"Thou shalt not kiII" was the command, and it was given for a reason. Life is God's creation and is considered not very, but extremely sacred. You do not even have to be religious to recognize the sanctity of life. Even animal rights are now being recognized in a world that is seemingly godless, how much more of a human life?
No country supports kiIIing, and even capitaI punishment for convicted criminals is considered too extreme and unacceptable. Making convicts serve a life sentence in jail, is considered a more humane approach.
Take the judgment passed yesterday Monday 27th, by an FCT High Court in Abuja, on the trial of Maryam Sanda who was sentenced to d**th by hanging for kiIIing her husband, Bilyaminu, son of a former national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Haliru Bello.
While the judgement against Maryam to a rational mind, would scream 'justice well served', it was however, shocking that Mrs Maryam, a kiIIer, somehow drew sympathy from a section of the public who see her as someone more qualified for a rehab, than some so called repentant Boko Haram t**rorists whose crimes by comparison, would make Maryam, a saint. According to their argument, President Muhammadu Buhari’s government has raised the bar on what kind of crime, qualifies for a capital punishment.
In Buhari's Nigeria, things are different. There's no better way to describe it than George Orwell's animal farm, where equality has class. And yes, it is much worse than the President's 97/5 percent claim.
Prior to Buhari's emergence as President, Nigeria was already on a knife's edge having just clocked 100 years of nationhood in 2014. The country was said to be heavily divided and collapsing, despite claims of ex-president Goodluck Jonathan's administration being the best Nigeria ever had.
Jonathan wasn't good enough by the standards of Buhari's '97 percenters', and while searching for a solution, a 'monster' was unearthed.
President Buhari is currently in his fifth year in office, a period long enough to unravel his real identity and purpose of deceitfully riding his way to power in 2015. Nigerians had thought they were voting in a president, little did they know, that they were enthroning an entire ethnic group to rule over them.
But eyes are now clear. It is no longer 97 percent against 5 percent, but rather, 1 percent against 99 percent. It is now between the Fulanis, against the rests of us. The fact that Miyetti Allah can boldly say they 'have a history of fighting', and that they have their own 'defence mechanisms' in place, while the rest of us are hunted down for daring to defend ourselves, says a lot about who lords over who in this country.
Buhari's emergence as president, has seen his kinsmen soared in rank to join Boko Haram in the world's top 10 list of t**ror groups. In other words, Fulani herdsmen have been internationally recognized as a t**ror group, while our Fulani President back home would rather proscribe IPOB, and see Amotekun as a bigger threat.
President Buhari was supposed to fix a country Jonathan was accused of destroying. What we do see however, is a government determined to set the country ablaze while calling for peaceful coexistence. How on earth does asking victims to exercise restraint while their assailants move freely and attack at will with no single arrest since 2015, results in peaceful coexistence?
The gru*some kiIIing in Jos by the Fulanis and Buhari's call for restraint is yet another example of how clueless the current government really is. Perhaps, Buhari needs to be told that neither he nor his other 1 percent, are any smarter or intelligent than the rest of us. Until the President is able to rein in his kinsmen who are only second to Boko Haram in acts of t**rorısm, every attack can only bring the country all the more closer to disintegration.
The era of exercising restraint is gone. While reprisal is no solution for peace, it is surely the only way to let the president know that a Fulani life is not any more sacred than the rests of innocent Nigerians being slained on almost daily basis. If the president is interested in a peaceful coexistence, then he must call his people to order, and as well, do justice to the family of those slained by his kinsmen since 2015.
This is an Opinion piece by Kassai Adams, a contributor for National Pivot.
