We Must Never Stand Akimbo to Watch Our Country Torn Apart -By Muhammad Yahaya Abubakar

Democracy is about civil engagement. The electoral have every right to ensure that those they elected govern up to their expectation or even beyond expected, but achieving a true democracy cannot be realised by cross-blaming parties instead of building a society that will ensure probity and accountability by its leaders.

It is indeed the right of every citizen to demand justice, fairness and seek independence as a group if deem fit but that should not be true war and gun violence. It should be by going through a motion of referendum to have your Biafra Republic, Oduduwa Republic, Arewa Republic, Niger-Delta Republic and what have you.

For wars it just a story for most of us. We only know when the war kicks but may not live to tell the tales. It will come with massive destruction and great violence and we have never experience before or seen before not as we sees in the movies, that is just a cover story. There will be total economic melt down, markets will be shutdown, banks closed, all government infrastructures including hospitals will be shutdown. It is only twitter we don’t have now but in times of war, it is going to be the entire internet. People across the globe will of course sympathise for us but will not be with us to share the unforbidden sorrows and hardship. It may took weeks, months or even years if care was not taken.

As a man with great passion for a one and united Nigeria, I believe the president on his part is not dealing with security issues generally the right way and so is the media and we the people. As per as I am concern there have never been an Igbo killer or Fulani Gun men or herders. We only have unknown gun men and terrorist. Why must you address the infamous act of a single man to entire nation, just because a man is caught with a gun in Anambra doesn’t mean he is an Igbo killer but a terror so also a man in the bush must not be a Fulani but a terror. You can’t continue to point fingers on the entire nation just for the unfortunate misdeed of its single or a couple of indigenes. I have once trembled into a clip trending claiming that Fulani herders are raping a girl in bush but i listen to their dialet more than ten times, it have not even for an inch close to Fulani dialet.

As a person with public interest and a party man for that matter, I believe that Nigeria’s problems did not start with President Buhari and may certainly not end with him, but he was not handling IPOB the right way. Referencing to a civil war is a very bad move, especially when there are glaring opportunities to make strategic concessions for the sake of peace in a large society like Nigeria. It is unfortunate that the President have went to such extend, even as the government will certainly not give in to criminal blackmail but it should know that force offers no enduring solution to a problem that will not go away such easy. I will make reference to Senator Shekarau’s assertion debating against Ribadu and Buhari himself 2011 “if coercing and force was use to solve a problem, the moment that force was removed everything will collapse may be to a far worst stage than before” and I believe him considering the time when Buhari was head of state to what happen after math.

Looking at how the youth everywhere in the country are seeking salvations past their expectation, the issue should be how to deal with the lingering violence that ignites such nostalgia. The government should constitute a committee to find out why after more than fifty years from the civil war, the agitation and passion for Biafra still roar with so much anger through the throngs youth in Southeastern part of the country. What must be done to ease their pain without negatively affecting the stability of our country. Integrate with their community leaders and youth leaders to have a last solution which I believe can be reached and achieved.