By Sani Bello
I wish to start by apologizing to whoever is reading this piece regarding my choice of words on the heading; I am short of better words to describe the monumental savagery in beast character display, a monumental crime against humanity committed by President Buhari, specifically with regards to the bloodbathing and worst persecution of Shiites in Nigeria.
Similar to, but worse than the scenario of the feud that resulted in violent rivalry between the Christian protestants and the Catholics in the past… (details in the history); Such is the case here, for almost 38 years, since the beginning of Shiites movement, Shi’a adherent have suffered series of persecution in the hands of their rivals but intolerant among the Sunni followers, most especially those occupying top government offices in Nigeria and the worst of all, is President Buhari, probably because of his closeness to Saudi Arabia.
The rulers of Saudi Arabia considers Iran as their worst enemy and they are doing everything possible to reduce Shi’a influence across the globe. Evidently is that, immediately after Zaria massacre, Buhari was invited and honored in Saudi Arabia. So, it is obviously a sectarian issue. Majority of Sunnis, not all, but particularly Wahabi Sunnis hate the Christians so much, but they hate Shiites more than the way they hate the Christians.
They usually tagged Shiites as terrorist even though there is no record of Shiites killing anybody nor destroying anyone’s property in almost 40 years of existence in Nigeria. Every time a Wahabi Sunni Muslim is in power he uses his authority to intensify persecution of the Shiites using every available means and opportunity.
What happened during GEJ was in the news, critical examination into the incident will make you see the human in GEJ who did not display animalistic character shown by Buhari during Zaria massacre. It was said, “to err is human.. “
It is important to note that the security officials have been persecuting Shiites for decades and Shiites have never resolved to violence, not a single instance. And they have never stopped what they are doing at anytime under the sun or in the rain: Shiites religious activities was never suspended notwithstanding whoever is the President, situation or circumstances despite unwarranted senseless unlawful harassments by uniform men many a times.
When soldiers attacked Shiites peaceful protesters in 2014 unprovoked and arrested some Shiites including children of Sheikh Zakzaky, where 34 persons were either shot or tortured to death, the highest military command was contacted and they denied sending those soldiers. They released those arrested together with the dead bodies of those they killed and set up a committee for investigation….
I remember GEJ himself contacted Sheikh Zakzaky on phone and apologized but Sheikh Zakzaky insisted that he wants justice. Many prominent personalities and government delegation visited and condoled Sheikh Zakzaky in his house applauding his tolerance and patient. I remember Elrufai was seen in Sheikh Zakzaky’s house, who referred to the Army then as “Jonathan Genocidal Army.”
But before our eyes during Buhari, the Army headquarters did not deny killing Shiites, they only lied about the number. Not just that, they even denied the families of those murdered the right to bury their unjustly slain brethren, the secretary to the Kaduna state government admitted before the Judicial committee of Inquiry to have secretly buried 347 Shiites in a mass grave.
Recall that, on the 12/12/2015 few Shiites were accused of blocking the way of the Army Chief, then the Army went to house to house for two days from 12 to 14 December 2015 killing whosoever that shares the same faith with Shiites at Husseiniyya worship center Zaria, and at Fodiyya Islamic school Zaria, then the house of Sheikh Zakzaky at Gyallesu Zaria including Shiites resting inside their graves were also not spared, they were exhumed wickedly. More than a thousand Men, women, old and crawling children were slaughtered without fairness or sense of justice. The most heartless is the killing of 23 defenseless pregnant women inside their matrimonial homes which is the reason why I called Buhari a beast.
Just like every coin, every story has two sides, but nobody gave Sheikh Zakzaky the fairness to defend himself, Nigerians did not heard Sheikh Zakzaky’s version of the story. He has been under an illegal custody since December 2015 in defiance of court order that set him free. Federal high court Abuja had freed Sheikh Zakzaky 8 months ago but maybe Buhari is still waiting for the Devil’s approval to comply with the court order, I don’t know.
Recently the media reportage is mostly on negativity, you can only see or hear Shiites in the news when they are attacked by security operatives, if they didn’t attack Shiites you won’t here anything about Shiites. But records and historical facts are there to convince every seeker of truth that Shiites are generally peaceful but resilient, they don’t submit to intimidation when it comes to exercising their constitutional fundamental human rights.
“You are still a slave if you are afraid to speak against oppression and injustice”
Let there be Justice in Nigeria.
#FreeZakzaky
Because the Nigerian Laws says so.
