Nigeria: Justice For Awo-Omamma 14!
End Ebube Agu! Drive the Nigerian Military; DSS; and other State Forces Out of the South East!
Statement of the Revolutionary Socialist Vanguard (RSV), Nigerian Section of the RCIT, 22nd July 2022, http://www.communism4africa.wordpress.com
Protests against the killing of 14 youths in Awo-Omanma District of Oru Local Government Area of Imo State have subsided momentarily.
“Uproar, yesterday, trailed the alleged gruesome killing of 14 youths by Ebubeagu, a security outfit of the Imo State government on Sunday. Already, notable groups have asked the state governor, Hope Uzodinma, to resign, be impeached or be prepared to face continuous mass protests from the youths until he quits office. The Guardian learnt that the victims were reportedly returning from a wedding to their community in Otulu, Oru East Local Council of the state from Awo-Omamma in the neighbouring Oru West Local Council, when the security operatives opened fire on them.”¹
The governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodinma has given approval to the killings but denied the involvement of Ebube Agu. He rather claimed that the 14 were ESN targets executed by the Nigerian secret police, the Department of State Services (DSS) who have taken responsibility for the massacre.²
This massacre is the latest phase in the asymmetric war of the Wahhabi-Salafist settler colonialist Nigerian state against the indigenous peoples. On the same day of the massacre about 20 people were abducted by Salafi groups popularly called Bandits. The body of Father Cheitnum John Mark, a Catholic priest in Southern Kaduna was earlier discovered in a maize field after his abductors had put a hole in his head.³ Recurring attacks of this nature especially with their southward push through the Middle Belt and into the South West and South East has caused fresh rounds of indignation and uproar across the country as the Presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, picked Kashim Shettima, a Muslim and the former Borno State governor as running mate.
Raucous Over Muslim-Muslim Ticket
What makes the selection of Shettima even more explosive are his links to Boko Haram. (Kabiru Sokoto, one of Boko Haram’s imprisoned leaders, was arrested while he was hiding out after an attack at Shettima’s lodge in Taraba State.)⁴ However, down south in Osun state the governor elect in the just concluded elections is both Christian and had a Christian running mate without any fear of marginalisation from the Muslim population of that state.⁵
This is proof that the asymmetric war and ethnic cleansing is not by Muslims on Christians but by the ultra-Sunni (Wahhabi-Salafist) dominated North on Shia and other Muslims; Christians, Traditionalists; Animists and atheists. In order words, it is the project of the settler colonialist Fulani nation who continue the heritage of Trans-Saharan slavery and Arab colonialism.
While there are discrepancies over the real religion of the governor elect in Osun state ostensibly because the politician has both Muslim and Christian (Western) names. These discrepancies only show what a diminutive role religious identity plays in the politics of Southern Nigeria since the indigenous ethnic nationalities have to a lesser degree the weaponisation of religious ideologies especially in the area of dominating other nationalities. In contrast, the religious identity of political figures up North must be distinct.
Again, the Muslim-Christian ticket of PMB and PYO becomes inconsequential when we take into account the fact that attacks on Christians and more southerly groups have reached a crescendo under this administration. That is, a Christian running mate or candidate is more of a rubber stamp to robe the Ultra-Sunni government in political correctness.
Nevertheless, the Muslim-Muslim ticket is a sign of the evermore unworkable nature of the Nigerian entity as a product of capitalist decay. The bid for a Tinubu presidency which necessitates the picking of Shettima; acute schisms and feuds in ruling class camps; hyperinflation and the Water Resources Bill. All these are symptoms of broader defunctness of world capitalism characterised by inter imperialist rivalry of which Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine is a product; Climate change; etc.
Thus the opprobium of the Nigerian people over the APC’s Muslim-Muslim ticket has legitimate causes but is misplaced. The clergy are merely agents that give a false sense of pluralism to blanket the ultra-Sunni center of the Nigerian government who are gendarme for imperialism and Arab colonialism.
The Fact of Ethnic Cleansing and Settler Colonialism
As earlier mentioned, the massacre of 14 youths in Awo-Omanma is the latest offensive in the asymmetric war waged by the agents of Wahhabi-Salafist reaction and their stooges in the South Eastern ruling class. Alas, a more general overview of the situation gives a clearer understanding of the Ultra-Sunni settler colonialist Nigerian state. According to Intersociety:
“The Awo-Omanma massacre of 14 and Okwudor abduction of 20 had taken place less than 24hours after the release of our International Documentary that took place in USA and United Kingdom. “The documentary had found that “in past 20 months – Oct 2020 to June 2022, soldiers of the Nigerian Military and their allied/trained Ebubeagu Government Militia and other security agencies and agents including various police crack squads attacked 150 Communities in Eastern Nigeria.
“They killed 1,360 defenceless citizens, burnt or destroyed 1,450 civilian homes, disappeared hundreds without traces, rendered 51,000 homeless and forced them out of their ancestral homes, burnt or destroyed or looted properties worth not less than N57billion and caused the loss of N600billion worth of trade and investments following the Eastern Military siege and atrocities.” The group further stated that Imo State people were the biggest causality, adding that between October 2020 and June 2022, over 800 people had been killed in the state.”⁶
Other reports have it that Boko Haram/ISWAP have killed more people in Nigeria than Daesh (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria combined. The number of IDP’s due to the activities of these Wahhabi-Salafist Fulani militias is officially about 3.2 million with over 35,000 civilians dead. In the 1st half of 2021 alone over 3000 people were kidnapped and close to 10bn Naira was earmarked for ransoms. In the same year, 3,462 Christians and farmers were killed by Fulani herdsmen. A CNN report shows that in 2018 Fulani herdsmen attacks were six times more deadly than Boko Haram attacks.
According to Statista, “estimations in 2020, between 11 thousand and 12 thousand Christians were killed by Boko Haram, Jihadist Fulani herdsmen, and bandits or highway kidnappers in Nigeria from 2015 to 2020. According to the source, four to five million Christians were displaced and two thousand churches were destroyed in Nigeria. Jihadist Fulani herdsmen murdered over 7.4 thousand Christians over the said years. In 2019, 325 people died in Nigeria in attacks carried out by Fulani extremists. Compared to 2018, this represents a significant decrease.”⁷
Of course, some of the figures above face censoring from the complicit Nigerian state. We can see a form of conflict with the figures that put the number of displaced Christians between 3-4 million in the time span of 2015-2020 and the official figures which put the total number of IDP’s in Nigeria since 2009 at 3.2 million. Yet the figures are still the worst in the whole Africa.⁷ For instance, Nigeria has the highest number of IDP’s in Africa. Besides 3.2 million is half the population of some sovereign countries. With all these figures anyone who still denies the settler colonialist project of the Ultra-Sunni Nigerian ruling class is willfully blind. Even so it is important to address some of the arguments our critics employ in refuting this characterization to prevent confusion.
One of this is the supposed lack of a legal framework like the Jim Crow Laws in the US or Apartheid Laws in South Africa. The problem with this is that these laws only represent a stage, a later stage at that, of the settler colonialist project either in the Americas, in South Africa or even in Palestine. Settler colonialist onslaught by the Europeans began immediately they entered indigenous lands and began to massacre the natives long before they could form a state strong enough to impose binding laws on indigenous lands.
Besides, the Nigerian state does have laws that have significant similitude to laws in other settler colonialist states. An example is the Shari’a imposed on both Northern Christians and non-Muslims alike which has often lead to pogroms and massacres in a style not different from that of the terrorist KKK in the US.
Even the allocation of geopolitical zones attests to the superiority of the North over other regions especially given the fact that the Northern identity is a lumping together of peoples and groups who would rather differ from being categorised as Northerners. The Middle Beltan peoples have resuscitated an age long struggle to identify as Middle Belt rather than North or North Central.
For one thing, no settler colonialist state or entity can be 100% identical with the other as there are differences in age, pattern and posture even between the US, South Africa and the Zionist state of Israel. What defines or characterises a nation is not how strong its state is or the number laws that state can exert but the historical role which it plays in the capitalist economy. To reject the classification of the Fulani hegemon as a settler colonialist nation is tantamount to rejecting the notion of a stateless nation.
All those leftists who have long refused support for the southern national liberation movements on the basis that these movements seek to shield or exclude the southern ruling class can see now that in real life it is impossible to achieve self-determination without the fall of the ruling class in the South. The protests against the Uzodinma government of Imo state is a lucid enough example of this.
As is known, Ebube Agu was formed through the incentive of the Igbo governors themselves with David Umahi governor of Ebonyi State, leading the charge to confound IPOB and ESN, the two bodies literally preventing the de facto overrun of the South East by Wahhabi-Salafist groups like Ansaru, Boko Haram, ISWAP and Bandits. So, any movement fighting for the national liberation of the South is not only on a collision course with agents of Arab colonialism and world imperialism but also its local ruling class.
Justice For Father John Mark! Compensation for the Families and Loved Ones of the Slain! Disband Ebube Agu! Uzodinma Must Go! Defeat the Nigerian Military in the East!
Popular Armament for Indigenous and Shia Muslims; Christians; Minorities in the North; the Middle Beltan Peoples; and the Southern Liberation Movements! Form Armed Self Defense Militias in Schools, Churches, Communities and Workplaces to Deter the Advance of the Auxiliaries of the Ultra-Sunni Ruling Class!
Free Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and Chief Sunday Adeyemo Igboho! Defend IPOB; For Military and Physical Support For ESN but No Political Support for their Reactionary Leaderships! For the Democratic Running of the Southern National Movements!
Down With the Water Resources Bill! Down With the Southern Governments Who Betray The Southern Masses As They Are Lackeys of the Northern Hegemon! In Case of a Civil War Between Fulani Northern Hegemony and the Southern Nations, Revolutionaries, Leftists and Progressives Must Take the Side of the Southern Nationalities!
For A Popular Enterprise to End the Nigerian Contraption! Prospective Biafra, Yoruba, and Middle Beltan Must Founded on an Anti-imperialists Bases! For this Workers and Communal Councils Must Be the Organs of Power!
1. https://guardian.ng/news/uproar-over-killing-of-14-imo-youths-in-awo-omamma/
3. https://www.nairaland.com/7236706/rev-fr-chietnum-john-mark, https://saharareporters.com/2022/07/19/terrorists-kill-abducted-kaduna-catholic-priest-free-another
4. https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/3731-how-kabiru-sokoto-was-arrested.html
7. https://www.worldwatchmonitor.org/2020/07/boko-haram-has-killed-more-than-islamic-state-in-iraq-and-syria-combined/, https://www.google.com/amp/s/punchng.com/nigeria-has-over-80000-refugees-3-2-million-idps-says-un/%3famp https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://theconversation.com/amp/whos-at-risk-of-being-kidnapped-in-nigeria-184217&ved=2ahUKEwjg8K3E4Y75AhUeX_EDHSEBAgAQFnoECA4QBQ&usg=AOvVaw152Eul-fOU6_B7PoqoYOhc, https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://saharareporters.com/2021/07/12/kidnappers-kill-5800-nigerians-6-months-abducted-1344-june-only%25E2%2580%2594-report&ved=2ahUKEwiYlere0I_5AhV2VPEDHY5sAqs4ChAWegQIChAB&usg=AOvVaw298egrH72xRIUAy3uTO25G, https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://nairametrics.com/2021/07/12/insecurity-n10-billion-demanded-in-kidnapping-ransoms-in-h1-2021-sbm/%3Famp%3D1&ved=2ahUKEwjhmJTD0Y_5AhX_XvEDHWRCCic4FBAWegQIAxAB&usg=AOvVaw26viy3iUq5yqHOpimu4IN, https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/07/27/africa/nigeria-herdsmen-boko-haram-report/index.html&ved=2ahUKEwjywdGJ0o_5AhVS2qQKHdBCBTM4ChAWegQICBAB&usg=AOvVaw2ZrOvgFUZz9iBllDJG3iAU
7. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1198134/christians-killed-by-terrorist-groups-in-nigeria/