The Slaughter of the Shi'a by Nigerian troops: Opening Fresh Vistas of Violence

by Eze Eluchie

Having perused the accounts of the authorities of the Nigerian Army on the slaughter of Shi’a Muslim followers of Sheikh Zakzaky in Zaria, Kaduna State (North Central Nigeria), which sought to justify the use of life bullets and mass slaughter of several dozen Shi’a protesters who blocked a road, denying the Chief of Army Staff passage, one is forced to wonder if there was no other alternative resolution to the impasse created by the blockage than to kill and maim so many.  

When one realizes that during the electioneering campaigns preceding the last presidential elections, the convoy of the then sitting President, Goodluck Jonathan, which had much more fire power and reason to unleash lethal force on a mob after been pelted with stones by an enraged mob, opted to hastily seek alternative routes to avoid what would have been a massacre in Bauchi, one is forced to inquire as follows with regards to the carnage which played out in Zaria:

1. What was so important on that particular trip by the Chief of Army Staff as to necessitate the wastage and maiming of so many?

2. Faced with clear consequences of shooting into an unruly mob, why did the convoy of the Chief of Army Staff not either turn back, seek alternative routes or solution than to resort to the mass slaughter?

3. After having cleared the road to enable the Chief of Army Staff ‘safe passage’, was it also necessary to extend the pursuit of the fleeing Shi’a to the residence of their leader, where more causalities occurred?

4. Considering that the rise in Boko Haram terrorism is attributed to the killings by our security operatives of the erstwhile leaders of the then Boko Haram Islamic organization, was it wise to have gone on another killing spree when Nigeria is still striving to contain the consequences of earlier killings?  

5. Was it deemed conducive to kill so many Shi’a merely on account of the fact that they are a minority Islamic sect?

6. Would a similar action have been taken if those ‘blocking the safe passage’ had been members of the Sunni sect, the dominant sect amongst the Muslim population in Nigeria?

7. Will the killings in of Shi’a adherents in Zaria by our military authorities not unwittingly expose our already stretched facilities by unwittingly importing the fratricidal Shi’a-Sunni rivalry, currently playing out in the Middle East, into Nigeria?

8. Considering the continuing terror activities in the North-East zone, the threats to return to the creeks and violence of the Niger Delta militants, the ongoing quest for self-actualization and sovereignty in the South-East, and the wait-and-see attitude adopted by the South-West to committing to the Nigeria project, is it really wise for the military to open a new vista of discontent?

To the Nigerian Army, these killings were unlawful, unconscionable, unnecessarily provocative  and wrong. Caution, caution and more caution is advocated.

Let us peacefully restructure and renegotiate the Nigerian polity whilst there is yet time.

Picture: Corpses of some Shi’a followers of Sheikh el Zakzaky killed in Zaria (13th December 2015).