Still on the Nuremberg Awakening

How can Nigeria remain one when groups that have not killed anyone and that do not carry arms like IPOB and the Islamic Movement in Nigeria have been proscribed and declared as terrorist organisations whilst their leaders are subjected to inhuman treatment and hounded?

How can Nigeria remain one when the Coalition of Northern Groups, with the backing and support of the Northern Elders Forum, openly and publicly threaten the lives of southerners that live in the North and give them ultimatums to leave and consistently threaten to target southerners if RUGA is not implemented in the South?

How can Nigeria remain one when the Miyetti Allah appears to be above the law and when the Fulani herdsmen are allowed to carry arms and appear to be untouchable?

How can Nigeria remain one when the most senior presidential spokesman says we must either give up our land to the murderous Fulani terrorist herdsmen or give up our lives?

How can Nigeria remain one when our quisling Vice President says that we must pray for the Fulani herdsmen that kill us on a daily basis, that take our land and that rape and abduct our wives and children?

How can Nigeria remain one when the Vice President also says that the number of killings is “exaggerated”?

How can Nigeria remain one when Christian leaders and clerics are being singled out and targeted for slaughter all over the country?

How can Nigeria remain one when more churches have been burnt and more priests and Christian clerics have been killed in the last four years than at any other time in our history?

How can Nigeria remain one when more Nigerians have been killed in the last four years than at any other time other than during the civil war?

How can Nigeria remain one when over 3,500mass murders and mass killings have taken place in Nigeria this year alone?

How can Nigeria remain one when our people are more divided on religious, ethnic and regional lines than at any other time in our history?

How can Nigeria remain one when southerners and Middle Belters are treated like scum and are regarded as nothing but slaves and, at best, second class citizens in their own country?

How can Nigeria remain one when Mr. Omoyele Sowore is abducted from his home in the middle of the night like a common criminal, dumped in a DSS cell, treated like a terrorist, detained for a minimum of 45 days and will be charged for treason or treasonable felony simply because he wanted to organise a peaceful demonstration against the reckless, inept, incompetent and dangerous policies of the Buhari government?

How can Nigeria remain one when a courageous young lady by the name of Miss Leah Sharibu was not released and allowed to come home with the other Dapchi girls simply because she refused to renounce her Christian faith?

How can Nigeria remain one when southerners and northerners regard one another with increasing suspicion and contempt and with growing disdain?

How can Nigeria remain one when Fulani nationalism and supremacy are engendered and encouraged by the Buhari administration whilst the ethnic nationalism of the Yoruba, Igbo, Ijaw, Tiv and other indigenous tribes from the South and the Middle Belt are frowned on,  outlawed and treated as a crime?

Given all this, it is not surprising that when those who attacked Ekweremadu saw him wearing a shirt with the Nigerian coat of arms emblazoned all over it at an Igbo yam festival in distant Germany, they simply lost control of themselves, allowed their fury to take over  and tore it to shreds. I do not seek to justify or condone their behaviour and neither do I support it: I only seek to explain it.

They are in pain and that pain has turned into a palpable and dangerous rage.

Those of us who lay claim to being southern leaders would do well to recognise that fact, accept it and resolve to rise up to the challenges that our people are facing.

The bitter truth is that the Nigerian Coat of Arms and the Nigerian flag itself, to a sizeable number of people from the South, have now become symbols of tyranny, terror, subjugation and oppression.

As unpleasant and distasteful as this may be and as difficult it is to accept, that is the bitter and plain truth and the ugly events at Nuremberg have proved it.

The biggest miscalculation that the President could possibly make is to believe that this matter can be contained or that it will go away with time. The more the killings, the greater the build-up of anger and the greater the chance that things will soon explode.

We must do all we can to stop this and to restore love, peace, equity, justice, trust and mutual respect to our people and our land. That is the only way to ensure that what happened to Senator Ike Ekweremadu does not happen to other southern leaders some time in the not too distant future.

We must all be ready to stick our necks out for our people and defend them as aggressively and vigorously as is necessary or, if we fail to do so, we must be ready to pass on the baton and step aside for those who will.

Leadership requires risk and sacrifice. We, as southern leaders, must be ready to take a courageous stand and resolve to do both. We must do whatever it takes and whatever is necessary to protect the lives and property of our people, to defend their honour and dignity and to safeguard their future.

This is a duty and obligation that we must pledge to uphold and a covenant that we must make before the Living God. I wish my friend and brother, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, a speedy recovery from the unfortunate events in Nuremberg, Germany.