Zaria Massacre: President Buhari Is A Racist -Prof Chidi Odinkalu

 The immediate past chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Prof Chidi Odinkalu, today, December 16 questioned the seriousness and value that President Buhari attach to Nigerian lives.

Prof. Chidi Odinkalu accused the government of Buhari of being racists since it valued the lives of the people of France than that of Nigerians.

He wondered why the government of President Buhari did not give the Zaria killings the serious attention that it needed the same way he reacted to the killing in Paris, France where 129 people died from a coordinated terrorists attack.

He made these comments at a press conference with representatives of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) to shed more light on what actually transpired in Zaria, Kaduna state where the Shi’ites religious group clashed with the Nigerian military.

“The guarantee of the lives –the safety and security of Nigerians belongs to the federal government under the constitution therefore the highest authority of the country must be heard and must be seen to take it very seriously. At the moment, with all due respect I don’t think President Buhari isn’t. He has not said anything about it four days after it happened.

“When white people were killed in France within 24 hours he said something. Are Nigerians not worth the same as white people? That is my point and I am really annoyed. As a Nigerian citizen, I am angry. When this happens to our citizens I don’t care where it is in our territory our president has to be heard to say Nigerians lives matter,” an angry Prof. Chidi Odinkalu said.

He went further: “Right now his body language is these lives don’t matter….. And that can happen to me because every Nigerian is unique, every Nigerian is different. I am amazed that the president has kept silent. Because the president is the Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) voted for by the Nigerian citizen. Every Nigerian killed is either a voter or related to a voter. Today it is Shi’ite, tomorrow it could be the Fulanis, the next day it could be the Yorubas, the next day it could be Igbos……everybody matters, and everyone is unique. We must care about every Nigerian.

“This is not about Shi’ites. For me this is not about Shi’ites. This is not about the people of Kaduna. This is about human beings who are also Nigerians. That must be the message that when it is a human who is Nigerian on Nigeria’s territory our lives must matter to us and to our leaders.”

READ ALSO: Zaria Massacre: Investigate The Killings Now – AI

Reacting to rumours that the movement fired the first shot and that the number of causalities are being exaggerated, Chidi Odinkalu asked that Nigerians should try and humanize the story adding that regardless the situation no Nigerian should be beneath the law and beneath protection.

“The statement that the army released never alleged that this people carried guns. The statement did not at any point said they took the first shot. It said that they had stones, knives and machetes.

“If we are saying there was an incident then we want to hear the side of the people who were there because the dead cannot speak up for themselves. Now there are three different locations of attack –the Husainiyya, the residence in Gelesu and Darur Rahma. These are three separate locations. It is not alleged that these people had explosives or whatever. And the allegation is that the military attacked these places with grenades, and heavy machine guns (SMG). These are very serious allegations and even if the military have justification for the initial measures they took where the measure proportionate to the threat that was calculated? Or was it a reprisal? I think that is an important and essential question.

“Let us humanize this story. If it is true….I have no way of saying….The army has put out a version and what I find necessary is that every story have at least three sides –one side, the other side and the truth. No set of Nigerian should be beneath the law and beneath protection. Every Nigerian must be equal in protection,” he said.

Relating the need for Nigerian politicians and citizens to be worried that the Nigerians are killed in encounters with security services, Prof. Chidi called for an independent investigation into the killings.

“When Nigerians are killed in encounters with security services every Nigerian politician should be worried and every citizen should be worried. Nigerians need to hear the president affirm that Nigerian lives are important. And how do we do that? We need an independent investigations into what has happened. Let’s not be dictated to by either sides –whether it is the military or the movement. Can we have an independent investigation that ascertains this so that…..because at the moment the allegations is that soldiers have killed in these places, secured them, there are dead bodies and the soldiers may have taken away the dead bodies.

READ ALSO: Shi’itee Spokesman Faults Buhari’s Silence Over Killings

“We don’t know where the dead bodies are and those who can testify are in their custody. Something doesn’t add up. At the minimum the people who witnessed this need to come out and tell their side of the story. It is a democratic society, free expression, access to justice –that is what we were promised. Can we have a bit of that and have respect for our dead citizens? When the people in France were killed, 129 of them our president issued a statement condemning it and solidarizing with the people of France. Can we not get a statement solidarizing with the families of the victims who were not in Husainiyya, who were not in Gelesu, who were not in any of the other places? Can we at least say we recognize your mourning and we would find out what happened? Is that too much to ask?” a visibly unhappy Chidi Odinkalu asked.

He also admonished Nigerian not to trivialize the quality of Nigerian lives.

“So when people are saying is it two people or one person that was killed I think it trivializes with the quality of Nigerian lives to say that you are lying because you could not count the numbers of that died when grenades were being thrown.”

 

In another related news that concern the Zaria massacre, the Amnesty International (AI) has called on the Nigerian government to carry out an urgent impartial investigation into the shooting of members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), a Shi’ite religious group by the Nigerian army.

In a press release made available to Naij.com today, December 16, AI said that ‘anyone found responsible for the unlawful killings must be brought to justice’.

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