Open Letter To The Buhari Government On The #ZariaMassacre

Source: Dr. Perry Brimah

It is now two weeks after the December 12th incident in Zaria that left as many as 1000 Nigerians dead.

Two weeks is very significant because this is the same length of time it took for the then Jonathan regime to acknowledge that our Chibok girls had been abducted.

Sadly, two weeks after the Zaria massacre the Buhari-led Federal government is yet to acknowledge and even vaguely comment on the events that led to 1000 dead in various locations across Zaria.

Do these lives not matter?
There have been resounding condemnations of what many accept to be an extrajudicial and excessive use of force by the Nigerian military. The Sultan of Sokoto led NSCIA has condemned the indiscriminate termination of sacred life.

The Human Rights Watch and Nigerian Human Rights commission have likewise condemned the unjustified massacre at sites uninvolved in the road blockade.

Similarly many of us including the Islamic Movement have condemned the militant excesses of those who blocked the path of Chief of Staff Buratai.

No prior persecution and earlier provocation by allegedly staging armed soldiers with boxes of extra ammunition should warrant a stick and stone wielding armed blockade of the road leading to the center; yet the Nigerian government has condemned neither action and remains committed to a scary, deadly, conspicuous silence.

Are the military above the law? This is a question we are asking.

Nigerians are grateful to the military for their civic duty in the war against Boko Haram where the military Chiefs are meant to be stationed but likewise we cannot forget the altruistic continuous contributions of various civilians, hunters and the Civilian-JTF who have been and continue to be an equal force in securing Nigeria. No one should be above the law and in each case of civilian obstruction, the right thing to do is call the police.

Where Nigeria lacked a government for the most of 30 years many of us had to constitute as parallel governments including the very Civilian-JTF and media as a parallel security departments to protect Nigeria from total collapse. Should we be rewarded by death?

A campaign of calumny under the watch and perhaps sponsorship of agencies of this government proves a lack of learning from recent history: when the Jonathan government waged the most expensive campaign of calumny against the person of Muhammadu Buhari, making him the least likely candidate to ever win an election, it was we civilians and not the military who worked day and by candlelight to clear the President of the wicked accusations.

Is death the payment for our work?
Is this silence and promotion of same against others when members of the new administration make reckless blunders the reward we get?

Shall we in turn concoct deadly slander on another?

Your government is not infallible.
The Chief of army staff is not infallible.
No one is more important than Nigeria and the truth before God.

Neither one single nor 10 million Nigerians should be sacrificed for the career of a single careless General. One in 12 of about 80 million Nigerian Muslims are faithfuls of the Islamic movement according to Pew polls; these include the topmost Islamic leaders and Ministers. We cannot afford to alienate and lose these millions as a nation and politically in a true effort to rebuild this nation and I hope our plan is not to kill them all.

The crisis we read of in Sudan, the Congo and Kenya with some groups who think they are ethnically or religiously superior to others, supported by a government, killing other minority groups starts off just as we are witnessing in the North today under your watch. Is this what you want? In one place you can be majority, but as the Lord made the world, in another you may be minority. We should not be pawns of the campaigns of the fanatic Arab monarchs' mischievous billions.

There are other ways for the Nigerian government and police to deal with the 'nuiscance' they are perturbed with by the Islamic Movement and all other religious movements in Nigeria most of which do worse than just block roads across the nation on their service days but are also involved in high stake looting of public funds, laundering, frank terrorism and gun smuggling..

We know many prominent Northern Islamic leaders who have called for deadly riots in the past. We know of members of this very administration who have likewise been accused of directly or indirectly provoking deadly armed protests. Without justice there can never be peace. It is the duty of the mobile police to control armed protest, no one should be above the law or no one will believe in the law.

I have been slandered as being Shia. Whereas even 'Shia' reject the name. I do not care. I supported a new government for justice and equality without which there cannot be peace. The Muslim Quran says that which means in Chapter 5:8

"....and let not hatred of any people seduce you that ye deal not justly. Deal justly, that is nearer to your duty. Observe your duty to Allah. Lo! Allah is Informed of what ye do."

Also we have perhaps all read the famous statement by Niemöller:

"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Socialist.
"Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
"Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Jew.
"Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."

#IAmZakzaky. I will continue to talk. I will not tire.

–Dr. Peregrino Brimah; @EveryNigerian also on http://Naija.Live radio.

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