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Daily Headlines : Yelwa, Kano Killings: Obasanjo spits fire, calls CAN boss �idiot� *Kano morgue over-flows with dead bodies; Kaduna Police on alert
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Towards a better life for the people
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DAILY HEADLINES
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Yelwa, Kano Killings: Obasanjo spits fire, calls CAN boss "idiot"
*Kano morgue over-flows with dead bodies; Kaduna Police on alert
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By Taye Obateru & Emeka Mamah
Friday, May 14, 2004
�What type of leader are you? And you are asking me this type of rubbish question. You are an idiot. A total idiot.
And I have no apologies for that�
JOS � PRESIDENT Olusegun Obasanjo�s legendary temperament appeared, last night, to have scuttled his peace initiative
on the Plateau State religious crisis after flaring up at a stakeholders' meeting in Jos, calling the state chairman
of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) an idiot.
The Plateau crisis ignited the Kano mayhem which, for the two days it lasted, claimed about 30 lives. Tension remained
high in the city yesterday with the morgue overflowing and thousands homeless.
The Northern states CAN said 400 of its members died in the rioting, but the police dismissed the figure, while
the authorities in nearby Kaduna State placed military and police personnel on alert ahead of today�s jumat.
President Obasanjo at the stakeholders' meeting in Jos had been asked by the state chairman of CAN, the Reverend
Yakubu Pam, why he failed to show the kind of concern he was now showing when over 40 Christians were massacred
in Yelwa in February.
Even before Rev. Pam concluded, the president flared up, saying: �Mr. Chairman of CAN, you are talking absolute
nonsense and don�t provoke me. When I did invite people to Abuja in April, do you think I invited them for a picnic?
You are talking rubbish and I will not accept that. I invited all people that are stakeholders including the governor
and I was saying that I would set up a committee to look at every aspect under the Emir of Zaria as Chairman.
Then what I read in the papers (newspapers) was that some of you CAN said you didn�t accept the Emir as the chairman.
You have the audacity (to say) that you didn�t hear anything from me; did I hear anything from you? What meaningful
thing have you contributed to make peace in this state other than that you are chairman of CAN? CAN my foot! As
a Christian, what did Christianity teach you? Revenge? Is that what the Bible teaches you? What type of leader
are you? And you are asking me this type of rubbish question. You are an idiot. A total idiot. And I have no apologies
for that.
"Assuming you said I didn�t do anything, what did you do? What did the leaders in this state do, the Christian
leaders? Don�t tell me that. And if you think that you are a Christian, I can claim to be a better Christian than
you are. Let us tell ourselves the home truth. If you are a Christian, what do you do in a situation of conflict?
So what you are saying is that people die and I don�t care because I am a Christian? You are an idiot to say that.
I have always been fair. I don�t care whether you are a Christian or a Muslim. If you do what is wrong, I will
condemn you, if you do what is actionable, action will be taken.� The Secretary General of the Islamic organisation,
Jamatu Nasril Islamic, Alhaji Abdulazeez Yusuf also had his own share of the president�s temperament after asking
whether he (Obasanjo) was serious about bringing peace to Nigeria.
To this the president said: �If there is anybody who wants the unity of this country, I think I should be the one,�
and recalled that he was the General that accepted the surrender of Biafran forces in 1970.
The president�s outburst shocked eminent personalities like Chief Solomon Lar, Governor Joshua Dariye, Deputy Senate
President Ibrahim Mantu, and Minister of State for Transport, Engineer Mohammed Musa, as they shifted uncomfortably
on their seats.
Rev. Pam told journalists later that the president�s angry reaction to his question was an indication that he (Obasanjo)
came with his mind already made up about certain things, a development which had made the state CAN to lose confidence
in his peace efforts. He warned against any plan to declare a state of emergency in the state as it would not be
in the interest of democracy.
According to him, �the same people who cooked up the crises in Plateau State have been going to him and deceiving
him by telling him all kinds of lies. This is the first time I am seeing a leader abusing a pastor, an ordained
man of God.� He said Christians though peace-loving would not be intimidated in the face of persecution and killings
as they have now resolved to defend themselves. The president had landed at the Yakubu Gowon Airport at about 11
a.m. aboard a Presidential Jet from where he drove to Government House, Rayfield to dialogue with the stakeholders.
Kano morgue over-flows with dead bodies
In Kano itself, religious rioting appeared to have abated yesterday after police used hardline tactics to quell
the violence. But tensions remained high, especially at the Kano General Hospital where distraught relatives were
prevented from searching for their loved ones in the morgue, which was so full that at least five bodies were stacked
outside.
�We can�t allow anybody into the morgue or near it because what we need now is to keep the peace in Kano. Imagine
what would happen if dead bodies were released to relatives,� a doctor said on condition of anonymity. �We will
wait until everything is calm," he said.
Many of the angry residents alleged that the true reason the bodies were being concealed was to hide evidence that
many of the dead had been shot by police, not killed by sectarian mobs.
On Wednesday, Kano�s police chief, Commissioner Abdul Ganiyu Dawodu, said he had issued shoot-on-sight orders to
his overwhelmed officers after two days of bloodletting triggered by Muslim anger over an earlier Christian-led
attack.
The official police casualty toll was given late Tuesday as 30, but accounts from Christians among the more than
5,000 people who fled Kano�s outlying suburbs suggested the final tally could be much higher.
400 killed, says CAN
However, the CAN in the northern states claimed yesterday that more than 400 of their members were killed by Muslim
mobs in two days of attack in Kano. But, Kano�s chief of police, Abdul Ganiyu Dawodu, dismissed it, saying: �We
still stick to our figure of 30 killed and 40 hospitalised ... these figures are baseless.�
Doctors and Nigerian Red Cross officials would not give an estimate of the death toll, citing fears of provoking
further trouble by revealing the figure, but confirmed that the city morgue was full to overflowing.
In the absence of official data, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) said residents fleeing the suburbs
of Kano during the trouble had reported hundreds of dead. There was no way of independently confirming the figure.
�The 30 people quoted by the police is an understatement. From the reports we got, over 400 people Christians have
been killed with more than 10,000 refugees,� Saidu Dogo, CAN�s general secretary in the north said. �We blame
the Kano government and the security forces for allowing the violence to extend to the following morning. The government
has to stop the violence,� he said in a telephone interview.
�We appeal to our brothers and sisters to be calm and not to seek revenge in any way. Christians have a spirit
of forgiveness. Those leaving Kano should stay because we are all Nigerians and should be free to live anywhere
we like.�
Police on alert in Kaduna
Meanwhile, military and police personnel have been placed on alert in Kaduna State in a bid to forestall a spillover
of the ethno-religious crisis in neighbouring Plateau and Kano States into the state.Governor Ahmed Makarfi of
Kaduna State announced this when he summoned the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the
Jama�atul Nasril Islam (JNI) in the State to his office Wednesday evening. Makarfi said the security agencies had
also been mandated to deal decisively with any groups or persons trying to foment trouble without asking questions.
�We also have to warn that we will not ask questions, if we see any group that attempts to bring similar violence
into our state. We will deal decisively with them. Those are the terms given to those (security) agencies,� he
said. �When the party chairmen of the 19 Northern states came a few hours ago, I used the same forum to pass the
same message. So, even before you came, first at a function, I passed the same message.
�Having said that, it�s just like what the president had said when he received the Council of Ulamasyesterday.
What was happening in Plateau was regrettable and condemnable. But also two wrongs do not make a right. Equally,
what happened in Kano as a follow up, that is equally condemnable and regrettable. �All religions have taught us
that we limit crisis and also work to solve it. But while Federal and State authorities are trying to deal with
the situations, it is also our responsibilities to play our own roles to make sure there is a stoppage in the spread
of this unnecessary madness.�
I have directed the state emergency relief agency to look into what assistance we can give to thoserefugees that
are coming and also to extend assistance to where there are crises even if it is outside our state. And I want
to use this medium to continue to call up on the indigenes of Kaduna State to be law-abiding, to avoid taking the
laws into their hands. In their replies, JNI and CAN leaders pledged to work together with the state government
in its bid to ensure the security of lives and property in the State by advising their followers to keep the peace.
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