising all Christians to be more politically active and discerning to ensure that their voices count in the composition and decisions of the government. We should not be casual or nonchalant in our approach to the issues of governance again. Not again!
Obtain your voters cards and also participate actively by contesting for positions at the various levels of governance. We should also vote so that we can reflect our preferences and tendencies in a civilized manner. We should be proactive, noting that what has happened to others could also happen to anyone anywhere. But I firmly believe that our God, the God of heaven and earth will stand with us to defend us to the utmost, in Jesus name. Albeit, we all must be keenly interested and ensure that we are passionately involved in how we are governed.
CONCLUSION
Lastly, I enjoin all Christians to earnestly pray for God’s intervention in all these issues. Let's there be times of genuine national repentance, and let's lift up our voices to God, asking for His forgiveness and healing upon our land in Abuja and in all state capitals of the Federation. I hold the firm view that God will give us a turn-around for the better in Jesus name.
Let us not be ignorant of the implications that these dastardly acts could have on our faith, freedom of worship, and most especially on the destinies of the upcoming generation of our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren if we refuse to ask for divine intervention right on time. We should know that our prayers have great powers and will definitely bring confusion and destruction to the camps of the enemies of God's Kingdom.
Yes, the time to act right and speak out is now. And, even more urgently, the time to pray more fervently is now. Thanks and God bless you all, in Jesus Name.
God bless Rhema Christian Church & Towers, Int'l.
God bless Christ Global Network.
God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
PUBLIC AND CORPORATE PRAYERS FOR NIGERIA
Lord, we thank you for your goodness and mercy to us as a nation, and thank you for choosing us for your glory.
We pray, Lord, for national forgiveness for all our sins. We have been unjust and unfair in our dealings as a nation. We have been very corrupt and have even shed innocent blood. Please forgive us, for Christ sake.
We neutralize every blood sucking demon by the fire of the Holy Ghost, in Jesus name.
Lord, please, make Nigeria great and empower her to fulfill her prophetic destiny. Give us good and God-fearing leaders at all levels of governance. Lord, be glorified in Nigeria, in Jesus name. Amen.
