By Ikeddy Isiguzo
The statement by Nuhu Ribadu, National Security Adviser, that we are brothers, that you are peaceful, and that we should negotiate with you, prompted this letter.
I struggled to greet you as “Dear bandits,” hence the letter skipped the salutation.
Had I known we were brothers and that you wanted peace, I would have written to you earlier. We, as brothers, should be grateful to Ribadu for making our relationship public, though years after he had done so.
Ribadu is still hiding something from us. Garrulous as he is, he knows he cannot say everything. Why did he keep brothers apart for so long?
What agenda did he have?
Isn’t Ribadu a bad brother to you and us? What does Ribadu want from us? How can he be a brother and not be able to get you out of the forests? And he dares bring your message to us? Ribadu sounds as if we are the problem.
His high office could have been used to do something about making you happy, peaceful, and partakers of the great life that Tinubu and his APC have ordained for Nigerians since Muhammadu Buhari became President in 2019.
I don’t know what you think we are enjoying in Nigeria with all the killing of our brothers by Fulani cattle herders, terrorists, who we have been calling bandits.
We never knew you were not bandits. Ribadu didn’t tell us. He was busy negotiating the release of victims of your attacks on your brothers.
Clarity is the issue. All the time Ribadu was speaking of non-kinetic approaches in engaging you, he did not explain that he meant we should allow you to kill Nigerians, including our security agents to impress on us that you are our peaceful brothers.
Which brother treats the family the way you have been carrying on? While Ribadu was making a case for you, attacks on unarmed villagers and farmers have not abated even in the holy month of Ramadan. You have extended the level of your well-known brutality.
You slaughtered a Chief Imam, worshippers, and abducted women and children who had broken their fast in Ngoshe, Borno State, on Wednesday evening.Those were not your brothers, or do you and Ribadu have a definition of brotherhood that excludes them?
You reportedly abducted more than 100 women and children. Ribadu must be impressed by your performance.
Your new approach is to inflict maximum brutality on your victims using swords and long knives to slaughter them, rather than shooting, as was the practice in past cases.
Our brothers are bragging about killing other brothers and their plans to cause more havoc.
“We have slaughtered them, abducted their women and children and enslaved them. They are our legal property to use as ordained by God. We have conquered Ngoshe and will remain here; we are willing to die for this course. It’s our third day in this town, and we will extend the fight and reclaim more places from here to Maiduguri, up to Abuja,” they said in a video that Daily Trust reviewed.
In Benue, Kwara, Kebbi, Plateau, Niger, Zamfara and other parts of Nigeria, our brothers act in similar manners without consequences.
People like Ribadu stand with you, ignoring the larger family, Nigeria. He doesn’t know what you want. I speculate that you, too, don’t know what you want.
What did Muhammadu Buhari, as President, not give you over the rest of the family? What did you do with it? His embarrassing support for you divided the family, Nigeria, beyond the imaginations of even the most acerbic critics of Buhari.
Perhaps you want everything. In that case, you want everything which turns out to be nothing.
The Almighty – the same one we all serve but we name Him differently – did not give any individual or group the capacity to have everything. Only greed drives such desires.
Ribadu serves you above everyone. He invents excuses for your crimes. He makes you victims. We should apologise to you and convert ourselves to your brothers.
What are the terms of this brotherhood with bandits? Are the terms secret? Ribadu is singing peace with bandits like a broken record.
Is advising bandits and making their “case” part of Ribadu’s mandate from Tinubu?
If, for any reason, Ribadu had stepped off the line, Tinubu is expected to fire him or at least reprimand him.
Of course, Tinubu’s silence speaks louder than words. He supports Ribadu in his shenanigans because “he is continuing from where Buhari”.
Ribadu can go on being brother to bandits who believe their missions of killing, maiming, stealing and causing chaos in many parts of the country are “divinely ordered”.
When bandits kill our soldiers, our compatriots and other security agents, Ribadu wants us to remember that our attackers are peaceful compatriots who are bandits.
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