ON THE WAR BREAKING OUT IN NIGERIA AND A DRASTIC STEP I AM TAKING ABOUT IT: AN OPEN LETTER TO THE UNITED NATIONS
I am writing this letter to the world through you. I will email it to you and also make it public. I am making it public for accountability's sake - that there may be public witnesses that I told you this and as to whether you lived up to your responsibilities of the moment or not.
I am using this means to inform you about a bitter war already breaking out in Nigeria and the drastic step I am taking concerning it, and why you need to intervene in the situation as soon as now. I am putting you on notice as the Planet's largest intergovernmental organization and one that exists on the premise of international peace and security.
I am informing you because I still trust that you are a responsible organization although I have had reasons on several occasions to withdraw that trust - I just hope that you still deserve this trust. I am informing you to alert you to your responsibility before it becomes too late to respond. I tell you, it is already getting too late.
WHO AM I AND WHAT STEP AM I TAKING?
My name is Desmond Chinedu Nweke. I live in the Nigerian State of Ebonyi. I am from the Nigerian street, representing the true voice of the masses. I have zero political affiliation both within and outside Nigeria.
From Monday 10th May 2021, I will not eat any solid food until my demands for preventing this impending war are met. This decision is 100% mine. I am embarking on this strike to prevent children's extreme hunger as it is usually the case in wars. For public accountability regarding this, I am going to be laying siege at the facades of the House of Assembly complex of my state from that date. I will be using my State House of Assembly as a point of contact to press my demands on the National Assembly and all the parliaments on Earth. I will not leave that place until my demands are met.
If I die or sustain any injury in the hunger strike (whether by hunger, by the brutality of government agents, or by any other means), everyone who read this mail to this point would be responsible for my death or injury to the extent that they had the power to intervene in meeting my demands but didn't. Each person's intervention can be as simple as sharing this on social media to increase its chances of getting a response or as high-profile as prevailing on the political leadership in Nigeria and elsewhere to act responsibly regarding this fire of a bitter conflict that is starting.
I am totally pissed off by this hypocrisy whereby supposed responsible people and organizations would watch over a war to start before they start sending relief materials accompanied with sanctimonious statements. "Prevention is better than cure" is an old but popularly evergreen proverb that every responsible person or organization should not take lightly.
THE BACKGROUND TO MY STRIKE
Without mincing words, I hold the President of Nigeria Retired General Muhammadu Buhari solely responsible for instigating this war/anarchy that is breaking out in Nigeria. I have valid reasons to believe that President Muhammadu Buhari is doing this to use the war as an opportunity to foist a genocidal agenda on some or all the nations of Nigeria apart from his Fulani nation. Here below are my reasons for holding this view:
1. THE VIOLENT AND EXTREMIST ANTECEDENTS OF PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI
Before Retired General Muhammadu Buhari became a civilian President of Nigeria in 2015, he was known for his violence-steeped and extremist utterances, acts, and actions. For instance, after the post-election violence that broke out in the country in 2011 and claimed up to 8,000 lives (going by the media reports), Muhammadu Buhari was never known to have condemned the attack unequivocally and in any strong terms.
Indeed, I am yet to find any reliable media evidence that Retired General Buhari ever condemned the gruesome attacks that were apparently fomented by his supporters to protest his loss in the presidential election that year. Instead, the following year and while the memory of the previous year's post-election carnage was still very fresh in the minds of the world, Buhari was predicting another post-election carnage for 2015. (Ref: https://www.vanguardngr.com/
It is worthy of note that Retired General Buhari said this while he was addressing his supporters - the same people who were supposed to have carried out the previous year's killings - and he said it in the Hausa language to ensure that his message wouldn't be mistaken by any of those in the audience. What this scenario clearly proves is that President Buhari has a mind to inspire violence in order to achieve his intentions by coercion.
There are numerous other instances of President Buhari's violent/extremist past. He actually used that to cow people into supporting his second coming after they had refused him for years. Likewise, it is also the reason why millions of Nigerians wouldn't dare to protest against him directly despite so many and so profound excesses in his abuse of office.
2. THE ASTRONOMIC RISE IN FULANI MILITIA TERRORISM WITH THE BUHARI CIVILIAN ADMINISTRATION
Retired General Muhammadu Buhari, a FULANI man known for his extremist views, became Nigeria's civilian President on May 29, 2015, with a promise that "I belong to nobody and I belong to everybody". It turned out he was deceiving the world with that statement. That is because, contrary to that statement, it soon became obvious that President Buhari came to the Presidency to carry out a sinister tribal agenda against the Nigerian citizenry by using his nomadic folks and the government security apparatus.
Here are media-verifiable facts to support this allegation: Only six months after this Fulani man became Nigeria's President, the FULANI Militia had already become deadly enough to get named as the 4th deadliest terror group in the world by the Global Terrorism Index. (Ref:https://www.independent.
And if that wasn't enough to prove that the new President came to implement a deadly agenda with his kinsmen, we have all seen HOW THE PRESIDENT PAMPERS AND PROTECTS THE 4TH DEADLIEST TERROR GROUP ON EARTH which happens to be made up of his own kins. These terrorists embark on wanton killing, maiming, rapes, kidnaps, arsons, and other forms of vandalism (like the destruction of farms that contributes over 80% to the food insecurity in the country right now). Yet, no government security agent arrests these killers, rapists, and vandals. If ever they are arrested, it turns out to be only protective custody.
The worst of all is that these globally renowned deadly Fulani terrorists are endlessly allowed to roam around our backyards and hinterlands wielding dangerous weapons. Even when Saleh Bayeri, a spokesperson of a Fulani organization, bragged openly that they are the ones who raided the Agatu community in Benue State in February 2016, killing hundreds of people for days, the Government of Retired General Buhari never questioned him, let alone prosecuting him. (Ref: https://www.premiumtimesng.
Instead, the government security agencies are known to offer immediate stiff resistance against anyone who rises to protest against these sworn killers. For the avoidance of doubt, the same government agencies that should have protected the people from the heinous attacks are the ones that protect the killers so brazenly instead. For instance, after the spokesperson of Gan Allah Fulani Association Saleh Bayeri openly bragged about his people being responsible for the Agatu Massacre in February 2016, no Government security agency brought him to the law. But, when the Fulani killers struck again in Awgu community in Enugu State some days later and some youths of the community dared to resist them, the Government security agents were immediately on hand to arrest the youths (Ref: https://www.vanguardngr.com/
It has remained very much the pattern since then, spreading all over the country like wildfires. Now, the killers have become so bold that they can just kill anyone, any number of people, and anywhere but nothing happens about it.
Everyone who knows about Nigeria may be aware of the mindless unabated killing, maiming, kidnapping, and raping of struggling Nigerians and the vandalization of their means that has been going on for more than half a decade due to this. For instance, in my own state of Ebonyi, up to 1,000 people may have lost their lives to these killings, including a pregnant peasant who was raped on her farm in the presence of her husband before the couple was murdered in cold blood (Ref: https://www.sunnewsonline.com/
With the way that this Government has clearly pampered and protected these terrorists over the years to the point of them probably celebrating the anniversaries of their mass murders with more mass murders, I stand strong to accuse the President of Nigeria Muhammadu Buhari of being fully and consciously complicit with his kins in implementing a genocidal agenda against the nations of Nigeria. Already, this is the pervading perception from the Nigerian grassroots which you can see to be very justifiable. It is with this sense of justice that many nations of Nigeria are beginning to resort to self-help. Consequently, as anyone with half a brain can see, Africa's most populous country (a mini-Africa actually) is fast slipping into a bitter war or full-blown anarchy due to these excesses of a President and his kins and the continued criminal silence of everyone who should have intervened in the situation. Imagine the humanitarian implications of this!
Whereas Nigerians have been largely cowed by the tyrannical attitudes of this supposedly democratic government, so cowed that they dare not protest directly against the President, this is what I am protesting against. I am protesting against a situation where the President alongside his kinsmen has practically rated my life and those of my fellow citizens among ants and mosquitoes. I insist that my life and the life of every Nigerian are far more important than the life of any number of cows contrary to what President Buhari and his kins are obviously thinking. If I am wrong, let someone tell me how wrong I am. Otherwise, let my demands be met forthwith. Also, given the dictatorial antecedents of this government and its vassals at the other levels, I am not unaware that they are most likely to come for my life. So, the world is hereby placed on notice.
MY DEMANDS
i. By a Presidential fiat, the President of Nigeria should order an IMMEDIATE end to open grazing in the country. After that, anyone seen loitering around in the name of grazing animals should be arrested and prosecuted publicly and immediately.
ii. President Buhari should address the country in a broadcast that should be carried in all the government and private television and radio stations and also on the President's official social media platforms. The broadcast should be announced daily via the same channels through which it will take place at least 5 days before it takes place.
iii. In the broadcast, President Buhari should apologize to Nigerians for betraying the trust many of them reposed in him by supposedly electing him as their President and for protecting the 4th deadliest terrorist cell all these years and letting them kill the same people who supposedly elected him to protect their legitimate interests.
iv. Also, in the broadcast, President Buhari should reassure Nigerians in unmitigated terms that no herders will ever be permitted to loiter around the country again under the watch of the security agents.
v. The United Nations, the African Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, the top media organizations/houses, and other relevant entities should immediately launch an investigation to determine the veracity of the widespread allegation that 'repentant' terrorists have been conscripted into Nigeria's top security positions - including the military, the police, and the official database management systems over the last few years.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Desmond Chinedu Nweke
Cc:
1. The African Union
2. The British High Commission in Nigeria
3. The US Embassy in Nigeria
4. The Apostolic Nunciature of Nigeria
5. The Broadcasting Organization of Nigeria (BON).
6. Leading news channels in Nigeria and the world.
Please, click here to sign a petition to stop open grazing in Nigeria.
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