Why Northerners have ceased to love

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

“Some Nigerians believe that such fringe groups should be ignored. I disagree. Not when Buhari has joined in reminding Ndigbo how much property they have in the North.

Why are Northerners so obsessed with the properties of Ndigbo? Why is Buhari, in his words and actions, endorsing these vile and incendiary rhetoric? Why are security agencies promoting these dangerous narratives?

Some may have forgotten how in April 2016, the Department of State Service (DSS) raised an alarm that it had discovered mass graves of “Hausa-Fulani” residents allegedly abducted and murdered by the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) in Abia State.

“The Service has uncovered the heinous role played by members of … IPOB, in the abduction/kidnap of five Hausa-Fulani residents, namely Mohammed Gainako, Ibrahim Mohammed, Idris Yakubu and Isa Mohammed Rago at Isuikwuato LGA in Abia State,” the then DSS spokesperson, Tony Opuiyo, told bewildered Nigerians.

“The abducted men were later discovered at the Umuanyi forest, Abia State, where they were suspected to have been killed by their abductors and buried in shallow graves, amidst fifty (50) other shallow graves of unidentified persons,” DSS claimed.

To date, the DSS refused to disclose the identities of the other 45 “victims.” Were they also Fulani herdsmen? They didn’t say. Apparently, they had achieved their goal which was to incite northerners against innocent Igbos living in the North. Why would a government security agency funded with tax payers’ money play such a dangerous game? The answer, as they say, blows in the wind.

And the pattern has been consistent. Unknown gunmen breached security in Imo State, and even when Governor Hope Uzodimma insists that over 70 per cent of the 400 people arrested were non-Igbo, the police blamed Igbo youths.

Ahmed Gulak was gruesomely murdered in Owerri. Uzodimma cried foul, insisting it was political assassination and urged the police to carry out thorough investigation.

Police said there was nothing to investigate, after catching up with the culprits where they were sharing “onions from the North” one hour after the crime was committed.

The alleged assassins, labelled IPOB members, were all killed and their bodies burnt beyond recognition. Case closed! As I write, no one knows the real identities of those Police claimed killed Gulak. Investigations were concluded even before Gulak was killed. And ultimatums and threats started flying about.

Many Northerners believe their own lies.

That is, perhaps, the greatest threat Nigeria faces today, because, as Fyodor Dostoevsky, the 19th century Russian author and journalist, once noted: “The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.” Lack of love explains the carnage all around us.”