Dear Jagaba: Borgu Land is Bleeding -By Abdulkadir Salaudeen

Dear Jagaba, please permit me to explain to you what Jagaba means once again. I know it must have been explained to you when the title was conferred on you two decades ago. Knowing that it is human to forget, and I am prone to forgetfulness too. To refresh, the full title is Jagaba of Borgu Land. It is not a hereditary title but a traditional chieftaincy title from Borgu Emirate in New Bussa, Niger State. It means Chief Warrior of Borgu Land.

Dear Jagaba, recall that the title was given to you by the late Emir of Borgu, Alhaji Haliru Dantoro Kitoro III (Mai Borgu), who was a former Senator and Minister. He gave you this title in 2006. We learned you were both Senators in 1992 in the aborted Third Republic when you became friends.

Dear Jagaba, could it be that the late Mai Borgu saw the future and knew what tomorrow would bring? Could it be that he knew a time would come when his domain would turn into a slaughter slab where his people would be slaughtered by callous, bloodthirsty and trigger-happy outlaws? Could it also be that he knew you would one day become the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria? He made you, a Yoruba man from the Southwest, the Chief Warrior of Borgu Land.

Dear Jagaba, this is an appeal letter to you: prove that you are the warrior your friend thought you were. Niger State is bleeding. You cannot look the other way because the people of Niger State are more than just Nigerian citizens to you. In addition, they are people in whose affairs you should be emotionally invested, given that you are the Jagaba — a title you gladly accepted and flaunt. The title, aside from being President, directly ties you to Niger State’s affairs.

Dear Jagaba, even if you don’t believe in one Nigeria as you once said, Niger State and the entire Borgu Land, though located in the North, should be seen as your constituency by virtue of the hallowed title conferred on you.

Dear Jagaba, lest I sound to you like someone speaking in tongues, I know you may not understand what I mean by Niger State is bleeding. If you understand what I mean, you may not take it seriously; you may also not believe it because this is coming from your critic. It is possible you strongly believe Niger State is flowing with honey (not blood), considering that those with whom you surround yourself might have told you something diametrically different. One of those people recently told you, and the world, that some Nigerians are now begging him to slow down because their freezers are overfreezed due to uninterrupted power supply.

Dear Jagaba, for your information, Niger State is literally a human slaughter slab. I am neither speaking in metaphor nor in tongues. I am telling you the ugly reality that enemies of Nigeria among those close to you would not tell you. I do not intend to present to you a chronicle of killings in Niger State; that cannot be written in a column. Even a book would definitely not be sufficient. Chronicling the killings in Niger State would require volumes.

Dear Jagaba, what I intend to tell you, as the Jagaba, is that hundreds of victims recently kidnapped across four different mosques in the State are still in captivity. As if those criminals want you to prove you are truly the Jagaba, the Chief Warrior, they tried to provoke you by killing 30 of them to see how you would react.

Dear Jagaba, did you really hear what I said? Permit me to repeat it. In Borgu Land where you are the Jagaba, 30 people were reportedly killed. I thought you would declare a state of emergency. That did not happen. I also thought you would ask to be divested of the title because you have not proven to be a warrior competent enough to protect the people of Borgu. I did not see you do that either.

Dear Jagaba, if this is not touching enough, let me narrate another incident to you, again in Borgu Land. It is as recent as the killing of 30 captives. It happened last Friday. Bandits reportedly abducted more than 100 people during an overnight attack on Shadadi and neighbouring communities in Mariga Local Government Area of Niger State after imposing a N50 million levy on residents as payment for access to their farms for the ongoing farming season. One of the abductees was beheaded.

Dear Jagaba, sadly, the abductee’s head was reportedly chopped off because his relatives fell short of paying the requested ransom in full. Out of the 10 jerry cans of 50 litres of petrol demanded as ransom, the victim’s relatives could only provide six.

What is more, Jagaba, the bandits did not release the victim. Instead, they handed over his severed head to the relatives, wrapped in a polythene bag.

Sir Jagaba, that is not all. These bandits reportedly asked the relatives to take the severed head to the village head of Shadadi. They also provided a telephone number through which the traditional ruler could contact them.

Dear Jagaba, the people of Niger State, Borgu Land, do not deserve this neglect. Despite the fact that the lives of these people have become toys in the hands of bandits, they still love and respect you. Despite the fact that you seem not to care about them and do not fight on their behalf as Jagaba, they still placed a traditional crown on your wife’s head, Iya Alakara.

Dear Jagaba, perhaps Iya Alakara did not inform you, the Etsu Nupe, Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar, conferred another title on her just a few months ago. This is in addition to the title “Yon Bana Jagaban Borgu” conferred on her two decades ago when you became the Jagaba.

Dear Jagaba, the new title conferred on Iya Alakara is “Soniyanko Nupe.” But because I was in a hurry to write you this appeal letter, I did not confirm from my Nupe friend what the title means. I know it has a good meaning. I quickly asked Artificial Intelligence what it means. It told me it means Great Queen of Nupe Land. In case that is not the actual meaning, please forgive me because I have learnt not to trust Artificial Intelligence. I should have asked my Nupe friend to confirm, but I was writing this letter in the middle of the night when he should be deep asleep; and I didn’t want to disturb him.

Dear Jagaba, if Borgu Land has shown you this much love, I think you have not reciprocated it. Let me be blunt here, you have disappointed them. I tried to report you to your friend, the late Alhaji Haliru Dantoro Kitoro III (Mai Borgu), who made you the Jagaba. Then I realized the living cannot communicate with the dead. All reported communications are myths. If I had been able to reach him, he would have felt betrayed.

Dear Jagaba, I wonder why Borgu Land, which stretches to include some parts of Kwara and Kebbi States, has become a bandit colony. I also wonder why the wonderful strategy your military men deployed in rescuing the kidnapped Oyo schoolchildren has not been replicated elsewhere. Many top critics, including Farooq Kperogi, believe the strategy works and call for its replication. I did not, because I don’t believe it. On how the Oyo schoolchildren were rescued, I believe something else, not the strategy that was claimed. If the strategy worked, why hasn’t it worked in Borno and elsewhere?

Dear Jagaba, this takes me to what my northern friends have been telling me. They argue you value only Yoruba lives and that is all. As a Yoruba myself, I wanted to defend you and argue with them, but I don’t want to look stupid. The way you have handled insecurity in Borgu Land despite the love they have shown to you and your wife makes all the arguments I have marshalled to defend you watery.

Dear Jagaba, the campaign now is Tinubu Must Go. I want to join the campaign train but feel some reluctance, thinking I am a Yoruba like you. I should not be campaigning against my brother and my father. But if you fail to do something about the killings in Borgu Land and Nigeria at large, it will be foolish of me not to be very active in the Tinubu Must Go campaign. I think there should be a limit to ethnic solidarity.

Dear Jagaba, this is my position. What do you think?

May God help you to make Nigeria peaceful.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com