SASA Market, The Media And The Worrisome Road To Rwanda -By Siyi Umar

In the last one month or so, we have witnessed very disturbing and unfortunate events making wave all over the country. ‘Chaos’, ‘ruckus’, ‘carnage’, ‘pandemonium’ and ‘trauma’ were the headlines as the National dailies try to paint the picture of the regrettably event.

This, however, did not in any way come as a surprise to anyone who has followed the events that brought us here.

The genesis being the rapidly transcending rate of kidnappings and how the ill vice has metamorphosized into a lucrative business, taking over the country like a wildfire from the Northern to the Southern part. People are being harassed, maimed, raped, killed and abducted on highways, schools, workplaces and even in the comfort of our homes by these callous, soulless flesh and bones. Traumatized family members kneeling helpless as they watch the demons take away their loved ones. Some wish they can get another chance to say goodbye but they never!

The menace of kidnapping has shaken and open up cracks in our jaded fabric of unity. However, it did not garner this much storm naturally. It rode on the back of our media with an obscure agenda. As one of the most vital and powerful unit in the society, the Media decided to lend their voice to the menace but in a negative way that tend to profile a particular Ethnic group. These criminals were beginning to be called ‘Fulani Herdsmen’ in almost all the reportages. The tag become synonymous with every crime committed in the Southern part of the country while this categorisation remained absent in the headlines of every crime reported in the Northern part of the country. It became the selling point of the Media houses.

This narrative is in complete contrast with the noble Journalism profession and will only go on to set a dangerous foundation for what we are witnessing today. It’s a right recipe in setting the embers of discord between tribes. It also gave more reasons for people that have longed for it, more impetus to war mongers, more salivary fluids to the Ethnic bigots to have their feast! It sets a wary precedence for an unwholesome journey to a distant memory of Rwanda!

Good God, the lord of all Universe forbids, but these unfolding developments are similitude to the ones that preceded the Rwandan genocide!

Fulani are being criminalised on a general note. A whole Ethnic group are stigmatized and victimised because of the actions of few others that affects them too! Nobody cares to ponder that crime has nothing to do with tribe because there must be bad tomatoes even in the best-looking basket! Crimes are committed by individuals across the Geographies of this country but none was forcefully married off to a particular Tribe like the media did to Fulani and Kidnappings. Evans the notorious kidnapper would be smiling to this illogical assumption from God knows wherever he is! Not to go deeper, but why has the Media never called the Boko Haram ‘Kanuri Boko Haram’ even when the Boko Haram are only found in the Kanem Bornu region? I mean, we have Yahoo boys that have given this country some bad omen on the international stage, they are statistically found to be from the South West, why didn’t the media give them the tag ‘Yoruba Yahoo Yahoo’? We conventionally condemned the act of Xenophobia by South Africans. They said they acted because Nigerians mostly of Igbo background are pushing drugs into their country. This notion has some element of truth statistically but overall, it isn’t fair to generalised. That was our basis of the condemnation of Xenophobia.

So why are we and the media now hypocritically doing the completely opposite of what we preached in our own backyard? My tribe Gere too, would have been synonymous to a particular crime but we never see any! I refuse to believe that there’s an ulterior motive behind all these but the patterns of painting evil and demonising Fulani are not encouraging.

Fulani are attacked on a routine basis at every slightest opportunity gotten. They were attacked in the South when the peaceful #Endsars protest turned violent even while their kinsmen were also lending their voices in the streets of their respective States back in the North. Weeks later, disturbing videos of forceful eviction of the Fulani herds settlement emanated from the Ebonyi. Then came Sunday Igboho the acclaimed Youth leader that brazenly and daringly mobilised the uninformed Youths to unleash carnage on the Nomadic Fulani settlements in Oyo state. Within a space of a week, the media has made him a hero giving his exploits subtle appraisals instead of total condemnation. This solely, I blamed it on Governor Seyi Makinde You expect caution to have been thrown to the win by the authorities in stopping the fire from brewing but instead, a loose and damaging eviction notice for the Fulani herdsmen was released by Governor Rotimi Akeredolu in neighbouring Ondo State.

This is where my biggest disappointment is. Because if there are excuses to give to the mob action and juvenile delinquency, where do we find one to give a whole state Governor? Haba now! He acted loosely and I still believe he owes the whole country an apology. Because his voice, along with all the leaders of the country, is expected to be that of reason, unity, harmony and fairness. It is enshrined in the constitution that a citizen has the absolute right to live and conduct legitimate business anywhere within the territorial boundaries of country. Why would a certain people be denied such right because of the actions of the few of them? How many evictions notice would then be given if this logic is extended to the other 36 States? What happened to decisively punishing all perpetrators of crime without consideration of their Tribes? Why choose this lazy approach? I am more saddened by the action of the Governor because it indirectly contributed to the stereotype used by the media in painting the whole Fulani as bad people.

It is only natural for Northern leaders to step up in defending their people and they even deserve commendations. However, I fault the manner in which some of responses were made, particularly that of the Governor of my state, Bala Mohammed. He made a sincere comment, pointing out the mismanagement of the Farmers-Herders clashes by ‘his brother and colleague’ Governor Ortom giving reasons to why they herdsmen now have to defend themselves. This will be used by the usual click-bait media, deliberately taken out of context and being reported in the headlines as though he was giving reasons for herdsmen to carry arms. This is why in my opinion, I believe Bala’s comments should have found another means to reach directly to Ortom not through the media.

The media now cherish in making every action a pitch for the North vs South argument. But they only thrive on our gullibility and our vulnerability to paroxysm. The whole social media space now looks like a battleground for irate youths from both sides of the Niger behind their keypads raining abuses, threats and immoral comments to each other.

This explains why offline, the youths that are relatively less informed that those on the social media decided to turn a regular Nigerian Markets altercation between a perceived Hausa-Fulani man (because he was actually a Nigerien according to eyewitness’s accounts) and a Yoruba Woman in the popular Sasa Market in Oyo state into a tribal war. Mayhem was unleashed. Innocent lives and properties were lost. It rendered the Hausa people as IDPs in their country hiding like rats at the Oba’s palace with some finding their way back helter-skelter to the North.

Like aforesaid, does this not look familiar to the events that preceded the Rwandan genocide? When will we learn from history? Are we not tired of having to fight needless, worthless wars?

When do we get to realise that no tribe is left out in this grand scheme of marginalisation of the poor by the elites?

Why can’t we see that political players are always pitching us against each other, using us as puppets in their shows?

Our judgements are clouded by emotions. This is why every mischief maker finds it easy to manipulate and rile us up to do his biddings unknowingly.

Those who contemplate the Unity of this nation are only being delusional. There’s no any mistake in the Union!

If anything, the scarcity of something as little as we take for granted like Onions in the South when the #EndSars protest literally went South and the lack of movements of goods from the south to the North must have shown us our interdependence. All those clamouring for secession think they’re better off as a Nation till they look at their relationships with their own acclaimed brothers at local levels. Igbos denying the authenticity of other dispersed Igbos of the Delta, Hausa divided across the Hausa Bakwai/Banza Bakwai lines, Yoruba mocking fellow Yoruba on the basis of pronunciation of the ‘s’ and dynasties. See why the notion that we will be better off as different nations is not only unreasonable but a myth?! We need each other!

In all this ruckus, the shocking and the only positive part of it is the restraint shown by the Youths in the North in not reprising the attacks on innocent Southerners in the region conducting their legitimate businesses, enjoying their constitutionally given rights to roam freely wherever they wish. This must be commended and be taken as the basis for reacting to every unrest in every part of the country. Dare we make the mistake of assuming that aren’t aware of the happenings. Because the typical regular Hausa man in the village is more informed than some of us in the city as he’s always glued to his Radio.

On ending note, problems that are left unattended have the habits of becoming crisis. This is why Buhari should have made his presence known, made bold and reassuring statements on the crisis. I was a big fan of his RUGA initiative and I felt disappointed by how the media, as usual, riled up the Southerners to assume non existing conspiracy theories for the its establishment. But going forth to this moment, Buhari and his administration has failed to bring about more ideas that will tackle the issue of pastoralism and clashes with the host communities. And he’s nowhere to be found when they state Governors were obviously lagging behind. Leadership demands the continuous introduction to tackling lingering problems.

We have seen it RWANDA

We have seen in MYANMAR

We don’t have to see it in NIGERIA

God Bless Nigeria!