#EndSARS: Are the Northerners Reallyi Learning Theiro Lesson?
By Abdulmumin Giwa
I have seen various efforts by some shallow mined individuals striving to condemn the End SARS protests staged mostly in the lower parts of the Niger down to the coasts. Their only reason is that the president is a northerner and protesters are southerners whereas, SARS had committed even more serious crimes in the north as they have done in the South, including extra judicial killings and extortion of innocent citizens.
Even as the general view in the country is that they are still policemen, a force being run in contradiction to its rules of engagement. It is considered by Nigerians as the most corrupt segment of the Nigerian society. Yet they are in-charge of policing the nation.
SARS is just a unit of the force specially trained to fight the menace of armed robbery and similar crimes but has only provided the corrupt policemen another opportunity to extort the citizenry. This particular act is what has angered some Nigerians, especially in the south and are crying out. They can’t stop the police but at least they can stop the SARS from intimidating and killing them and they did just that.
Nigerians up north, especially the so-called supporters of Mr President, Gen Buhari, who see everything differently, not because the protest is not true but because it exposes the weaknesses of their own in power.
Generally, the northerners are living with a myopia. They have refused to understand that they are facing poverty, hardship, lack of development and insecurity because their elites, politicians and clergy don’t give a damn about them. But they blindly get pushed into being loyal to vagabonds in power using religious and regional sentiments. The clerics have turned into a tool in the hands of the politicians used in justifying their misdoings. The massacre of Nigerians in Zaria by the Buhari regime in 2015 was managed in the same manner. Government killed over 1000 innocent unarmed citizens, Nigerians and northerners including women and children, buried them in mass graves for the crime of road blockade and nothing happened thereafter. This is the level of mentality and stupidity of the northerners.
Now the north has turned into a crime zone without security. Bandits, kidnappers, terrorists and rustlers are having a field day. They just kill and murder people at will without any effort by the elites, politicians and clergy to even speak out against it.
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For example the myopic people will not listen to whatever I say as I speak out against insecurity in the north. They will simply label me as ‘Shi’ah and enemy of Buhari’ while they continue to suffer the calamity unchallenged. The politicians will employ the clergy and pay them to reign all sorts of insults on me for speaking against the the killings of innocent Nigerians while the killings continue. How do you describe people with this mentality?
So, it is a mentality. It is not because the protests were by southerners but because the northerners are being exploited. Even if the northerners are the ones protesting, they will be isolated and labelled negatively by the elites, politicians and clergy who are protecting their money making networks.
In efforts to condemn the protests, you will hear them condemning the protesters of not protesting against the killings in the north, that there is sectional intention. Is this not stupid and funny. Even it the protesters from the South are to call for an end to the incessant killings in the north, the same network of people will condemn them and say we are the ones being killed and not you. This is how stupid they can be.
The wicked northern elites, politicians and clergy will never allow their network to be destroyed, sick people.
Hence, it will be crazy and stupid for the the handful of concerned northerners to expect a cry out on their own problem, managed by your own people in power. This is crazy, is it not a shame?
Just keep the cowardice aside and come out and challenge the vagabonds in power on the incessant killings of your people. Innocent people in their hundreds get buried on daily basis and yet you remain demoralised and inacfuture
The Southerners cried out because they are being killed by SARS, you should be strong enough to cry out as you get killed in hundreds on daily basis by bandits and rustlers while your leaders are partying and enjoying themselves with their families. Is it not enough that there is scare of hunger in Nigeria, especially the densely populated north, in the near future due to activities of criminals who have disallowed farmers from accessing their farms in addition to floods that have destroyed farmlands across the north?
We have seen states in the South-west establishing defense mechanism against insecurity permeation into their region, but nothing similar is seen from the north which is facing the calamity.
Pls, pls, pls enough of the blame game. The northerners should face the reality and learn their lessons.
Arewa Agenda is a Publication of young writers from Northern Nigeria towards Peaceful Coexistence and National Development through positive narratives.
