Kafanchan Barrack Is Irreversible

Many of us hardly care to know why we have military barracks in almost all our major towns. We simply buy and go to sleep the narrative that the military is here to maintain the territorial integrity of Nigeria—which we often interpret as warding off external aggression—while internal dissent is handled by the police. The earlier we "bloody civilians" who are causing trouble all over the land understand that it is not so the better. Come with me.

History

The truth is that the military, right from the onset, was established by the colonial powers in Africa to subdue internal dissent. Period. The question as to who controls where in Africa has been a settled issue since the Berlin Conference (1884-1885). So the colonial government in Nigeria knew that it was not under any threat from the French whose colonies surrounded Nigeria. Otherwise, why site the barracks in the hinterland towns of Bauchi, Makurdi or Kaduna? Clearly, the barracks were established to keep us—the natives—subdued. Should any armed opposition to colonial rule arise, soldiers from the nearby barracks would be handy in putting off its fire.

The idea remains the same today. Once a crisis goes beyond the capacity of the police, the military from the nearby barracks is readily deployed to handle it. We have seen it in Bauchi, Jos, Kaduna, Yola and, of course, of recent in Maiduguri, where a 7th Division was created to get the force closer to the epicenter of the Boko Haram crisis. It is there to remind natives—sorry, Nigerians—that every inch of the Nigerian soil belongs to the successor (or representative) of the colonial power (the Federal Government, in this case) and that nobody should in any way contest that ownership through rewinding history to disclaim the authority of government.

The barracks continue to stay put sixty years after independence because government knows that the issue of ownership will from time to time be contested by the some elements with nostalgia for the past. Boko Haram is an example. It contested the authority of the secular Federal Government and eventually established, albeit temporarily, a ‘caliphate’ over an area in which people must live by its dictates. The military intervened.

Also, when crisis broke out on the Plateau in 2001 because some ‘indigenes’ (who do not have ‘Indi’ genes in their blood, but 'Afri' genes like any of us) felt that the Plateau belongs to them alone to the exclusion of some Nigerians and forgetting that the issue of ownership has been settled since when their ancestors were conquered by Lugard, Maj. Gen. Maina and his troops had to be deployed from the 3rd Division of the Nigerian Army in the outskirts of the Tin City to quench that ‘ancestral fire.’

The Golden Rule

The golden rule is that no people can claim ownership of any part of Nigeria to the exclusion of others. The land—Nigeria—belongs to the Federal Government. Everybody must let the land he lives on open to habitation by other Nigerians whether he likes them for an affinity or hates them for a difference. This is the ultimate reality of the modern nation state and particularly a democratic one that does not support any segregation on the basis of race or religion.

If we had imbibed this principle, the bloody conflicts that we have witnessed for over three decades in Plateau, Southern Kaduna and now Boko Haram would have been avoided. Our problem is that we nail our reasoning to the dead wood of pre-colonial precepts and sentiments. While the bright future is inviting us to a life of peace, love and progress, our minds continue to live hostage of the ugly, primitive past, with all its rancour, bigotry and hate for “the other”, and which the reality of today will not tolerate.

Southern Kaduna

Southern Kaduna cannot enjoy an exception to the golden rule. Since the 1980s, efforts have been made to cleanse the area of even ‘native’ Muslims and, now, the Fulani in particular. Some temporary success may be recorded by these bigots and chauvinists but in the end all must submit to the might of the Federal Government which will ensure that the golden rule we spelt out above prevails, turning the whole illusion of an exclusive Christendom in the area into a wasteful adventure similar to Shekau’s dream of a caliphate in the Northeast or the utopia of a Beromland free of Hausa-Fulani.

Well, the party is over. The Federal Government has deployed the military barracks strategy that it inherited from its predecessors. It is bridging the gap in military presence in the area by establishing a barrack in Kafanchan, the nerve centre of the crisis. The purpose is clear: Those that are contesting the principle on which the authority of the government is predicated must be proved wrong, that every Nigerian deserves peace in the area he chooses to live, that every inch of land belongs to government and nobody is allowed to inhabit it to the exclusion of other Nigerians…

Curious enough, some enemies of peace are against this noble and irreversible constant. They want 'their' area to remain free of any force that will guarantee the safety of lives and property of other Nigerians. They think they can force the Federal Government to treat them as exception to the rule. Yesterday, some of them demolished the foundation work of the barracks in Kafanchan, thinking that it is enough to put off the project. They are mistaken. Kafanchan must submit to the dictates of government as did Sokoto, Kano, Enugu, Calabar, Bauchi, Yola, Jos and Maiduguri long before it.

This incident has clearly shown who the perpetrators of the killings in Southern Kaduna are. They are those opposed to a military presence that will check their excesses, who shed the blood of others and come up - as we said time without number - in conjunction with ‘outsiders’ who want to see the North in flames with a propaganda on some invincible, marauding 'herdsmen' .

Advice

My advice to these brothers of ours is nothing but to submit to the agenda of peace that the Federal Government is proposing by establishing the barrack in Kafanchan. It cannot be stopped, anyway. So it is better to invest your energy in peace than fighting a battle that you are sure of losing.

Please, let us concentrate on building a better future of our children. Let us bequeath to them a peaceful atmosphere never enjoyed before and a foundation of progress that is today witnessed by many other parts of the continent. Enough of the destruction in our towns, the killings of our masses, the stinking hate in our atmosphere and the rancour in our hearts. The future promises us something far better than all these—peace, love and progress.

Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
12/2/2017