I couldn't keep this bottled up any longer. Just this last Saturday a female preacher, and I hear assistant pastor of one of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG parish in Abuja, by name Eunice Elisha was murdered while doing her usual early morning preaching near her abode. This just a few weeks after a septuagenarian Christian woman (also a pastor's wife) from the southeast was murdered for blasphemy in Kano, followed by the escape from death by the whiskers of a young man in Kaduna for eating during the "Holy" month of Ramadan, even though he isn't a Muslim, and before all of that, the beheading of another Christian man in Niger State for blasphemy, which only came to light after the Kano story, meaning that there are many of such stories of religious intolerance in the north, that hardly comes to light, until one in a major city occurs and people begin to recount experiences in other places.
And as usual, the police have swooped in to arrest the so called perpetrators of the act. An imam whom we are told asked some boys to "chase" the woman away, but apparently ended up killing her. These suspects supposedly now in police custody weren't named, just like those arrested in the case in Kano and Kaduna. Though unlike in the past where culprits in the killings of non-Muslims in the north were simply described as a mob and never arrested (with one henchman in a notable case, rising to hold governmental position at one time, and even went on to become a powerful emir), there are now arrests made.
Unfortunately, beyond that nothing else seem to happen by way of bringing perpetrators to book following these gruesome killings. Not even the visit of the wife of the Vice President to the widower in this case is sure to change the status quo. No date will be set in court, no human Rights activists pressuring government, even the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN besides issuing a terse statement will go to sleep, and the Muslim ummah? I even read Facebook comments of Muslims who claimed Eunice was intolerant of Muslims in trying to convert them to Christianity by preaching daily early in the morning in that vicinity, hence an infidel like her deserved to die the way she did. As usual I have only read of just one moderate Muslim on Facebook who condemned the dastardly act, while the Muslim umbrella bodies, as well as a government many suspect of harboring plans to islamize Nigeria have yet to release a statement, even when the murder happened at its doorstep. If you thought that was because just a single human being was involved, then what would you say about the genocidal killings in Benue State (as recent as last week in Logo and Ukum Local Government Areas of the state with more than eighty dead), and other states in view of Fulani cattle and herdsmen, which the President Buhari-led federal government is yet to react to, amongst several, but quick to send condolences to Saudi Arabia over the suicide attacks in Medina last week, even appealing to warring factions in South Sudan to let peace reign while ignoring the smoldering embers in his backyard.
You know, some years back it was norm to find Muslims in northern Nigeria copy what Muslims in places like Pakistan and other places where Islam is fanatically practiced do. So, if there was a protest in such places over cartoons depicting the prophet in a supposedly "untoward" manner, or against Israel or America, fanatics in Nigeria's North take to the streets in solidarity, sometimes going to the extent of maiming and killing their Christian neighbors, even when the matter at hand has no immediate bearing on them. This copycat syndrome is what I think is at play now, as killings of non-Muslims in the north by radical Muslims reads like a newspaper cutting from anywhere in Pakistan, Bangladesh or the likes. These killings in Bangladesh for a long time had no one claiming responsibility for them, until recently when the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, ISIS began not just to take responsibility, but to expand recruitment in that country.
That is why this particular copycat situation is a very unfortunate one for Nigeria, because though the military may on the one hand be celebrating the success it has so far recorded against Boko Haram in Nigeria's northeast, there's no guarantee that a greater than Boko Haram isn't far away from us, as the conditions which bred Maitatsine before the Bokosites remains raw and quite alive in the north, and the lackadaisical reaction of the federal and state governments to them, coupled with the conspiracy of silence of the state owned media outlets (like the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA that was tweeted about the Dallas Shooting of police officers two hours after it occurred, while the killings in Benue of inhabitants by Fulani Herdsmen is yet to be considered newsworthy several days after), as well as some privately owned news media organization, and citizens conspire to ensure that the cycle of radical Islamic groups continue to dog this artificial contraption that we like to call Nigeria.
'kovich
PICTURE CREDIT:
- http://www.nigerianmonitor.com
THE LATE EUNICE ELISHA, WITH HER HEAD RESTED ATOP HER BIBLE, AND MEGAPHONE ON THE SIDE, IN A POOL OF HER BLOOD AFTER HER MURDER BY SUSPECTED MUSLIM FANATICS IN NIGERIA'S CAPITAL, ABUJA.
And as usual, the police have swooped in to arrest the so called perpetrators of the act. An imam whom we are told asked some boys to "chase" the woman away, but apparently ended up killing her. These suspects supposedly now in police custody weren't named, just like those arrested in the case in Kano and Kaduna. Though unlike in the past where culprits in the killings of non-Muslims in the north were simply described as a mob and never arrested (with one henchman in a notable case, rising to hold governmental position at one time, and even went on to become a powerful emir), there are now arrests made.
Unfortunately, beyond that nothing else seem to happen by way of bringing perpetrators to book following these gruesome killings. Not even the visit of the wife of the Vice President to the widower in this case is sure to change the status quo. No date will be set in court, no human Rights activists pressuring government, even the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN besides issuing a terse statement will go to sleep, and the Muslim ummah? I even read Facebook comments of Muslims who claimed Eunice was intolerant of Muslims in trying to convert them to Christianity by preaching daily early in the morning in that vicinity, hence an infidel like her deserved to die the way she did. As usual I have only read of just one moderate Muslim on Facebook who condemned the dastardly act, while the Muslim umbrella bodies, as well as a government many suspect of harboring plans to islamize Nigeria have yet to release a statement, even when the murder happened at its doorstep. If you thought that was because just a single human being was involved, then what would you say about the genocidal killings in Benue State (as recent as last week in Logo and Ukum Local Government Areas of the state with more than eighty dead), and other states in view of Fulani cattle and herdsmen, which the President Buhari-led federal government is yet to react to, amongst several, but quick to send condolences to Saudi Arabia over the suicide attacks in Medina last week, even appealing to warring factions in South Sudan to let peace reign while ignoring the smoldering embers in his backyard.
You know, some years back it was norm to find Muslims in northern Nigeria copy what Muslims in places like Pakistan and other places where Islam is fanatically practiced do. So, if there was a protest in such places over cartoons depicting the prophet in a supposedly "untoward" manner, or against Israel or America, fanatics in Nigeria's North take to the streets in solidarity, sometimes going to the extent of maiming and killing their Christian neighbors, even when the matter at hand has no immediate bearing on them. This copycat syndrome is what I think is at play now, as killings of non-Muslims in the north by radical Muslims reads like a newspaper cutting from anywhere in Pakistan, Bangladesh or the likes. These killings in Bangladesh for a long time had no one claiming responsibility for them, until recently when the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, ISIS began not just to take responsibility, but to expand recruitment in that country.
That is why this particular copycat situation is a very unfortunate one for Nigeria, because though the military may on the one hand be celebrating the success it has so far recorded against Boko Haram in Nigeria's northeast, there's no guarantee that a greater than Boko Haram isn't far away from us, as the conditions which bred Maitatsine before the Bokosites remains raw and quite alive in the north, and the lackadaisical reaction of the federal and state governments to them, coupled with the conspiracy of silence of the state owned media outlets (like the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA that was tweeted about the Dallas Shooting of police officers two hours after it occurred, while the killings in Benue of inhabitants by Fulani Herdsmen is yet to be considered newsworthy several days after), as well as some privately owned news media organization, and citizens conspire to ensure that the cycle of radical Islamic groups continue to dog this artificial contraption that we like to call Nigeria.
'kovich
PICTURE CREDIT:
- http://www.nigerianmonitor.com
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