The Ruthless And Murderous Nature Of The Nigerian State -By Abdulganiyu Ibraheem

This is a Tribute to those that lost their lives 3years ago, in the endsars protest at Lekki toll gate.

It is deeply disheartening when young individuals are initially led to believe that they are citizens of the world, only to later realize that they may indeed be recognized as global citizens, but not as citizens within their own country. This unfortunate circumstance is particularly prevalent in Nigeria, where individuals are consistently denied the fundamental rights expected of them as a citizen.

When examining the definition of the term “citizen,” it becomes apparent that it refers to a person who possesses legal belonging to a specific country, along with some constitutional rights and protections. However, the irony within Nigeria lies in the fact that those who are maintained and sustained by the people’s taxes, in exchange for providing necessary protection, are the very individuals who, due to their audacity and lack of humanity, could turn their weapons against their own citizens and cause harm. And when this is found, they go any length in concealing the truth.

One such tragic incident that exemplifies this issue is the October 20, 2020 Lekki massacre.
The October 20- 2020 lekki massacre was another one of the brutal and groosome killing melted on halmless protesters who stood with flags, reciting the national anthem, by their own state agency at lekki toll gate, during the endsars movement. These innocent set of protesters stood in their number, and called for end in police brutality, extortion, continuous killing and need for the police reform. But they got the shocking of their lives when some of them were killed in stray bullets and several others wounded.

However, the pathetic thing the Nigeria government could do was to truncate the truth by cleaning up the crime scene. During this cause, we found prominent figures such as lia Muhammed, Raji Fashola, Femi Adeshina, and others of their kind, deployed to obfuscate the blatant evil of these murders, denying the undeniable reality that was staring them in the face. All thanks to the likes of Catherine Udeh, popularly know as Dj switch who had a Instagram live feed on the eve of the groosome murder where some contracted agents were uninstalling the CCTV cameras at the toll gate and lights being tampered with, and others who also had the live feed of the event. Probably no one would have had a clear picture of what occurred on that night.

Just like many others, I underestimated the barbaric nature of the Nigerian military, thinking they couldn’t have harmed those innocent people who were waving the Nigerian flags and singing the beloved national anthem. However, these people proved my assertion wrong beyond reasonable doubt and showed the entire world that they haven’t repented from murdering their own, and that they were capable of repeating the same kind of atrocity they have committed on different occasions in the past.

One of those events occurred on November1993 on Ikorodu road when Abacha was ruling the country. Soldiers ruthlessly killed with impunity and disposed the bodies. This murderous nature persisted and became evident in another wanton murder of Ken-Saro Wiwa and his acolytes who were defending the people’s rights. This group of people was concerned about their environment and the exploitation they suffered from multinational petroleum company; Shell. This company abandoned Ogbon land after causing a spillage. which led to unproductive land for farming and inhabited aquatic habitats which could barely harbor fishes.

This triumph turned Ken Saro-Wiwa and other activists into a real menace for General Sani Abacha’s military dictatorship. As a result, he had these people arrested in 1994, and hanged in November 10, 1995.

If only Ken and his fellow wonderful souls hadn’t bought into the illusion that they were citizens and were entitled to certain rights, which was the genesis of why they spoke out, they probably would still be alive today, sharing the same oxygen as the living.

Speaking on who a citizen is, I have always been of the firm believe that In a society where individuals are recognized as true citizens, it is expected that their fundamental rights, such as freedom of expression and the right to life, would be upheld and respected. Regardless of one’s position or status, no one would dare infringe upon these rights. However, in a country where the people are merely seen as “Residents or Denizens”, as Dele Farotimi would describe in one of his books, it requires little effort from the state to suppress their demands for justice by either through violence or taking these people’s lives, when they resort into protests. Do You know why? “Because Residents or Denizens don’t have rights, and they don’t protest. Because doing that means disturbing the peace of their feudal Lords”.

Six years later, as the Yoruba would say, “kitan Lara were koma ku hai,” meaning that even after healing, a once mad man would still shout “Hia” occasionally.” The Nigerian military became criminally responsible for another genocide in Zaki-Biam, leaving over 200 people dead. This invasion, known as Zaki-Biam operation “no living thing,” was a mass execution of hundreds of unarmed Tiv civilians by the Nigerian army between October 20 and 24, 2001.

Upon closer examination, the actions of the army during the Zaki-Biam operation seemed to be a mere repetition of what The Boko Haram insurgents did on November 2020 with the massacre of farmers in Jere, in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno State. In that incident, these insurgents invaded a rice plantation in the Jere community and killed approximately 43 farmers who were working there. Similarly, the operation was not in anyway different from the abduction of hundreds of school students in Katsina state. In the Zaki-Biam operation, federal agents stormed the area with various types of ammunition and resorted in mass shooting, mass killing, house demolition, rapping and kidnapping. The town of Zaki-Biam was levealed to the ground. And up till today, no one ever said anything as regard, and none of the officers in charge were brought to Justice. In another encounter, the shiitee were the recipient in kaduna and Abuja in recent years.

The hitherto unthinkable, which has become normalcy; judging from the state of impunity the Nigerian state has been plunged into, repeated itself in 2020 with the endsars protesters in the full glare of the world, leaving the Nigerian flag drenched in the blood of it’s people. The Nigerian state committed crimes against humanity in its own country. It did so under the cover of darkness, and it has continued to switch off the light of truth, while denial upon denial persisted. But one thing should be clear; those who know the truth and refuse to tell them or engage in blocking every ventilation the truth may come in through are as guilty as those who pulled the trigger on that night.

Whether they like it or not, the truth shall continue to emerge, and they shall certainly not escape the judgment of God Almighty.

May the souls of those who lost their lives in the fiendish event on that night rest in peace. Indeed, they have proven not only to Nigerians but to the whole wide world that they were true nationalists who fought for humanity and were braver than those that turned their guns at them which led to their untimely death.

abdulganiyuibraheem001@gmail.com