Kaduna Governor and the 'Salaried Killers'

In the post Donald Trump’s election victory era, there is now an ongoing conversation around the spread, impacts and reach of fake news.

The other day, the owner of Facebook, the world’s leading social media network- Mark Zuckerberg disclosed strategies his firm has put in place to whittle down the presence of fake news being circulated using the Facebook network.

In perhaps a demonstration of how bizarre the spread of fake news has reached, the United State authorities on Sunday arrested a man who fired an assault rifle inside a popular Washington, D.C. Pizza featured in a news story.

Edgar Maddison Welch, 28, of Salisbury North Carolina entered comet ping pong in Northwestern D.C. on Sunday afternoon wielding an assault rifle-sending patrons fleeing from the popular Pizza joint- and fired one shot, according to police quoted by the Abc News.

The restaurant was featured in a made-up news story which circulated online during the Presidential election season. The shooter said he entered the establishment to ‘Self-investigate’ a spurious theory in the story that involves Hilary Clintonregarding the alleged pedophile ring.

Indeed its not only in the post-truth era that saw Donald Trump emerge as President of the United State relying on sentiments that these bizarre scenes may occur.

In Kaduna State, Northern Nigeria, the Governor is enmeshed in a dramatic scenario that involves some payments he reportedly made to suspected armed Fulani killers to stop their consistent attacks and killings of members of the largely Christian Communities in the Southern segment of the State.

Any discerning and rational thinker reading this bizarre story out of Kaduna governor’s office will dismiss it with a wave of hand as fake. But you are wrong to do that going by the spread of the story that the governor indeed admitted making payments to stop Fulani herdsmen from further attacking Southern Kaduna.

At least in the case of the lone shooter in the United States, he was motivated by his zeal to investigate what is generally believed to be a fake story implicating Hilary Clinton in running pedophile ring.

But what would have motivated an elected official to pay off suspected armed attackers to suspend their murderous activities? Has the relevant Criminal laws including the Nigerian Constitution been suspended that may have warranted this bizarre tale of settlement of Fulani herdsmen to stop killing Southern Kaduna people? Why did the Kaduna State Governor not hand the killers over for effective prosecution for the heinous crime of Mass killings?

Can this unjustifiable payments made by the Kaduna State Governor be classified as a reasonable implementation of public policy? If it is a public policy, how rationally justifiable is it?

R.K. Sapru who wrote the book titled: “Public Policy: Formulation, Implementation and Evaluation” is of the considered thinking that the public comprises that domain of human activity which is regarded as requiring governmental intervention or common action.

Public Policy has to do with those spheres which are so labeled as ‘Public’ as opposed to spheres involving the idea of ‘private’, he further argued.

“To Sir Geoffrey Vickers, policies are ‘decisions giving direction coherence and continuity to the course of action for which the decision-making body is responsible”.

“Carl Friedrich regards policy as “…a proposed course of action of a person, group, or government within a given environment providing obstacles and opportunities which the policy was proposed to utilize and overcome in an effort to reach a goal or realize an objective or a purpose”.”

“James Anderson suggests that policy be regarded as “a purposive course of action followed by an actor or set of actors in dealing with a problem or matter of concern”.”

“Taken as a whole, policy may be defined as a purposive course of action taken or adopted by those in power in pursuit of certain goals or objectives. It should be added here that public policies are the policies adopted and implemented by government bodies and officials. David Easton defines public policy as “the authoritative allocation of values for the whole society”. (Public Policy: Formulation, Implementation and Evaluation by R.K. Sapru)

To sum up the views of these scholars of Public Policy and tie them up to the action purportedly adopted by the Kaduna State Governor in paying certain felons to stop committing criminal offences, what has emerged is that the entire incident has made mockery of the constitution and the Administration of Criminal Justice in Nigeria.

Specifically, Governors in Nigeria are under an oath of office which obliges them not allow their personal interest to influence their official conduct or official decisions.

It is being interpreted that as a Fulani man, the Kaduna State Governor may have chosen to provide soft landing to alleged perpetrators of mass killings in Southern Kaduna going by the reported admission he allegedly made to the media that he paid Fulani herdsmen to stop their attacks in Southern Kaduna. It is further argued that he did this to protect his kinsmen from facing the full wrath of the law.

A further review of this action would immediately bring to mind the manifest gross violations to relevant sections of the administration of Criminal Justice Act of 2015 and even the extant Constitution which absolutely outlaws unlawful killings.

The purpose of the administration of Criminal Justice law is to ensure that the system of administration of criminal justice in Nigeria promotes efficient management of Criminal Justice Institutions, speedy dispensation of Justice, andprotection of the society from crime. The essence of having a government is to promote equality before the law and ensure that nobody is above team law.

The enormity of the offences perpetrated by these armed Fulani attackers in Southern Kaduna is of such a monumental scale that any public ‘policy’ churned out by the Governor which undermines the Constitution must be absolutely overturned and condemned. Indeed any decision that overrides and undermines the principle of rulebook law is unconstitutional and unconscionable and therefore ultravires and absolutely reprehensible.

For instance, the Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA) disclosed that hundreds of people have been killed in the renewed attacks even as 27,000 persons have been displaced.

The group further kicked against a plan by the Kaduna State government to create new grazing reserves and routes for Fulani herdsmen in the area, alleging that the herders were responsible for the attacks.

The National Assembly had earlier declined the move through a bill by President Muhammadu Buhari a fulani to bring about creation of grazing reserves for his kinsmen who are in the private business of raring cows. The National Assembly said it was manifestly unlawful to so enact.

In Kaduna the ECWA Church whose thousands of members have been massacted describe the move to create grazing reserves as an orchestrated plan by the Fulani’s to take over the ancestral land of the indigenes.

Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, the Chairman of 19 District Councils of the church, Reverend Zachariah Gado, asked the state government to stop the proposed creation of grazing reserves in the area for the interest of peace and security of lives and property.

The media recalled that the press conference by the ECWA Church came barely three days after gunmen attacked four villages in Kauru Local Government Area also in the southern part, killing about 31 people.

The gunmen were said to have carried out coordinated attacks in the four communities, where they burnt down over 150 houses and farmlands.

Now, the residents according to news reports have fled from their homes to neighboring communities in Nasarawa, Plateau and Abuja. Those who do not have anywhere to go are now taking refuge at a primary school. National Emergency Management Agency seems unconcerned about the plight of Southern Kaduna or South East populace whose farmlands are destroyed by the rampaging marauders masquerading as Fulani herdsmen who are indeed Fulani herdsmen.

ECWA recalled that this is the same situation in other communities in Sanga, Kaura and Jemaa Local Government Areas since the renewed attacks in those places by suspected herdsmen.

Most worrisome are that majority of the communities do not have access roads, a situation that makes rescue operations difficult during emergency situations.

So how does the Kaduna State Governor expect people affected by these conflicts to take his ill-advised decision to settle the same people unleashing violence with public fund to stop their murderous attacks? Do we really have brains in the clime? Or have imbeciles seized power to borrow from Woke Soyinka.

*Emmanuel Onwubiko is the head of Human Right Writers Association of Nigeria and blogs @ www.emmanuelonwubiko.com