Thread by @Realoilsheikh

AS THE FAULT LINES WIDEN, WHO BENEFITS FROM IT?

Few years ago, a friend Surveyor Mustapha Munir, son of the present Dep Gov of Katsina state opened a BBM group, having members across several Nigerian ethnic groups. The group was a great platform while it lasted.

Thread.

Due to the gamut of complications born out of diverse ethnographic backgrounds in the North, coupled with religious diversity, that point of incipient catastrophe widens, a fault line so many interest groups utilize for different mischievous reasons. Who benefits from it?

No doubt, politicians & elites alike may appear to be the highest beneficiaries of a factious populace, always at loggerheads with one another. This might not necessarily be the case, because this appear to be a selling point even some so-called religious clerics.

Whoever might be the beneficiary, & for whatever reason they care not to find a lasting solution to this cataclysm, me & you are akways those at the receiving end. While we kill ourselves, they benefit in so many ways. For instance, a factious voice can't pull a bad govt down.

So they ensure that we are deeply divided & they enjoy the power while it lasts. When they're there, they forget whatever difference they have, & enjoy the loot together. Secondly, in the event of a crisis, we bleed & kill ourselves, they request for security votes & boost their

bank accounts. We still are the looses, while they benefit. No wonder there has not been any holistic attempt to punish those found guilty of any ethnoreligious crisis in Nigeria. From the time of IBB when Gen Zamani Lekwot was convicted, there was neither execution nor further

arrests or prosecution of that nature. This has sent a bad signal to potential merchants of ethnic violence that they can always get away with it. This is what happens when there's no Justice. This is what happens when you treat some people as sacred cows & others as scape goats.

Now let me go back to our little BBM Group created by Musty Munir. There were sincere debates in that group, heated in many cases, divided along ethnic or religious sentiments in other times. However, what I come to understand at the end of it was, everyone has a wound unhealed.

That encouraged me to initiate another honest discussion forum, where I added some ethnic groups from Southern Kaduna, some from Northern Kaduna & we started what I had wanted to be a platform that could shape the future for us, especially in Kaduna state.

My goal was to have everyone express his or her resentment, areas he or she felt he has been offended (however foolish it may be), & discuss what ways we think we can move forward. It started well, with the support of Hilda (a childhood friend from Southern Kaduna) living in

Lagos at the moment. Unfortunately, it crashed when no interest was shown by some of the members to accept the fact that since we cannot change what has happened in the past, or even entirely the present (since we don't hold any position of leadership), we can shape the future.

For instance, every ethnic group would want to narrate his or her own story in a way that favors him. Thus, nobody was ready to accept blame even if it was obvious that the blame should go to his ethnic group. We that were moderating the group tried not to allow the blame game

go on, but it didn't work. We had wanted a sincere display of facts with regards to how the problems originated, forgive one another where we have wronged each other & move on. That didn't work. Sadly so. Although I still believe that we can achieve that, if only we want to.

For instance, no amount of hate can remove southern Kaduna (Christians) from Kaduna nor change their tribes or religion. Same way, no such amount of hatred can change a Muslim from Northern Kaduna from being a Muslim or a Hausa/Fulani. What them is the point of the hatred?

Why should the tribe or religion of others be an issue to us when we can live together & respect one another? For those of us born & bred in the city of Kaduna, we know how devastating these issues are, & how deeply rooted the divide is. If we do not change how we approach these

issues, in 100 years to come, the issues worsen. We like it or not, a Muslim man you're living with in the same state with a Christian indigene of the state are closer than another Christian from say the southern Nigeria. This is due to ethnographic factors. We differ in fewer

ways than we agree. There are several tribes in Kaduna that, although they have their own tribes, they only speak Hausa language among themselves. I once met a lady from Southern Kaduna during my NYSC in Benin. I was appointed to speak to the UNIBEN registrar on behalf of the

Corp members, with regards allowances increment & accommodation for Corp members. When she heard my name & where I came from, she admitted that she saw a brother, although she want a Muslim nor was she Hausa. The most interesting part of it all was, although she wasn't Hausa by

tribe, she only speaks English & Hausa, & can't communicate in her own mother tongue. There are thousands like that, we went to the same sch with. Let us not allow some politicians, especially or other mischievous religious clerics especially from the southern part of the country

to deepen our divide. At this point, anything that cannot unite us should not be important to us. Insecurity is everyone's business & although many disagree with the approach by Malam Nasiru Ahmad @elrufai on handling the crisis in the state, it is by far the best approach.

It may have some faults, because he isn't perfect, but let us embrace peace. Let us support the govt's effort to trace whoever has hands in these issues, irrespective of societal influence or position, ensure that the person face the law squarely.

As youths, let us create avenues that we will sit & have frank discussions so that we can device means of moving forward & creating a peaceful Kaduna & Nigeria at large.

We can do it. And we must do it.

~Dr. Abubakar Hidima.