By: Dr Bolaji O. Akinyemi

The challenge of the Nigerian State is not as bad as it appears if not for political benefits sustaining the avaricious living of the very few among the subjugated tribes. These are the hirelings their masters refer to as “useful idiots”, who are often “used fools” meant to be dumped after the expiration of their salvage value.

Our oppressors by now would have entertained a rethink, but for as long as Lazarus can’t see beyond the table of the richman, the echo of “rankadede” will continue to be heard from the oppressed to their oppressor. Nothing depicts our situation better than a man whose wife is being ravaged by a rapist and he is encouraged with an intermittent greetings of “well done sir” by the husband.

Indeed, there is the ravaging onslaught of Herders against the Famers which calls for concern by well meaning Nigerians but also yearning for full and unbiased investigation by security agencies. But which security agency? That is the challenge. Definitely, not the DSS that may have become the ancestral unit of the Fulanis.

Or even the Nigeria police that must see no evil being perpetrated by a minority ethnic nationality against almost 400 ethnic nationalities, comprising even the majorities. Nigeria’s model of oppression is made in hell! Where else will a small ethnic nationality of less than 5 million people perpetually hold 195 million other tribes to ransom, if not in Nigeria!

Our investigation must be carried to God, done through the Holy Books of the Faith of our oppressors and that of the oppressed, because not even the President and his Presidency can be trusted. It’s obvious they have taken side! So, here we are with God!

The family unit was the beginning of God’s vision for a peaceful world. With Adam and Eve, the family unit was founded. The home was born and the world began. Families grew into ethnicities and ethnicities into tribes and tribes into nations.

But at the base of the growth was an obvious failure of the Government of that day. When a farmer killed an herder, the President looked the other way. Adam was the President when Cain slew his brother Abel forcing no one but God to step in. Any other person would have been a meddlesome interloper in an affair involving brothers born of the same parents.

Failure of Government to give justice, is always an invitation of the wrath of God. The challenge of divine intervention in human affairs is in our calendar’s variations. A day with God is a thousand years with humanity. So to give justice to the herder who was killed, the herders have maintained upper hand for about six days (six thousand years).

No one oppressed for so long will not seek an end to his oppression. We became interested in our desperation when a Sheikh took up the challenge for peace, but lost it when he made excuse for crime. There’s absolutely no justification for crime, and there can never be! Adam had only one “hijab” wearing wife, with no other woman in sight to tempt him. But he still fell into sin. Cain was not in want of land to graze his cattle nor rivers to lead them to drink, yet evil lurked in his heart till the deed was done.

Beyond the issues on the earth is that of the heart. World views are at the mercy of our perception and as people think in their heart so shall their earth be. Unto the pure in heart sights on earth are inconsequential, for our hearts makes pure our earth.

In Cain, the inate passion to be one’s brother’s keeper was murdered. That gruesome murder put the world’s wheel of peace in reverse. Down through the ages and generations, tragic events of monumental proportions continue to unfold between herders and farmers though evil is not limited to both professions. Hearts became chambers of evil and the earth the unfortunate platform for their execution. Not one evil has taken place on earth since then that wasn’t first thought out in one’s heart.

One day the world woke up to the news of almost 200 farmers who paid back their ancestral debts to the herders with their lives (apologies to Nasir El-Rufai). The Government wasn’t any different than Adam. They looked the other way because the farmers refused to obtain military permission before embarking on that journey of no return.

Boko Haramist are herders cousins, but if the brotherhood of brothers couldn’t survive in the face of bitterness of heart, what hope holds the connection of cousins? Haramist have turned on Herders birthing a new wave of family members killing one another.

If only lessons were learnt from the progenitor of both religions, who when his family was challenged, he did the needful. He reminded his nephew Lot, that they are bothers, and his government called for the restructuring of their family, and businesses. President Muhammadu Buhari can still save the day, if he will remind us that the Igbo are very much his brothers as the Fulani and the Yoruba and will no longer be denied their right for the sake of his cousin the Hausas.

Now its been “6 days” (6 years) of injustice. It’s late in the day for herders to hope to get away with their many atrocities. Sabbath is here, tomorrow will be the beginning of a new week. We mustn’t live for vengeance like El-Rufai opined but for justice in the interest of humanity and dignity of divinity.

Our Nation need ONE MAN, whose heart has not been found with hearts that devises evil. ONE MAN who has never been part of the stock of wickedness; an Abel who saw the rage of Cain but survived so he could serve. A Muslim, Christian or Traditionalist, does it really matter? But ONE MAN whose tribe is humanity and is religion a heart given in service to humanity.

Beyond the divine duties of the heart is the grip of skill for leadership with his/her mind. Our ONE MAN must be a manager of people first, before resources. ONE MAN with proven ability for the tasks of building back the nation that is ahead of us. ONE MAN with zest to see a new Nigeria. ONE MAN with an inspiring personality behind whom all the divide can come together to say lead us there!

The challenge:
No man having these virtues should have enough money to prosecute the presidential project. None of our two big political party will give such a financial burden their ticket. Nigerians must therefore be ready to get into the 2 big parties to frustrate the token of the wicked that has left our choices between the devil and the deep blue sea. We must be prepared to buy the future by investing in that ONE MAN.

Source: StreetReporters.ng