Forgotten Dairies
Tudun Biri: An Unforgiveable Tragedy -By Ike Willie-Nwobu
Hospitals, houses, and schools are to be built in the community as some form of intervention. But who says those structures will not stand as monuments to the moment Nigeria’s searing incompetence let hell loose on a community still reeling from the activities of bandits.
The long-suffering people of Tudun Biri in Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State must have feared the worst the moment the bombs rained down on them. A people who have lived as witnesses to the unspeakable insecurity in the state may have feared it was yet more attacks.
By the time the smoke and dust settled just a bit, about 88 people lay dead, with many wounded. Just that the ‘accidental attackers’ were not terrorists. The Nigerian army promptly took responsibility, branding the carnage a mistake of misfired drones.
Despite the soothing words of an institution not particularly known for its worth, the tragic loss of human lives has prompted a wave of reactions across the country.
The Nigerian army says it was an accident. But was it? If it was really an accident, when will such accidents become punishable?
It is heartbreaking the things that have happened to Nigerians in the past eight years under the watch of a ruling party that represents nothing but retrogression.
It may have been a mistake but do such deadly mistakes happen in more serious countries? For how long in a country that aspires to be Africa’s leading light will lives remain as cheap as salt?
Hospitals, houses, and schools are to be built in the community as some form of intervention. But who says those structures will not stand as monuments to the moment Nigeria’s searing incompetence let hell loose on a community still reeling from the activities of bandits.
It is easy to see how much terrorism has impacted communities in Nigeria, especially rural communities. Many of them have been levelled not just by the activities of fleeing terrorists but by friendly fire too.
It is one tragedy and one accident too many which should be properly and thoroughly investigated. It is only in a country that lacks transparency that every colossal tragedy is put down to accident.
One of the saddest facts of life in Nigeria today is that there is a glaring lack of transparency in public life. With this biting lack of transparency, a lot of things get swept under the carpet with no one really raising an eyebrow. It has been a really tough situation.
In a country where there are many actors who hardly take responsibility for their actions, accidents stemming from negligence abound and with them endless denial and prevarication.
Redeeming such a situation requires total accountability, the kind that is at once unflinching and undaunted. The Nigerian army has spoken endlessly of what it describes as an honest mistake but beyond words dripping with regret whether concrete or cosmetic, is pain, unimaginable pain.
For many of the people of TudunBiri who must have wondered if the world was ending as the the drones rained down on them, it is yet more empty words thrown at their pain and as ineffective as fuel thrown to douse flames.
They will not understand, and no one expects them to understand the horrible loss of their loved ones to something so abrupt, so deadly. It was not terrorists that came, they would have been used to such horrors by now. It was the Nigerian state. The explanation has been more jarring than the sound of the bombs that fell on TudunBiri.
The powers that be have said that it will not happen again. The challenge is that when it happened before, the same words and promises were made. There may be a new sheriff in town, but one suspects that Nigeria’s jarring lack of transparency and accountability is on its own a formidable system.
With each day that passes, the journey gets forbiddingly long.
The people deserve more than explanations, assurances and commitments. They deserve more than mere memorials springing up for their dead.
The greatest honour that can be done to the dead of Tudun Biri and their heartbroken survivors is to finally root out the terrorists who have made life impossible for them.
Ike Willie-Nwobu
