THE PLAN TO WIPE GBAGYIS OUT OF NIGER STATE

By Lawal Mu’azu

I think it is proper to begin with an apology. This is because many people, especially ‘come and raids’ will not fancy my position. But it has to be so, because it is a prophecy.

Many people are throwing insult and derogatory remarks on the deputy governor because of what he said at Gwada on 23rd of April, 2021. I don’t think it is necessary to do that.

The deputy governor is a political puppy that eats only from whatever the master throw at him.

I also see some political bootlickers holding defences for him. I see nothing really wrong in it because they are defending the food that comes to their mouths.

Where it becomes wrong is that, they ( the Deputy Governor and his media generals) are putting their stomachs above the well-being of general public. I think that is where I begin to see them as collaborators of bandits.

Many others are even more angry because the governor think of our quagmire as a ‘mere clash’ between Fulani herdsmen and farmers. That is a sad story to tell. For it speaks volume of how clueless, careless, incompetent and empty of administrative prowess our gwamina is.

However, it is more important now to think of ways to stop the criminals and their sponsors from wiping our historical records from the face of earth.

It is not longer hard to think that these criminals ravaging Shiroro, Rafi and Munya local government are sponsored the government of Niger state. Let me give you instances:

Some years back when this banditry began to visit us in our homes to burn people alive, rape women and cart away things of immense value, people in the affected areas then, tried to defend themselves. Regrettably, anyone who was caught engaging the bandits was either arrested and taken to prison or sentence to death security personnels of government.

What this mean is that, the government have enough security men to arrest and prosecute our kinsmen for defending themselves against bandits but do not have security man-power to fight the bandits and put a stop to our misery. Lawal Kwali is a good example of this instance.

Lawal Kwali was a local vigilante who fought the criminals to an extent that they became terrified of him, And because of that, he was arrested. Today, only God knows where his soul is wandering. Wherever he may be laying on ground, may he find eternal rest.

Another instance is that, since the start of this banditry till this moment, the governor of Niger state has not find it worthy of his while to visit the affected areas and at least; identity with the victims. This simply translate to the fact that, he doesn’t care about the existence of Gbagyis or the opposite of it.

It is also a public knowledge that Shiroro, Munya and Rafi have always been and are still the targeted areas of these criminals. Shiroro, Munya and Rafi are local governments in Zone B senatorial district of Niger state and Zone B is dominated Gbagyis:
(1) Why is the blood of our kinsmen the only blood that these vermins like sucking?
(2) Why is it that it is our mothers and sisters that they like raping?
(3) Why is the riches of our kinsmen the only wealth that they like taking?
(4) What is our crime?

These are questions that even the best thinkers are finding hard to answer. But common logic has made it so easy to say that ‘bandits and government are sisters of the same mother.’ In Niger state, it is a political strategy to wipe the history of Gbagyis.

To borrow an expression from a former Head of state, General Sani Abacha as a backup for my position, he is quoted to have said; “If insurgency lasts for more than 24 hours, the government has a hand in it.”

Gbagyis are known to be peace-loving and hard-working people. To chase them out of their ancestral home is not just to put chain on their necks and make them slaves but to also send them to an early grave. For a Gbagyi man cannot do without farming.

Now, the raining season is here and our kinsmen are out there on streets far away from their homes and their farms. This implies that, next year, some Gbagyi men (who feed this country with their farm produce) will be begging for what to eat and some might have died out of hunger. God forbid!

Expectedly, every Gbagyi man should know now that this is not a mere banditry. More than that, it is an attack on our ethnicity and we must stand against it.

It is also beyond political boarders. We need each and every Gbagyi man on board irrespective of political or religious lines. We are Gbagyis first before anything else.

On the whole, I suggest that we should sue the governor of Niger state in court of law to either restore peace back to our lands or resign and leave the state for us. In the first place, he doesn’t belong to this part of the world.

God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria!

April 25th, 2021