By Ikeddy ISIGUZO

THE statement by Nuhu Ribadu, National Security Adviser, that we are brothers, that you are peaceful, and that we should negotiate with you, prompted this letter.

I struggled with greeting you as “Dear bandits” hence the letter skipped the salutation.

Had I known we were brothers and that you wanted peace, I would have written to you earlier. We, as brothers, should be grateful to Ribadu for making our relationship public, though years after he should done so.

Ribadu is still hiding something from us. Garrulous as he is, he knows he cannot say everything. Why did he keep brothers apart for so long?

What agenda did he have?

Isn’t Ribadu a bad brother to you and us? What does Ribadu want from us? How can he be a brother and he is not able to get you out of the forests? And he dares bring your message to us? Ribadu sounds as if we are the problem.

His high office could have been used to do something about making you happy, peaceful, and partakers of the great life that Tinubu and his APC have ordained for Nigerians since Muhammadu Buhari became President in 2019.

I don’t know what you think we are enjoying in Nigeria with all the killing of our brothers by Fulani cattle herders, terrorists, who we have been calling bandits.

We never knew you were not bandits. Ribadu didn’t tell us. He was busy negotiating release of victims of your attacks on your brothers.

Clarity is the issue. All the time Ribadu was speaking of non-kinetic approaches in engaging you, he did not explain that he meant we should allow you to kill Nigerians, including our security agents to impress on us that you are our peaceful brothers.

Which brother treats the family the way you have been carrying on? While Ribadu was making a case for you, attacks on unarmed villagers and farmers have not abated even in the holy month of Ramadan. You have extended the level of your well-known brutality.

You slaughtered a chief imam, worshippers, and abducted women and children who had broken their fast in Ngoshe, Borno State on Wednesday evening.

Those were not your brothers or do you and Ribadu have a definition of brotherhood that excludes them?

You reportedly abducted more than 100 women and children. Ribadu must be impressed by your performance. Your new approach is to inflict maximum brutality on your victims using swords and long knives to slaughter them rather than shooting as was the practice in past cases.

Our brothers are bragging about killing other brothers and their plans to cause more havoc.

“We have slaughtered them, abducted their women and children and enslaved them. They are our legal property to use as ordained by God. We have conquered Ngoshe and will remain here, we are willing to die for this course. It’s our third day in this town and we will extend the fight and reclaim more places from here to Maiduguri, up to Abuja,” they said in a video that Daily Trust reviewed.

In Benue, Kwara, Kebbi, Plateau, Niger, Zamfara and other parts of Nigeria, our brothers act in similar manners without consequences.

People like Ribadu stand with you, ignoring the larger family, Nigeria. He doesn’t know what you want. I speculate that you too don’t know what you want.

What did Muhammadu Buhari as President not give you over the rest of the family? What did you do with it? His embarrassing support for you divided the family, Nigeria beyond the imaginations of even the most acerbic critics of Buhari.

Perhaps, you want everything. In that case you want everything which turns out to be nothing.

The Almighty – the same one we all serve but we name Him differently – did not give any individual or group the capacity to have everything. Only greed drives such desires.

Ribadu serves you above everyone. He invents excuses for your crimes. He makes you victims. We should apologise to you and convert ourselves to your brothers.

What are the terms of this brotherhood with bandits? Are the terms secret? Ribadu is singing peace with bandits like a broken record.

Is advising bandits and making their “case”, part of Ribadu’s mandate from Tinubu?

If for any reason Ribadu had stepped off the line, Tinubu is expected to fire him or at least reprimand him.

Of course, Tinubu’s silence speaks louder than words. He supports Ribadu in his shenanigans because “he is continuing from where Buhari”.

Ribadu can go on being brother to bandits who believe their missions of killing, maiming, stealing and causing chaos in many parts of the country are “divinely ordered”.

When bandits kill our soldiers, our compatriots and other security agents, Ribadu wants us to remember that our attackers are peaceful compatriots who are bandits.

Finally…

APC is planning to deny opposition parties chances to campaign, to be heard, in addition to its regular ploy of using excuses to deny opposition parties access to venues after accepting payments from them.

In Enugu, one of the most recent decampees to APC, the state advertising agency said that all political parties must pay N150m registration fee each to display their messages either on billboards or as handbills. If Enugu goes unchallenged, APC’s 30 states plus Federal Capital Territory can replicate this crime on freedom of speech and association in their various spaces.

Any party that does not have N4.65 billion cannot advertise on billboards or share handbills across Nigeria? How many parties can spend N4.65 billion on one item of publicity? If you know APC well, other states can charge more than Enugu’s ordinary N150 million. The time to stop APC and Enugu is now.

WHY is APC very scared about free and fair elections? Why is a party with massive majority of 30 Governors, plus FCT afraid of facing Nigerians at the polls? It has nothing to showcase as its achievements when 30 out of 36 States are officially APC.

PETER Obi shot at in Benin City. One suspect in detention because he was on social media running his mouth that if Obi stepped into Rivers State he would be shot without missing target. On Thursday, ADC secretariat in Isiokpo, Rotimi Amaechi’s local government area headquarters, was burnt. The next day shots were fired at Amaechi’s convoy. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should tell his security heads to protect Nigerians even those who disagree with him.

NDC, Nigeria Democratic Congress, was unveiled on Thursday with the announcement of Senator Henry Seriake Dickson as its National Leader. Next week: More on this party that it took a Federal High Court judgement for INEC to register.

•ISIGUZO is a major commentator on minor issues.

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