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).
