Don’t Ethnicize Ukpabi Nimbo Tragedy

Tragedy struck at Ukpabi Nimbo community in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State last Monday when it came under attack from a band of suspected cattle herdsmen with whom members of the community had disagreements in recent times. Many people were killed and injured but it is difficult to say exactly how many. While […]

Tragedy struck at Ukpabi Nimbo community in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State last Monday when it came under attack from a band of suspected cattle herdsmen with whom members of the community had disagreements in recent times. Many people were killed and injured but it is difficult to say exactly how many. While newspapers reported that between 20 and 48 persons were killed, the Enugu State Police Command confirmed that six people were killed and 11 were injured.
One of the most unfortunate aspects of the attack was that it was fully anticipated and was even prepared for. Even though security chiefs assured that steps had been taken to prevent it, the attack still took place. The police also said that soldiers and policemen intervened and drove away the attackers but the victims said no one came to their aid while the attack lasted. We join all well meaning Nigerians in condemning this attack in the strongest possible terms. We sympathise with the victims, their families and the Enugu State government and we join government and all Nigerians in the search for a solution to these carnages that are threatening to become recurring decimals in this country.
Gory and despicable though it was, the incident has opened the floodgates for many otherwise respectable persons to make allegations, comments, misinterpretations and to issue threats that, far from helping the situation, could only incite Nigerians to a wider pogrom. For example, the Enugu State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria’s [CAN] secretary Apostle Dr. Joseph Ajujungwa called on all Igbo communities to prepare for self defence. This was the same unhelpful phrase that CAN president Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor used three years ago in response to the Boko Haram bombing of churches. While it is ordinarily normal that anyone who is under attack should defend himself, for religious leaders to make such a call is open to misinterpretation by their followers who could easily go from “self defence” to reprisals against an imaginary enemy.
Comments made by Rev. Dr. Emmanuel Olisa Chukwuma, Archbishop of Enugu Ecclesiastical Province of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion were even more incendiary. He said the attack on Ukpabi Nimbo Community “by Fulani militias is an invitation for another civil war.” For such a senior clergyman to make a flippant remark about civil war, when the last one that we had in this country cost an estimated one million lives, speaks volumes about his sense of proportion, which is the cornerstone element of wisdom.
Prof. Wole Soyinka took a different tack, criticizing President Muhammadu Buhari for his slow reaction to what he called “attacks and killings by herdsmen in several states in the country.” It is entirely in order to criticize the government and the president for what anyone sees as slow response to a growing national security problem, except that Soyinka’s remarks fed into allegations by some media commentators that Buhari has responded insufficiently to the problem because his ethnic kinsmen are the suspected perpetrators. Governments deserve criticism if their response to tragic situations is seen as slow but adding ethnic colourations to the mix is cheap political grandstanding that does nothing to help the search for a solution. It was for the same reason that, on this page, we criticised those who alleged ethnic and regional motives to the Jonathan Administration’s failure to deal decisively with Boko Haram. We in like manner dismiss insinuations in some quarters that suspected herdsmen are carrying out their horrific reprisal attacks on communities across the country because their ethnic kinsman occupies Aso Rock.
This is far from the truth. We completely endorse the Northern States Governors’ Forum’s [NSGF] warning last Friday that no one should impute ethno-religious motives to these essentially economic conflicts because they were taking place under the Jonathan Administration as well. They are also taking place in the North as well in the South. As NSGF’s chairman, Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima pointed out, there were numerous cases of bandit attacks on communities in Zamfara, Katsina and Kaduna States in the last several years. They were mostly perpetrated by cattle rustlers as reprisal against the killing of some of them by community vigilantes. Among the worst episodes was the 2012 attack on Kizara in Zamfara State where more than 100 people were killed. There was also the spectacular attack on Birnin Gwari in Kaduna State in 2013 by the same bandits.
However, one aspect of the Ukpabi Nimbo tragedy that deserves a closer look is the sloppy role played by the security agencies. Chairman of the Transition Committee of Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area Mr. Cornell Onwubuya said he informed Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and police commissioner Nwodibo Ekechukwu that an attack was imminent. On his part, Governor Ugwuanyi said he held a Security Council meeting at which all the security agencies, including the army, participated and they assured him that mobile policemen, police anti-robbery squad as well as soldiers were already on the scene. How come then that such a horrific attack took place with all of them present on the scene?
Finally, we urge our media colleagues to shun sentimentalism in news reporting and stick to the true path of professionalism which forbids stereotyping of persons, especially in criminal situations. As the police rightly said, those who attacked Ukpabi Nimbo, Agatu, Birnin Gwari and Kizara were hoodlums and criminals whose deeds must not be blamed on peaceful persons just because they share ethnic identities with the criminals. For if that is the way to go, everyone in Nigeria is a criminal through ethnic association with a criminal.