Thread by @Chxta

"Moving on" is no longer an option in #Nigeria. Everything must be interrogated.

As an example, an excuse that was given by those who attempted to do a food blockade against their "fellow Nigerians" was because of the violence meted out against Northerners in Oyo.

To my mind, that excuse fails the smell test.

Food was also blocked from going to Ikpoba Hill in Benin, and Onitsha Main Market, two big markets from which distribution happens to other places in their respective regions.

Are Benin and Onitsha on the way to Oyo?

Why punish Benin and Onitsha for the sins of Oyo if this was not an attempt to show who had power, an attempt that failed miserably.

The truth is that the economics of the attempted blockade simply did not add up, and this should be a lesson for all involved.

But the bigger lesson is in the geopolitics.

For people that starved between 1968 and 1969, the attempted blockade evokes memories of having to eat lizards because their fellow countrymen decided that the best way to bring them back into the union was to starve them.

How can you claim to be someone's compatriot but your weapon of choice in a dispute that flared up in another part of the country is to starve the person?

Put yourself in southern shoes and think about it this way: at least since 2018, we have heard sounds about how the North is in control of the food #Nigeria eats.

Then this happened, and a (ex) government official gleefully celebrated it. What message was sent by these?

Now following all of that, the governor of an obscure state held the fastest negotiation in Nigerian history and gleefully announced that a hefty sum will be paid by the FG to the belligerents.

For the record, theoretically, Yahaya Bello has no power to reach agreements on behalf of the FG.

In real life in the Buhari regime, however, it will not be a shock if the FG pays, and herein lies the rub.

The crimes committed in Shasa, Oyo were the culmination of years of increasing tension, but "one side" looks set to be compensated.

People will take note.

When the reaction of the government is increasingly seen as unfair and biased towards one side of the conflict, should anyone be surprised that more and more people will first listen to demagogues, and then take the laws into their hands?

Sadly, via the announcement from Kogi, the government has once again, displayed that it favours one side in this whole kerfuffle.

Look at it this way: university lecturers were on strike for almost a year. were ignored. Medical personnel went on strike twice during a pandemic, were ignored.

Traders from a section of the country coughed, were immediately called for negotiations, and payment was agreed.

Till date there has been no official acknowledgement of people killed in places named Agatu, Guma, Nibo…

What conclusion do you expect people from those parts of the country to reach?

What do you think will happen if their "son" replaces Buhari?

I have repeatedly said that our penchant for assigning collective guilt in #Nigeria will continue to cause more harm than good.

I should know.

My grandfather and a number of my uncles were killed on the same day because someone who was not even from their village led a coup.

Of course, some will call me names for stating these obvious things, I'm used to it.

However, I believe it is my duty to speak up.

People like me who shout are the least of #Nigeria's problems, shouting is what we do.

What you should be worried about are those who quietly take note, and then act.

As far back as 2014, myself, @cchukudebelu, @Nedunaija were shouting about a chap who was then known as Director, and we were ridiculed.

I'm just your regular run-of-the-mill alarmist, but today, this Director's non-state armed group is engaging @HQNigerianArmy and @PoliceNG in hit-and-run, tit-for-tat attacks.

Today, a quiet chap named Government exercises such control over a swathe of #Nigeria's oil-producing region that after government attempts to arrest him, he has shown who the real government is by openly taking part in events, with government officials. bit.ly/389l6G4

Back in 2007, @THISDAYLIVE ran a report about a man whose brother, Taofik, was killed on 5/3/2007 after a (routine) disturbance.

That man was declared wanted by no less than the IGP, but somehow remained free to continue his "normal activities."

The Nigerian state failed to put him away, despite evidence that he had taken part in a lot of violence.

That man was Sunday Igboho.