Date Published: 03/14/10

An Open Letter to the Senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Dear Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,

“We have no other country but Nigeria and therefore we have to make every effort to salvage it together”...... General Mohammadu Buhari, 1984.

The above statement is modified from the original version.

I personally want to thank the Senators of the Federal Republic under the able leadership of Mr David Mark for some patriotic, great and wonderful decisions they have taken lately. Ranging from the ‘Doctrine of Necessity’ resolution to the barring of former military Heads of State from enjoying pension and recently the resolution to support the implementation of all the reports of the previous judicial commission of enquiries into the ethno-religious crises on the Plateau.

From their actions so far, it is a clear indication that the Senators are maturing gradually day by day. The over 10 years of democracy or civil rule as some pessimists will call it have starting yielding dividends at least in the senate.  Your actions are rekindling hope in some of us that have been totally despaired and hopeless about the Nigerian project.

My first special appeal to the Senators is to insist on the complete implementation of the Justice Uwais report on electoral reforms in Nigeria. If the Senators can continue to take very popular people oriented decisions like they have done in the immediate past, they do not need to rig elections to be voted back into the senate chambers or to beg PDP for automatic tickets. In fact they can stand for election in any party and they will surely win.

Secondly the Nationally Assembly must as a matter of National Security re-equipped the Nigeria Police and provide them particularly with helicopters for aerial surveillance and patrols. Every state command of the Nigeria Police must be provided with enough helicopters for aerial surveillance of their various states

As matter of national importance you must implementation the JusticeUwais reports to the latter if that will produce the much desired credible election in 2011.

Please make the amendment of the 1999 constitution sacrosanct.

Finally I have noticed that you were of the view that, that the genocide on the Plateau is not religious or that the national annual mass murder in Northern Nigeria since the late 1980s is political. It is anything but a religious war whether from the Muslims point of view or even Christians point of view.

Since you as politicians will want to be economical with the truth, we are here to tell you the truth as it is.

All we want from you is to be alive and true to your duties. Please go to the streets of Jos, Bauchi, Maiduguri, Kano, Kazaure, Kaduna and Abuja and ask the ordinary citizens about the ethno-religious crises bedevilling Middle-belt and Northern Nigerian. The survey carried out pointed to the fact that it is purely a religious war. This is farther supported with facts on ground. Jos. Kaduna, Bauchi and many other northern cities is now polarised along religious lines between Muslim and Christians.

As at the time of writing this article, I have not been able to get the statistics of the number of mosques burnt or destroyed in ethno religious crises in Jos or other city since 2006. Statistics available from some CAN offices showed that in the February 2006 religious crises in Maiduguri Borno State, 46 Churches were either burnt or destroyed and four pastors murdered.

In the 2008 crisis in Jos Plateau State, conservatively 43 Churches were either burnt or destroyed and again four pastors

In the Boko Haram religious riots in Maiduguri Borno State, at least 26 Churches were said to have been destroyed.

In the February 2009 religious riots in Bauchi, seven (7) Churches were said to have been destroyed.

In the most recent carnage in Jos, conservatively over 50 Churches were either burnt or destroyed and three pastors killed. In the Kazaure, Jigawa State religious crisis earlier this month, six Churches were burnt.

Kindly any Muslim institution that has the statistics of Mosques destroyed can send it to my e-mail, (ndiame_2005@yahoo.co.uk.)

Fortunately or unfortunately, not one political party office has been touched or destroyed during this crises not even during the 2008 crises in Jos which some were claiming was triggered by the local government elections.

If these crises are political as some dubious politicians are wont us to believe why are the targets mostly Churches and Mosques? At least we have witnessed political riots in Nigeria before during the second republic, no churches or mosques were burnt them. Even now we still witness political riots in Southern Nigeria as recent as in Ekiti State after the re-run election. All those buildings touched were either PDP office or AC and Labour Party offices, not one Church or Mosque. Not one Alfa or Pastor was killed. Can that be compared to the Jos carnage or the Bauchi or the Bokom Haram massacre in Maiduguri and Damaturu? Please tell each other and Nigerians the bitter truth that the war in Northern Nigeria and particularly Plateau State is a religious war. From there you begin to proffer true solutions by unmasking the sponsors even if they are amongst you. However how highly placed the may be in the society or government of the day. We all must know that Nigeria is bigger or supposed to be bigger than individuals and will outlive us if we all wish.

I am taking the pain to go through this analysis to let the Senate know that the crises in Northern Nigeria since the late 1980s till date have been religious and that is the truth. Even if there were political undertone, it has been masked by religion and is now purely a religious war.

The Senate must therefore look at it from that angle if they want to proffer solutions to the fratricidal religious war that is now looming on the horizon in Nigeria.

The Federal government of Nigeria, especially the National Assembly can avert this catastrophy by being proactive and arrest the ugly situation by insisting on culprits of previous religious crises are punished without any fear or favour.

As it is, if the National Assembly is still claiming that the crises in Northern Nigeria and particularly Plateau State is not religious, then you are not ready to find the real and right solution to the problems despite the little analysis I have made above.

I pray God will give the courage, wisdom and honesty to analyse this article thoroughly and debate on it wisely in the senate chambers to save our country from the looming imminent danger.

Thank you and God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Ndiameeh Babrik

ndiame_2005@yahoo.co.uk