Inhumanity Vs Insecurity: A Case For Southern Kaduna People

BY BARR. YAKUBU B. GALADIMA

Southern Kaduna as a geographical location and its people have been in the news, mostly for reasons not distant from insecurity, leading to bloodbaths, maiming, etc. In fact, it is not recondite that what the people are experiencing does not fall short of what I would term as the condoning of crimes, criminals and criminality by a people whose act/omission supports same, and by the government of Kaduna State who has appeared to abdicate its onerous task and responsibility of securing lives and properties.

Whereas, SK and its people have becomes the turf whereupon their aggressors trudges on, it is apposite that the provisions of CAP 2 of the 1999 CFRN(as amended) particularly S14(2)b, purports that the security and welfare of the people SHALL be the primary purpose of government.

Happily, such provisions for me are cast on iron as they brook no watering down. However, unlike the provisions of CAP 4 of the selfsame constitution of Nigeria, these provisions are unfortunately not justiciable. So, to what end? That the people do not reserve a right against the government for failing to guarantee their safety and welfare in the courts is unfairness to them.

Apparently, due to the way government handles security matters, it has almost become a notorious fact that the state has become the hotbed for bandits, killer herdsmen and other criminal elements. Meanwhile, the SK and its people, particularly the peasant farmers in their villages and farmlands, are the hardest hit. They’re the targets for the dastardly carnage premeditated against them. As the result of which, they’re the victims of inhumanity and government’s ineptitude to secure their “precious” albeit “not-so-precious” lives and properties.

For the records, from the heyday of the first tenure of the present government, particularly in 2016, communities in Southern Kaduna came under fierce and coordinated attacks by men of the underworld, whereby scores of lives and properties were destroyed. For economy of space, I won’t chronicle all the attacks on the villages.

Fast-forward to this year (2020), the same attacks on communities have remained somewhat unabated, whose gory sights have always been littered with hacked human beings, laying lifeless. These are cases of inhumanity and insecurity.
The Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU), an umbrella body for the people of Southern Kaduna, has continuously, without relenting, released press statements reporting about every killings/attacks on her people in a bid to make government do something drastic.

Admittedly, the issue of insecurity is a general thing in Nigeria. However, its peculiarity in the SK is twofold: The first experienced due to the somewhat tacit indulgence or indifference by the government, and the second is by the “cheering killer herdsmen” who have been crisscrossing the length and width of villages and farmlands in the Southern Kaduna, unleashing barbaric crimes against humanity.

Let me pause and retort; if the state metropolis would have armed security men stationed at every nook and cranny, whilst the villages are left porous and abandoned that criminals masquerade there at, then, that’s a prime case of a neglected, despised and condemned people that are left at the mercies of only God knows who.

Therefore, it is not enough that there are security men in the cities/towns, the villages too are part of the state, particularly villages located in Southern Kaduna. So, the people in the remotest rural areas deserves the constant and consistent presence of security men so they can go about their businesses (farming) without fears of being attacked

Inhumanity and Insecurity are the twin pillars that have been erected over the geographical space called Southern Kaduna. I call on every good spirited and well-meaning Nigerian to drum up support for their demolition. These, I suppose, is not asking for too much.

In conclusion, SK people are peace-loving and law-abiding who have not resorted to taking the laws into their hands as would have been expected of every human being faced with such attacks. Therefore, I am calling on the government, both at the state and federal level, to come to the aid of the people by ending cases of inhumanity and insecurity.

Barrister wrote this piece from Kaduna and can be reached via: ybgalas@gmail.com