A NIGHTMARE IN NIGER STATE
For refusing to be raped, two women were recently killed in Sabon Gari, Rafi Local Government Area of Niger State, alongside eight others after terrorists invaded their community.
The attack was the latest in the state coming on the heels of a similar attack that saw about ten people killed with some of them beheaded in Wayam and Belu-Belu villages of the state.
The attacks continue a recent trend of terrorists enjoying a field day in a state that has known no little tragedy in recent times.
The most frightening thing about the hell that the good people of Niger State have been forced to live is not that the state neighbors Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, rather this proximity to the country’s seat of power has not been enough to deter natural and unnatural disasters in a state which holds some of Nigeria’s most critical national assets.
Early last month, a locally made wooden boat carrying passengers capsized in the Mokwa River, drowning more than 100.
The state has witnessed the kidnap and captivity of school children as well as numerous deadly attacks on security personnel.
Some women from the state were among the first to protest the piercing pinch of the policies of the current administration. They were harassed and attested for their protests, and even branded miscreants. Their cries of protests proved poignantly prophetic when fresh protests swept through the country in August.
In failing to protect its rural populace, Nigeria is hastening its demise. By allowing criminals to continue to defy the state, the government is emboldening cowards to crush rural Nigerians and confront the state at any given opportunity. For a country of Nigeria’s standing and status, this is simply unacceptable.
Insecurity remains a systemic issue in Nigeria. The country is yet to get to the bottom of what is an impossibly difficult problem. This reluctance, this reticence to rattle all cages and chains in confronting insecurity has steadily fed the narrative that Nigeria is failing as a state, and breaching security which is a core component of its social contract.
To redeem this failure, the criminals who have turned rural communities to hell must be stopped in Niger State. To stop them, the communities they terrorize day and night must have to be engaged.
No words can adequately describe the cowardice inherent in the actions of criminals who terrorize rural areas. Rural communities in many parts of Nigeria, especially in the North-west, North-east and Middle-belt have borne painful witness to this fact. Those who have a bone to pick with the Nigerian state should have the courage to come to Abuja and state their case rather than adding to the poverty of rural areas by launching one cowardly attack after the other.
It Is one thing to have scores to settle with the Nigerian state and another thing to take it out on scores of helpless and hapless rural dwellers whose lives are already numbed by government neglect and dereliction.
It is indescribably unjust to allow these people who have always lived simply to have their days numbered by ruthless terrorists who have carved out areas of dominance for themselves in the rural areas.
The true measure of a society’s development and dignity is not to be found in its shiny cities with their shining streetlights but in rural areas and the facilities made available to those on the margins.
A country which has abandoned its poor rural farmers to the whims of terrorists is a society failing in its responsibility.
Terrorism remains fundamentally a war against women and children. Without them, Nigeria cannot survive. Running terrorists out of town is a fight for the soul of Nigeria. Giving it the seriousness it deserves is crucial to the survival of this beleaguered country.
Ike Willie-Nwobu,
