Good morning, Mr President. It is public that you are on a working visit to France. I wish you pleasant trip. This morning I address the “Uromi Affairs” over which you must have been briefed. I have two declarations to make.
One is that I condemn any form of extra-judicial killings, whether lynching or otherwise. The Proof of innocence is an important element of judicial review. Therefore, the reported lynching of suspected kidnappers is condemnable, and the suspects ought to have been handed over to law enforcement agents of the state. The drawback is that most mob actions are spontaneous and could surprise the guardian of the social order.
Two, I am a Nigerian from the Esan country, otherwise known as Edo Central, and Uromi is a town in that part of Edo State. In the 19th century, Ogbidi, the Onojie (King) of Uromi was among the last veterans who defended the Bini Empire against the British conquest of the Edo people and was deported along with the famous Oba Overanmen to Calabar. Uromi people are very hospitable, peaceful and brave. The town is the first to accommodate Ibo traders in the Esan country. Dr Chuba Okadigbo, the late Senate President, attended Esan Grammar School in Uromi.
In the last five years or so, the town and its environs, have been besieged by armed robbers and Kidnappers and activities of the Fulani herdsmen who are committing innumerable atrocities across the country: from the core north against indigenous Hausa and minorities, Middle Belt, and southern Nigeria. The idea of one ethnic group mainstreaming its preferences over others in a multinational state will not work, and even so as the peoples of Nigeria are geographically segregated.
To be sure, Mr President, the people of Uromi have been under siege and sleeping with their two eyes open. It is the same situation in Edo North and South and with the tacit support of the security formations in the state. Just recently, Victor Ogedengbe was hacked to death in Erah, Owan East Local Government Area of Edo State. Another victim was shot dead by Fulani herdsmen at dawn in Ukhun village in Esan West Local Government Area.
The impunity that these evil pages exhibit is enabled by a collusion nexus between traditional rulers who are often gifted cows; and generals and locals who own cows and engage the herdsmen to graze them. Under Godwin Obaseki administration, I documented the atrocities of the herdsmen in Edo state in an open letter to the governor in July 2018. The Governor’s solution to the overwhelming insecurity was to set up a vigilante team which has made it possible for the people to relatively commute from one town to the other.
It was boosted by several military checkpoints along the Benin-Auchi road among others in the State. In all, despite the known identity of the perpetrators, never a whimper is heard from the leadership in the section of the country where the malevolents hail from. It is the same with the widespread killings in the North and the Middle Belt. No condemnation. This attitude casts doubt on the unity of the country.
The Uromi incident has been largely politicised with threats of reprisal attacks, while the leadership are giving conditions for peace to the Governor of Edo State who has wisely sued for peace. The reason for this, though not public, has a subtext which we are left to surmise in the situation. My hunch tells me all sentiments are being mobilised to challenge the incumbent administration ahead of 2027 elections.
No one is asking the pertinent questions but it is right and just to do so. How come the so-called hunters would leave the wild of the Savannah to come and hunt in the dense forest of the South? How many Southerners who are not necessarily domiciled in the North will travel with a “dagger”, talkless of “dane gun” to go hunt in the fauna of the Savannah ? No one has querried the source of the alleged N140 million found in the possession of the suspects? Is it ransom from the victims of kidnapping? Why was a member of the vigilante team allegedly stabbed during the stop-and-search operation? Why were the suspects who travelled from Rivers State enroute to Kano with weapons not discovered by the security forces dotting the thoroughfare untill they ran into the vigilante unit in Uromi?
Unfortunately, the reaction from the North has stoked the embers of disunity to the extent of underlining the unworkability of the union called Nigeria. The point that the country will not endure as a common entity is being echoed in many quarters. Some have even argued that to end insecurity in the country, the independence of each of the component regions is inevitable. They further argue that the unity of the country is held together by the South, and the exhaustion of fossil fuel, the economic mainstay of the country, will engender separation.
However, Mr President, the step you took to tame open grazing through the creation of a livestock ministry is edifying, but it has not addressed the lingering fear of domination of the country by a state-nation mainstreaming its culture on the rest of the country in defiance of the grundnorm. Akhaine is a Professor of Political Science at the Lagos State University.
