Why Buhari was silent over Southern Kaduna killings – Soyinka

Professor Wole Soyinka has humorously said that the reason President Muhammadu Buhari was silent on the killings of over 800 Southern Kaduna Christians may have been because he was waiting for Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, to first appease the killers with money  so that they can stop the killings.

The Nobel Laureate and playwright, who stated this rather sarcastically said, “If you ask why General Buhari did not act fast enough when these events take place, which degrade us as human beings, well it is perhaps he has been waiting for the governor of that state to send money to the killers first for them to stop the killing.”

Soyinka made this comment during the launch of a book entitled “Religion and the Making of Nigeria” in Abuja, Thursday.

“Religion in the history of this continent has been a disastrous venture, a disaster in many zones and continues to be even so today. In this very nation in Southern Kaduna, over 800 souls were brutally extinguished suddenly while the issue of grazing lands versus farming is unquestionably part of the conflict; it is equally undeniable that religious differences have played crucial role in the conflict.

“And yet some weeks before the latest outrage, the governor of that state was quoted to have claimed that peace was nigh since he had sent funds to the earlier wave of killers and they had agreed to end their killing spree,” he said.

According Soyinka, the most worrisome thing in the murderous killings in Southern Kaduna was not the above admission by Governor El-Rufai, but the way government responds to atrocity in Nigeria.

Read also: CAN fingers Council of Imams in alleged plot to wipe out Christians in Kaduna

He said, “What astonished me was not the admission by the governor but the astonishment of others at such governmental response to atrocity. There was nothing new about it. Has appeasement to religious forces not become a Nigerian face of justice and equity?

“First lethargy and then appeasement, wasn’t Boko Haram’s Muhammed Yusuf not a beneficiary of appeasement in a similar fashion? Southern Kaduna has reminded us once again that the monster always lying waiting to pounce under the guise of religion.”

Recently, over 800 indigenes of Southern Kaduna were reportedly killed by suspected Fulani herdsmen, majority of them women, children and the elderly.

While the curfew imposed in the affected area by the governor of the State El-Rufai, who himself is a Fulani man, did not stop the murderous beast to brutishly massacre their hapless victims, Nigerian President Buhari, another Fulani man, for weeks if not month kept mute over the killings.

 

 

RipplesNigeria ….without borders, without fears

 

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now