Birnin Gwari bedeviled by terror
Birnin Gwari is not a new name but a household slogan of a worthy meeting point It is settlement of a good and industrious people, it is a historical town, it is advantageously placed along a major towns linking states. It is a border cosmopolitan community that has a worthy connect with Kaduna, Katsina and […]
Birnin Gwari is not a new name but a household slogan of a worthy meeting point
It is settlement of a good and industrious people, it is a historical town, it is advantageously placed along a major towns linking states. It is a border cosmopolitan community that has a worthy connect with Kaduna, Katsina and Niger states. It is thus a haven of businesses and economic activities producing and building comfortable merchants and riches.
It became alarming when this jewel settlement and transit camp along the major road linking the most important Northern commercial city of Kano and the western commercial domain of Lagos thus linking the two most important business point of the country along that vertical axis of North and Western linkage.
Pathetically, it has a story of abandonment. People are choosing to flee their ancestral homes and historical constituents to any available domain. They have no choice than to choose a refugee like living and treatment in a new found home, where a supposed guarantee of safety perharps possible.
The incidence of terror perpetuation within the said axis of habitation is more of a James Bond film scene experienced through the television set. It has been a reminiscence of earlier thoughts of fiction and entertainment than a reality happenstance.
This security challenge is fast reaching and affecting the neighbouring towns and people of nearby origins. The Niger state, in contact of Rafi local government has become a grade one vulnerable territory as well. The Kusharki, district, the Kongoma district and the Uregi settlements have since been prone to such bandit attacks, unleashing terror to the residents. They are now under attack from kidnappings and robbery. They are psychologically traumatised, entrepreneurship unstable and in a cumulative state of despair. They have firsthand information on the neighbouring community’s unfortunate experience. The Zamfara people, the Maganda axis, the Buruku and Udawa axis have been a communities of ill experience of inhumanity to man.
This calls for the authority’s intervention and not only seeking for a divine solution. It is also of worthy note for the government to realise that an average local and citizen sees the effectiveness of governance and dividends from his immediate unit of comfort and experience. The security of his home community is a unit of his country’s security.
How can one convince the residents in those troubled axis and the victims of terror that there exist security in his country. It is beyond propaganda, it is beyond partisanship, it is beyond ordinary leadership but a collective responsiveness and commitment to safety and comfort. The government must do more and aggressively face those challenges and regain the people’s confidence within those troubled areas. The neighbouring communities must be protected to avoid a situation where they are so consumed and engulfed to a state of uncertainty and extinction.
It should not be another Boko Haram haven and territorial warfare where human and material assets are lost at the expense of development.
Enough of these losses, and a call for more proactive measures to safe guard the sanctity of life.
My sincere heartfelt sympathy goes to Birnin Gwari people. Ya Allah we asked for your intervention as You give our leaders the wisdom to do the appropriate and give our security outfits the agility and strength to thrash this vicious challenge.
Shettima Hassan [email protected]