By Eze Eluchie
In
all instances where it has occurred, mass atrocities, be it genocides, mass
murders, crimes against humanity and war crimes do not just happen – they are
usually a product of well-articulated plans, engineered by vested interests,
targeting specific victims with the tools for implementation of anticipated
mayhem well-oiled and readied for an opportunity to unroll mind-boggling
violence and harm.
Often times, mass atrocities occur as a result of the lack of ability to act on
identified tell-tale signals as they are occurring or deliberate turning of a
blind-eye to what are obviously preparatory steps to a mass conflagration. In
other words, all acts of mass atrocities are preventable!
From
the buildup of anti-Semitism and extremist national fervor leading up to the
Holocaust, to the importation of huge consignments of machetes (far and above
what the country could have ever required for any legitimate domestic needs)
into Rwanda prior to the vicious Rwandan genocide, effective interventions at
this early stages when the preparatory groundwork to what would later serve as
to depreciate the commonality of our humanity and as eternal shame on mankind
could have been avoided and or prevented.
It is in the light of the foregoing that one must evaluate the recent call for
the killing and dumping of any person of the Igbo ethnic nationality (and other
non-indegenes) residing in Lagos State (southwestern Nigeria) who votes against
the preferred candidature of the local monarch of Lagos, Mr. Rilwanu Akiolu.
The
brazen manner in which the threats to kill was pronounced, with Mr. Akiolu
repeatedly emphasizing his willingness to carry out the threats by swearing to
Allah (God in his Islamic faith) – see Video and Audio links below, underscores
the need not to ever underestimate the potency and danger inherent in the
threats. In the words of the monarch: "If any Igbo living in Lagos votes
against my candidate, the APC's candidate, Ambode, he will die within 7 days
and be buried inside this Lagoon".
Does the monarch have the capacity to execute what he is threatening? The
unfortunate answer to this question is YES! Considering his role as ‘spiritual
head’ of the original inhabitants of some parts of Lagos, some hundreds of
thousands people under his authority have a natural inclination to put the
wishes of their monarch into fruition. This is thus certainly not a threat that
should be allowed to go unchallenged and unaccounted for.
There had been anticipation, prior to the just concluded Presidential elections
in Nigeria that the fragile peace in Nigeria would have been adversely impacted
following the outcome of the said Presidential elections.
By a deft stroke of
luck and happenstances, the concession of defeat by the incumbent (the first
time ever in Nigeria’s history) served to diffuse tension and spare the polity
of anticipated mayhem. The outright threats of genocide issued by Mr. Akiolu
serves to put the country and the world at large on notice that prevention of
mass atrocities in Nigeria is and ought to be a continuing vocation.
Will the domestic security agencies in Nigeria and the relevant international
agencies charged with the prevention of mass atrocities merely wait for the
commission of the acts threatened before taking remedial actions? Severally in
the past, the world has delayed to act against threatened mass atrocities to
the greater peril of the human race.
These
threatened actions can be avoided. We need not wait again….
The Audio of Mr. Rilwanu Akiolu’s threats of genocide:
Video
Source: http://ezeluchie.blogspot.com
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