On Monday, 10 May, 2004 i was in school when parents besieged our school gate demanding the release of their wards. Earlier, the alarm had been rung by the timekeeper who happened to be in the same class as myself, but the principal wouldn't allow us leave. Some youths were rioting in the city centre and, although the school was located north of the city, a distance of about 15km from the centre of the violence, the principal wouldn't allow us go home on our own because he couldn't guarantee our safety. He insisted on releasing us only to our parents or guardians. He didn't envisage that it would be an arduous, if not impossible, task. How would the principal and few teachers begin to sort about three thousand students? We didnt have the luxury of time and parents were impatient, so, he gave in and opened the gate.
As i walked out of the school gate, i didn't expect to see my guardian; he was at the other end of the city. He must have expected me to remain in Sabon gari but my friend assured me that we could take another route home.
It worked. For we got home safely that day, not so much because we knew the routes to take but because my friend spoke Hausa fluently. He would shout, "mu naku ne" - we are yours - anytime we approached group of boys and they would allow us pass.
We later got to know what, - or who, if you like - caused the riot. A cleric in one of the mosques along Zaria road had incited worshippers against the non Muslims in the state. Christians were attacked with all kinds of weapons and their properties destroyed in the riot that lasted till the following day. But that's no the genesis, for it was a reprisal attack.
On May 2, 2014, Muslims were attacked in Yelwa, a Christian dominated area in Bauchi state. Ordinarily, this was enough to cause tension in a state like Kano where Christians have been murdered for what happened in Pakistan, for Israeli strike on Palestinian and for America's invasion of Iraq. The people only needed a push, and the Kano preacher was magnanimous enough to give it to them.
So, when I heard about an illegal radio broadcasting in the south eastern part of Nigeria, I became worried. This station, radio biafra, is reported to be spewing gibberish, distorting facts and inciting the people of that zone against some certain ethnic groups and the Nigerian state. My worry soon grew into frustration when the Nigerian broadcasting commission could not cut off signals from this station for days. The promoters of this radio are trying to exploit the existing discontent in that region to cause unrest.
It's unfortunate that some mischievous people have tried to explain this as freedom of information. But freedom is not absolute; it comes with responsibility, and when your freedom threatens the peace of the community or the freedom of others, the government is duty bound to act.
Just like the sermon by that blood thirty preacher, the offensive message from this radio station can lead to a bloodbath in the south east. The promoters of hate must be stopped.
-Mark Ademola Israel
No comments:
Post a Comment