On the Kaiama Massacre and Why Genocide against Muslims Continue in Nigeria -By Abdulkadir Salaudeen

Receiving the news of the mass killings of innocent people in Kaiama Local Government Area of Kwara State left many Nigerians in shock, from which they may not recover soon. The killing was systematic and deliberate, perpetrated by wicked emissaries of Satan who enjoy sucking the blood of the living and relish sending the living to their early graves.

Different figures of those killed were reported, but not ascertained. The number of souls lost could be in the hundreds. What was the offense of the town dwellers? Why were they killed? Why have human lives become cheaper in Nigeria than those of mosquitoes? Do we even kill mosquitoes in our homes in hundreds when the need to kill them arises? Why are these sanguinary agents so intent on wiping out an entire Muslim population in Kiama Local Government, given that the majority of the victims (if not all of them) are Muslims?

Let me make myself clear here. I am not a religious bigot who believes or pretends to believe that Muslims are the only victims of the senseless bloodshed going on in Nigeria. My reference to Muslim Genocide in the title above is just to set the record straight. It is to parallel the Christian genocidal claim; not to counter it. If we continue to use the word ‘genocide’ to describe baseless and senseless killings in Nigeria, we can use it more appropriately to mean Nigerian Genocide because Nigerians are the victims, irrespective of their faith and ethnicity.

The attacks, we were told, targeted the villages of Woro and Nuku in Kaiama LGA. It started on Tuesday evening around 5:00 p.m. and continued into the early hours of Wednesday. Gunmen allegedly rounded up residents, bound their hands, indiscriminately opened fire on them, set houses ablaze, including palace of the district head, and abducted an unspecified number of women and children. To ease abduction, the district head’s jeep was allegedly used to convey some of the kidnapped victims into the forest. The district head himself is missing. Has he been killed, abducted, or is he hiding somewhere in the bush? The best answer is: only God knows.

Many residents took refuge in nearby bushes as of Wednesday, according to Premium Times. Unlike other attacks that are enterprising in nature, in which people were kidnapped for ransom, this is a systematic killing and pecuniary gain isn’t obviously the objective. Though women and children were abducted, the real mission was to kill as many people as possible, as they did. For who will pay ransom for the release of the abducted when their breadwinners have already been sent to the graveyard?”

We later learnt that the terrorists were ‘provoked’. But the question is: who provokes terrorists in a country where terrorists do not pretend to be more powerful than the government and citizens are begining to realize it? Premium Times reported, quoting residents and local leaders, that the assault came about five months after the group sent a letter to the district head of Woro, Salihu Umar, notifying him of their intention to visit the community for radical preaching.

After receiving the letter, the district head did the needful. No responsible leader should be willing to listen to the preaching of, or be admonished by, Satan’s emissaries clad in religious attire. The district head forwarded the letter to the Kwara State Emirate Council in Ilorin. Subsequently, a team of soldiers was deployed to Woro. However, having spent some weeks on guard with no attack occurring, the soldiers withdrew.

The action of the district head was the cause of provocation. After the soldiers’ withdrawal, the agents of death struck. Not too long after the several-hour attack, the Governor of Kwara State, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, visited the community to commiserate with them, as usual.

Who then should be blamed? I don’t think the military should be blamed. We cannot expect them to be stationed in Woro indefinitely. The district head also acted responsibly by informing higher authority. We should rather blame Nigeria’s security architecture, which seems incapable of preventing attacks before they occur. It appears that reactiveness to terroristic attacks, rather than aggressiveness against terrorists, currently guides Nigerian military operational philosophy.

What if it is said that military bombardments of bandits in the epicenter of banditry (northwest) are the reason why bandits are moving to the north central and southwards? I would respond by asking: what then is the outcome of the bombardments? If military bombardments of bandits only result in bandits transferring their operational base from the northwest to found other enclaves in the north central, do we call that progress?

It means bandits in the northwest are not neutralized as claimed. Perhaps military bombardments of bandits’ enclaves have successfully neutralized deep forests that provide cover for bandits, but not bandits themselves. Neutralization of bandits in one part of the country should not lead to serious insecurity in other parts, as witnessed in Kwara State and other north-central states. Bandits are gradually spreading their operational tentacles to the southwest (especially Osun State), despite military bombardments. This is not to discredit the efforts of our gallant soldiers, but certain things are not adding up.

The government must be vigilant and act decisively to avoid total chaos. I still do not believe our military can not defeat these criminals. The government should channel its resources towards eliminating these marauding bandits and give our men in uniform all the needed supports to take the fight to the bandits with unrelenting aggressiveness.

There is a question I have not addressed. Why does genocide against Muslims continue in Nigeria, and why are there no strong voices speaking out against it? It is because Nigerian Muslims are so fatalistic and thus become so lethargic that they are willing to accept calamities, no matter how destructive, as fate. They do not bother to understand what the underlying causes of calamities are. And even when they do understand them, they are not ready to address them. This is not Islam. But this is what their clerics, who should be at the forefront of speaking truth to power to address insecurity, taught them and continue to teach them.

But because Nigerian Christians cannot tolerate the incessant and senseless killings of their brethren, they openly laid their complaints to Donald Trump, the de facto President of the world. And can anyone really blame them for that? Trump wasted no time launching Christmas Day attacks on Nigerian bandits. Though I am yet to see evidence that a single bandit was killed, it effectively drew the world’s attention to the fact that Christians are killed in Nigeria. This is despite the fact that Muslims are the majority of the victims.

No one prevents the ulama in Nigeria or any Muslim organization from taking their cries to Donald Trump. Or could it be that Nigerian Muslims are not Trump’s ‘cherished Muslims’? Why can’t they take their cries to the United Nations or to any regional organization? Why can’t they, for instance, seek Saudi Arabia’s intervention to help stop the genocide against their Muslim brethren?

The killing of Muslims like flies, as happened in Kaiama, should disturb any reasonable Nigerian. Yet, our clerics would rather seek Saudi assistance to build more mosques while worshippers are continuously being killed. If it is not mosque construction, it is tons of dates (dabino) to feed ‘hungry’ Muslims. What is even more ridiculous is the ulama’s attempts to make peace with bandits. Though not all ulama reason like this, those who reason well do not have a powerful voice. I hope we wake up before it is too late.

I am using this medium to send my condolences to the people of Kaiama. Even though all Nigerians are bereaved by the killings, the people of Kaiama are more bereaved than other Nigerians. May the Almighty strengthen those who lost their loved ones, may the departed souls rest in peace, and may the rest of us live in peace.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen

salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com