i have watched in horror, some clips of judicial murder by members of the nigerian military of ''innocent civilians'' in jos, maidugiri, niger-delta etc. these videos were horrible and it shows the extreme backwardness of our security system. our men in uniform look like barbaric elements who plunder and destroy like it were still in the dark ages.

however, we need to look at another side of this story. first of all, these military men were not manufactured from spain or germany. they are part and parcel of the nigerian people. they were born and bred in nigeria, grew in nigeria . . . they were trained in nigeria, by nigerians for nigeria. . . whatever we see in these people is simply a military version of the decay called nigeria.

we need to know some hard truths. nigeria, our country, is barbaric. this country has had a history of violence spanning more than half a century. people just rise up in the morning and for no reason puonce on their countrymen and kill. period. this has happened sooooo regularly that it is almost becoming a new normal.

a little history here may help . . . .

in the 1950s, the AG, a political party with a huge support base in the south-west wanted to hold a rally in the northern city of kano, a riot broke out out easterners, mainly igbos were slaughtered.

ok, lets start from independence

1966: anti ironsi's ''unity'' decree riots in the north. igbos and easterners slaughtered in many cities in the north including kaduna,katsina,kano etc
july 1966: pre civil war progrom, 30,000 igbos slaughtered allover the north
1980s: maitasaine riots in many parts of the north, gombe, yola etc. thousands of christians murdered in cold blood. Gen Idiagbon had to crush it militarily when shagari was overthrown. elements of maitasaine remained up till the late 80s
1991:reinhard bonnke came to preach in kano, anti-xtian riots broke out in kano, xtians and igbos attacked mercilessly.
1992:zagon kataf riots, kaduna exploded. northern muslims vs northern xtians. for the first time, someone was arrested, charged and later released.
1999:ife/modakeke, aguleri/umuleri, border communities in cross-river/akwa-ibom states, niger-delta uprising etc. thousands die. . . no arrests, no trials
2000: sharia riots. . . kaduna and retaliatory explosions in Aba and Onitsha
2001:Jos, a very peaceful city explodes with religious violence . . .

2002:anti miss world riots in kaduna. . . hundreds killed, no arrests, no trial, no conviction.
2004: jos again, jos would explode again in 2008,2009, and even 2010. . . (annual jos riots)
2008/9: boko haram came

the list is endless, i'm sure i left out a lot. ahaaa, bauchi riots of 1991, there are others too . . . not counting the senseless killings on our campuses

these riots have one thing in common . . . no arrests, no trials, no conviction. . . the killers live to kill another day. the judicial system in nigeria seemed ill equipped to take care of this mess and the mess keeps getting messier. what shall be done?

i dont want to come here and claim that i have the solutions, but i know something we all agree on. . . this has to stop . . .somehow

after a terrible battle in which thousands of soldiers died withing a few hrs, former confederate general . . robert e lee said . . ''it is good that war is a terrible thing, lest we get fond of it''.
general sherman said who was notorious for virtually burning down atlanta and other big cities in the south during his campaign of ''total war on the south'' said that he needs to make war hell for the rebels so that they wont dream of fighting a war again

something has to happen to enter the minds of these looters so that they think twice before going on a killing rampage again . . .

since our judicial system is incapable of doing so, for now, what next? the military. it is barbaric, but it is all we got for now. some may say . . uhm, perhaps many of those killed are innocent. yes, perhaps. we dont know. but what we do know is that all those killed by the rioters are innocent. and this will happend time and again if nothing tries to stop it.

one thing i strongly believe is that nothing happens in a society unless the population in the society condones it. . . .it riots bring soldiers to a city and soldiers bring death indiscriminately to that city, i guess next time the citizens of that city will be wary of a riot and will oppose any element within its rank that may want to start a riot.

barbarians vs barbarians