North’s endangered specie?

Aliyu Musa

This week marks exactly one year since the notorious Christmas Day church bombing at Madallah in which dozens of innocent Christian worshippers lost their lives. It was followed by series of similarly reprehensible attacks on Churches and reprisals against blameless Muslims, clearly indicating how Nigerians have played into the hands of those stubbornly bent on igniting inter-religious war and violently collapse the country.

As the year rolled on and the crises persisted, it became apparent that they were becoming open to politicisation. And conspiracy theorists fashioned tools to fully resume work. The press became the most effective of those.

Of all the theories, the most disgusting yet has been the one on the recent helicopter crash in which the governor of Kaduna State, Mr Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa and former National Security Adviser, General Andrew Owoeye Azazi lost their lives alongside four others.

I know too little about the late Yakowa to comment about his stewardship of Kaduna but I have heard quite a few posthumous annotations to conclude that the man was a good leader that will be deeply missed by all.

Therefore, I extend my heartfelt condolence to the people of Kaduna and Nigeria over the death of Sir Yakowa and other victims of various tragedies. Death, as Shakespeare says in Julius Ceaser, is a necessary end that will come when it will come. But making a selfish political gain out of it is utterly vile.

Nigeria’s political class is the most formidable group in the country. Out of every event, tragic or comic, they emerge prize winners. While the families and friends of the victims of the chopper crash were still mourning the loss of their loved ones some politicians were either making bizarre claims or sponsoring frames in the media to enable them take full advantage of the mishap.

A state governor, Gabriel Suswam, was the first to openly claim (although his aides insist the statement was fabricated) the crash was part of a larger plot to eliminate Christian leaders in the Middle Belt of Nigeria and that the dreaded Boko Haram sect had marked him for assassination. After the last elections, he said, only four of the 19 Northern governors were Christians. But now only two of them are still standing; the other two, either dead (Sir Yakowa) or bed-ridden (Danbaba Suntai). The survivors (Suswam and Jonah Jang of Plateau State) were in his estimation the endangered specie.

And like a typically sponsored frame, a group that goes by the taxonomy Middle Belt Forum echoed Governor Suswam’s weird allegations, even with exaggerations. For example, its leaders listed the crash which claimed the life of Yakowa and five others in President Jonathan’s state of Bayelsa, the plane crash which left Suntai bed-ridden, the claim that Suswam is on Boko Haram’s hit list and the crisis in Plateau State allegedly targeting Jang as an orchestrated plan by the ‘core North to eliminate the Middle Belt leaders’.

Such claims are very illogical, petty, outrageous and divisive. No doubt the crash in which Mr Yakowa and General Azazi died was a major tragedy but they were not the only victims. With them were four others, two of whom were Warrant Officer Kamal Mohammed and the naval pilot of the helicopter Commander Murtala Mohammed Daba. Unless there is something I have missed in the story, the two were dedicated officers that died in the service of their fatherland and could not have been part of any anti-Christian or anti-Middle Belt plot.

Attempts to blame the plight of Governor Suntai on anyone else are most irrational and totally scandalous. In the first place he was a full time governor who did not have the time to sufficiently train as a pilot. But he chose to risk his and the lives of others by flying a plane rather than preoccupy himself with the business of running his state (a very demanding task).

Similarly, claims that Suswam or Jang or any Middle Belt or Christian leader is particularly targeted in a design intended to give Muslims an undue advantage is completely absurd. In present day Nigeria, especially in the North, the downtrodden, irrespective of tribe or religion are the endangered specie whose lives are worth nothing to their over pampered leaders that spend entire state’s budgets beefing up their security at home, in the office, on transit and everywhere.

But frames like those we see in the media these days are deliberately sponsored to obfuscate the reality, send the wrong signal and set people against each other. If politicians are serious about tackling insecurity they should seriously consider thinking less about themselves and more about the people and country.

Postscript>
This piece appears in the Blueprint newspaper of 28/12/12.