Revisiting Southeast Dance With The Unknown -By Chima Christian

Beneath the flowery “thoughts and prayers” that follow each attack, there is a frighteningly huge fraction of our people, including the elite, who still do not want “unknown gunmen” to be consigned to the dustbin of history.

These people see the federal government’s inability or is it manifest unwillingness to halt the scorched earth campaign in Plateau, Benue, Southern Kaduna, and other such places.

Many questions are begging for answers.

Three are critical;

One, considering Nigeria’s history and current trajectory, can Igbos and indeed many of Nigeria’s ethnic nationalities trust the Nigerian state to be just and always protect them from ethnic domination attempts?

Two, if Plateau, Benue, and other such places have their homegrown “unknown gunmen” would sponsored terrorists be raping, killing, and running them out of their villages at will?

Three, is the federal government’s tacky response to the killings in the middle belt reflective of genuine state weakness, or is it coded state support to aggressors, who mostly share the same markers of national identity and perhaps the same ideological interests as those controlling state power?

I painfully admit that there are no satisfactory answers to these questions. The southeast is now in a tragic situation where death by the barrel has to be reduced to choice. People now have to either die in the hands of their unknown brothers, or in the hands of those pursuing ethnic domination agenda.

Where does the southeast go from here? The future looks bleak. Yet, Africa’s morning will come.

Chima Christian