Southern Kaduna: El-Rufai’s Attempt To Change The Narrative Does Not Flow – Diaspora BoT Member – Karik

BY SEGUN ADEBAYO, ABUJA – A member of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of Southern Kaduna People in Diaspora, Europe Chapter, Engr. Dauda Thomas Karik has said that the desperate attempt by the Presidency and Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State to change the narrative over the genocide in Southern Kaduna cannot sell even to the casual onlooker.

Karik in a statement, also said that it is worrisome that a governor that is expected to protect all citizens of a State has openly, brazenly and shamefully taken side along ethnocentric line which is completely at variance and against the Oath of Office he took to defend and protect the provisions of the constitution and the people.

He said it is most unfortunate that Governor El-Rufai wants the world to be believe that the Genocide taking place in Southern Kaduna is a conflict or dispute over land, stressing that “this is far from the truth”.

According to Karik; “A dispute or conflict is usually between two or more parties which is what the Presidency and the Kaduna State Government want to forcefully sell to the public. If Nigerians are to agree with the narratives of the Buhari-led presidency of Nigeria and the Governor Nasiru El-Rufai of Kaduna that Southern Kaduna people are a party in the dispute, then, we should ask the presidency and the Kaduna State Government, who the other party is?

“Are they the local Fulanis among the people of Southern Kaduna that are good and God fearing people and have been living with the Fulani herdsman and other Nigerians peacefully for decades? If the answer is yes, then the correct thing is for the government to identify them and start a series of meetings between the leaders of both parties. That is how any responsible government resolves conflicts.

“El-Rufai has consistently and publicly denigrated and called Southern Kaduna clergymen and the only umbrella organization of the people of Southern Kaduna (SOKAPU) as “Mutane banza” in Hausa meaning idiots and therefore refused to meet and hold talks with SOKAPU but instead vowed to prosecute Southern Kaduna clergymen and the leadership of SOKAPU.

“On the other hand, Nigerians have never heard El-Rufai or the presidency talk negatively about the other so called party that are carrying out attacks against innocent people, which they described as conflict. Is that how caring and responsible leaders resolve disputes between two parties?

“Why are the militia Fulani that El-Rufai told the world that he met and negotiated with to stop killings, hiding in the bushes and attacking people that include innocent women and children at night?

“From every indication, the killer Fulani are not the same Fulanis that have lived with Southern Kaduna people all these years. Certainly, the local Fulanis cannot overnight become AK 47 carriers that kill so brutally and without human feelings whatsoever.

“The most reasonable explanation on who is attacking the people of Southern Kaduna is the version that is being shielded by El-Rufai over the years in which he mentioned that there were or still influx of Fulanis from outside the country for reprisals attacks on the people of Southern Kaduna owing to some alleged post-election crisis that is difficult to situate in context since the post- election conflict did not take place in Southern Kaduna. “El-Rufai certainly knows the Fulani militia killing the people as he had openly confessed that he paid the killer Fulanis money to stop the attacks.

“El-Rufai should be pressured to identify who the killer Fulanis are, how they got into Southern Kaduna which is located in the centre of Nigeria after passing many countries in Africa and neighbouring States in Nigeria?”

Karik also said that without identifying the so called parties in the government described “conflict”, it would be difficult to achieve the needed and peace, stressing that the fact that the government is not looking in that direction clearly confirmed that it has an agenda to wipe out the people of Southern Kaduna for the simple reason of grabbing their rich lands.