Matawalle’s Peace Initiatives And Banditry Resurgence In Zamfara, a Rejoinder

By Yusuf Idris Gusau
When the new government in Zamfara State was inaugurated on May 29th this year, it knew the challenges it met on the ground were as daunting as they were widespread, most of them multi-sectoral.

They covered well known areas of peace making, fence mending and poverty alleviation. Doubtless to mention one led to the other and compounded issues of development. Much as the immediate past administration desires to live in denial, facts on ground indicted it as having failed in more ways than one.

It didn’t tackle insecurity but aggregated it. It didn’t alleviate poverty but institutionalised it. It failed to mend fences between victims and their aggressors but left them to hold grudges and even resort to revenge. Those were indecent conduct by any government especially one that professes to uphold the tenets of Islam.

It therefore goes to say that even if one chooses to hold malice and refuse to appreciate the giant strides made so far in the areas of peace building and peace making with especially the bandits who hitherto held Zamfara and its people by the jugular cannot deny the government of Matawallen Maradun Dr Bello Mohammed the deserved credit for the peace being enjoyed all over the state.

But as is with human nature we can’t all have our ways all of the time. Others are always lurking in the shadows to reverse the gains so far achieved. What best way to start than through misinformation, disinformation and deliberate campaigns of calumny against the government of Matawalle and by extension the people of Zamfara.

Unfortunately this latest effort at denying the obvious and running from pillar to post to sabotage the government through the resort to media smear campaigns only exposes those who have lost relevance in the eyes of the good people of Zamfara State, and how keen they are on derailing the efforts by the Matawalle’s government to turn a new leaf in the lives of its populace.

These disgruntled politicians have since employed uninformed persons to do their hatchet job for them through irresponsible media campaigns that are far from the truth.
They include fabricated lies and distorted narratives that are wholly situated in the figment of their imaginations.

This begs the question whether they do it in order to gain the applause of ill opinionated persons or groups against an established institution and community especially one that is just recovering from a treacherous past. Or, basing their opinions on faulty premise on what has genuinely been achieved in just a little over one hundred days? Whatever the case might be one thing is clear they lack loyalty to the state and its people. They will rather see a repeat of the dangerous past when life of Zamfarans meant nothing and not worth protecting.

Their latest arrowhead in campaign of calumny against the government of Zamfara State and its people is one Uzairu Faruku who is certainly ignorant of the tough times that faced the innocent and good people of Zamfara state for almost a decade in the hands of vicious armed bandits that destroyed several communities, burned villages, raped and maimed women of all ages and stalled the growth and development of many children predominantly situated in rural communities.

Ordinarily, if Uzairu had really removed the mask he is hiding behind to come out and speak to the ever open government of Matawallen Maradun, the Executive Governor of Zamfara state, Alhaji Bello Mohammed on how to advance the course of governance to move the state forward, his suggestions would have been looked into and perhaps implemented. But no, he would rather choose to tow the path of ignorance and heap insults on constituted authority without basis whatsoever.

We condemn this attitude as it’s unbecoming for anyone who profess to belong to humanity.

We make bold to say our records are there for even the blind to touch and feel. Suffice it to say, within the last four months of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led administration in Zamfara under Dr. Bello Matawalle, Nigerians have expressed a big sigh of relief as regards to end of armed banditry activities in the state. Unfortunately Uzairu does not want to acknowledge this and perhaps had wished it did not happen.

Since the peace initiative of the present government commenced, the state has not recorded any attack on individuals or on properties, and even the purported attack that he said took place in Shinkafi area where he claimed 30 persons were killed was false. The people of the area are still bewildered and in shock over the false information, wondering how such an incident and of such magnitude could have taken place in their domain without their knowledge!

While the state government has unconditionally succeeded in rescuing 473 kidnapped persons from their abductors, reopened all the markets and roads, earlier declared suicidal for anyone to venture into during the twilight of the past administration, the mischievious Uzairu chose to ignore that saying bandits were still operating in the state at a time when even those displaced from their homes and communities have all returned.

Even on the fabricated recent attack on Mayanchi as suggested by the mischief maker, the said bandits did not attack or maim anyone as doing so would have violated the peace process and agreement. While the attack on military post in Anka can be said to be unfortunate, the state government on learning about it quickly summoned a meeting with Fulani leaders where the first information they gave was that none of their members participated. The government even went further to investigate and discovered that the attackers were from Neighbouring state.

The people of Zamfara state especially rural dwellers were used to the sound of various types of guns for almost a decade before the coming of the present Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – led administration of Dr. Bello Mohammed Matawallen Maradun. It is a past we have consigned to the dustbin of history, never to be repeated by God’s grace.

That period was a time Nigerians and particularly the good citizens of Zamfara will never want to remember even in their wildest dreams. It was a period when the state became the killing field for bandits who laid siege on innocent people and communities and killed in tens and hundreds without any recourse to what human life meant.

Whole villages were either taken over by the bandits or they were burnt to the ground including farms, foodstuffs and livestock while women and children suffered the most as they were gang raped and left to wallow in their hopeless conditions as help was never there largely due to the ineptitude of the past government, a situation which once compelled the then governor Abdulaziz Yari to say he was no longer in charge of the state.

Thousands of communities were displaced with men sleeping on trees while women and children found solace in friends and relations as they migrated from one home to another not to surpass their welcome while the government stubbornly refused to set up camps for the displaced persons which it felt would have exposed the fact that the people were indeed in terrible situation.

We suspect therefore that the current media campaigns are being effectively financed by no other than elements of past administration in the state intent on presenting a bad picture to satisfy their morbid desires. We believe they will fail by God’s grace.

In fact Zamfara under Matawalle is now very peaceful, and the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Tukur Yusuf Buratai attested to this when he visited the state on the heels of the attack on the soldiers.

And to the chagrin of Uzairu and his masters he even commended the peace process put in place by the governor assuring that the army will continue to support the governor in this direction.
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Idris Gusau is the spokesman of Governor Bello Muhammad Matawalle. He can be reached at 08035716956