The Southern Kaduna Crisis can consume Nigeria – Shehu Sani

Former Senator representing Kaduna central, Comrade Shehu Sani has warned that the crisis going on in the Southern Kaduna can lead to a Christians, Muslims clash across the country if urgent measures are not put in place to curtail the crisis.

Comrade Sani who spoke exclusively to ElombahNews in a zoom meeting hosted by Elombah TV in the United Kingdom said the Southern Kaduna problem threatens the peace, unity and stability of Nigeria.

According to him, as things are today, Muslims outside Kaduna are aligning themselves to Muslims in Kaduna and Christians are aligning themselves with Christians in Kaduna.

“If we don’t address the problem in southern Kaduna and the North west, it could be a trigger that dissolves the Nigeria federation.

“If we don’t do anything about it, if we keep on trying to analyse and justify and give excuses for killings going on the some parts of the country, we are going to regret it.

The former Senator who berated Service Chiefs for not doing enough to address the killings in the North west and Southern Kaduna urged President Muhammadu Buhari to get capable hands to handle the worsening security situation in the country.

He said, “the killings in Southern Kaduna must be brought to an end, the killings in the North west must be brought to an end.

“I keep emphasizing insecurity even when I was in the Senate, knowing very well it is about the legacy of the president and the country.

“Many of these people who launder the image of President and telling him lies, they would not be there tomorrow when he is out of power to defend him.

“Nigerians are not known for standing up to protect their bosses when they are out of power.

“It is those that will tell the President the truth, call a spade, a spade are the real friends of Mr. President, and not those giving the impression that it is all about communal clash.

“If you are in power, you should know that your legacy is not about chief of Naval staff or chief of Defence staff, it is not about any state governor, It is about your stewardship.

“The President should be concerned about what is happening in the country. The very people that are praising him today, will be the same people that will be attacking him when he leaves the office in 2023.”

Speaking further on the killings going on in Kaduna state, he said the killings are not limited to Southern Kaduna, but across the North west citing an example of what is going on in Zamfara, Katsina and other parts of Kaduna state.

He said the affected people in some parts of Kaduna decided not to talk because they don’t want to embarrass Mr. President.

According to him, the other people including the Hausa Muslims need to show to the world what is going on.

“You can’t conceal it, and if you do, people will not know that it is also happening on the other side, nobody is going to believe that, so others that are making the point that Christians are specifically  being targeted, their points are valid.

Comrade Sani wondered how the persistent killings could be going on in Kaduna despite the strong presence of military and police formations in the state.

Kaduna state has the largest concentration of Army and Air Force bases and other military establishments in the country.

ElombahNews has reported that armed Fulani militia group bypassed several military checkpoints to kill 33 persons in four communities in the Zango Kataf area of Southern Kaduna on Wednesday night.

Sani said, “Kaduna state and Southern Kaduna have some of the strongest presence of Military and Police locations, and these things keep happening.

“It is unfortunate and unexplainable that with the heavy presence of security, things like these are happening.

“It is natural for anyone to conclude that there is a conspiracy, even if there is an actual failure of duty to act.

“If you are in Southern Kaduna as a Soldier or Policeman, you are there to protect the people, but when you fail to protect them, you must be seen as part of the problem or in partnership with those who are killing them.”

He added, “this is not ethno-religious violence where Christians and Muslims bring knives, Machete and start attacking each other.

“These are organised group coming into Christian dominated areas and targeting people that are predominantly Christians, killing women and raping them, it is a fact and it is backed up with evidence of pictures and moving images which people can see.

“So, if you are from the Muslim side and you decided not to show the world, that is your own problem because you don’t want to embarrass the government, and so you don’t blame anybody for bringing out his own problem.

“The security operatives have failed whether they are soldiers or police and whoever now comes up with any form of theory that aligned the issue to conspiracy, I think it is right.

When asked about the releasing of Hausa, Fulani with AK-47, Shehu Sani said, ‘what you are seeing today is a symptom of a failing state where non-state actors are seen moving around with guns and becoming an authority and even going to the point of taxing people, extorting villages and even demarcating area of authority for themselves.

“These are symptoms of a state that is failing.

“It is a fact that in some parts of the North, the attacks are basically in areas that are predominantly Muslim and in some part of the North west like the Southern Kaduna, they are basically Christians, but the fact is this, the Muslim side are also suffering from these killings.

“In the 8th Senate, when I stood up to speak about the worsening insecurity and killings in the North West as it concerns abduction and extra-judicial killings by these non state actors and kidnappers,  a senator from Katsina state stood up to challenge me, that I am simply saying that to embarrass the government.

“The Senator that stood up to talk at that time, he is still there in the Senate and I am not there, but his part of the country, his constituency is one of the ungovernable areas in the state and is one of the most dangerous places in the North Western part of Nigeria.”

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