Chidi Odinkalu is the intellectual upgrade of Nnamdi Kanu. In March 2017, he was caught tweeting fake image of an allegedly bartered corp member in Zamfara state in order to incite hatred against a section of this country. It turned out Chidi's tweet was false and the image was the work of a celebrated Nollywood make-up artist. It is a shame that Chidi once headed the Nigerian Human Rights Commission.

His recent attempt to deny the murder of 66 Fulani victims in some Fulani hamlets in Kajuru is merely the manifestation of his malevolent hatred and contempt against a section of our population. It has nothing to do with the politics of El-Rufai. All those mentioning El-Rufai are hiding behind the governor to express their undisguised contempt for Fulani lives and dignity. And who are Chidi's sources? The very population where the alleged attackers came from.

This is part of the deliberate psychological conditioning that is the result of a sustained campaign of one-sided anti-Fulani propaganda by the Nigerian press where attacks against the Fulani are hardly ever reported - and where they are reported - are portrayed in a way that the crime appears insignificant and the perpetrators appear blameless.

Even supposedly educated people are subconsciously under the control of that propaganda model. That's why they are asking for evidence over a crime that actually existed and was carried by credible media sources. Even when the evidence is presented to them, their response is that it is either the casualty is exaggerated or the crime is still not carried by their favourite media sources who coincidentally are deliberately leading the campaign of media blackout against Fulani suffering.

This campaign of hatred has succeeded in stripping the Fulani of their right to genuine victimhood by casting them as people unworthy of public empathy. The Nigerian press and other civil society groups who deliberately ignore/underreport crimes against Fulani and at the same time amplify the ones committed by them provide the institutional cover for these crimes and people like Chidi Odinkalu provide its pseudo-intellectual justifications.

This blatant anti-north bias by the southern media is as old as Nigeria itself. During the official launch of New Nigerian Newspaper in the 1960s, the then premier of northern Nigeria Ahmadu Bello lamented the deliberately inaccurate and inciting reporting of northern Nigeria by the southern press. He then charged the newspaper not to emulate that misguided editorial style. In his words: 'Do not counter their campaign of misinformation against the North by launching a campaign of misinformation against the South. Counter their campaign of misinformation against the North by telling the world the truth about the North and at the same time telling the world the truth about the South.'

In this age of social media where misinformation and disorder are the order of the day and fake news travel faster than fact-checks and denials could keep pace with, pseudo-intellectuals like Chidi Odinkalu who hide behind politics to dehumanise genuine victims of verified crimes must be exposed for who they are.

https://mobile.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10213413784606782&id=1464735080&refid=17&ref=opera_speed_dial&_ft_=mf_story_key.10215604010147123%3Atop_level_post_id.10215604010147123%3Atl_objid.10215604010147123%3Acontent_owner_id_new.1046850545%3Aoriginal_content_id.10213413784606782%3Aoriginal_content_owner_id.1464735080%3Athrowback_story_fbid.10215604010147123%3Astory_location.4%3Athid.1046850545%3A306061129499414%3A2%3A0%3A1551427199%3A888160922017043162&__tn__=%2AsH-R

The news was trending when it was reported that 66 people were killed in Kaduna, but as soon as it was stated that the victims are fulanis, it stopped trending.

All lives are important.

How can you be talking of public empathy when they go around brutally slaughtering innocent people including old and young and women with child. And all because of cattle.

Nobody is conditioned to hate Fulani people, the Fulanis are their own worst enemies by giving vent to their bloodlust, killing people indiscriminately over cattle, even when they instigate conflicts.

When they change their ways and behave like human beings with empathy, you will see that people have no problem at all with them. Even till now, there are many Fulani settlements in different parts of the country where they live in harmony with the host community.