I listened to Kadaria Ahmed’s Message to the Nigerian Media.
Let me start by saying that I have tremendous respect for the amazon, who is undeniably one of the best journalists in Nigeria.
While I appreciate her for speaking up against the perceived branding of Fulanis as bandits and kidnappers, I want to respectfully say that she is appallingly begging the issues at stake.
The Fulani are indeed great people and have contributed in no small measure in working for the unity of this country.
But the fact is that the media is not just profiling any tribe as criminals, the records speak clearly to what is happening across the country.
But Kadaria, like many others who are on the same lane, believes a certain group has all the rights in the books to kill, maim, plunder and walk away without being called out or mentioned by the media.
It doesn’t bother her that communities being plundered and people being killed are subject to the same laws and have the same rights as those who carry sophisticated weapons and unleash mayhem across the country.
She kept mute when every Igbo is profiled as IPOB and secessionist.
She lost her voice when Niger Deltans are profiled militants and oil thieves and when security forces constantly parade and torture them while her brothers in Zamfara, who mine gold illegally are protected and allowed to help themselves to the nation’s natural resource.
She has suddenly forgotten when she cried out against the same people she is defending now for killing and raping her kin in Zamfara.
Of course, she was politically correct to blame President Buhari for not tackling the crimes in Zamfara but she failed to mention those unleashing the terror on her people.
Today, she has a voice to speak against her colleagues who are merely reporting the truth of what some Fulanis, who even the Sultan of Sokoto, has confirmed, are responsible for over 80 percent or more of banditary, kidnappings and killings across Nigeria.
She didn’t condemn the Sultan or disagree when His Eminence said out of ten kidnappers and bandits caught, eight or more are Fulanis. Perhaps, the media was wrong to quote the Sultan or even report about it.
Kadaria didn’t say anything when Fulani herdsmen were, as early as 2016, designated the fourth bloodiest terrorist group in the world. Perhaps, it was the media that orchestrated the rating.
She is disappointed when the Nigerian media say it as it is and lay the blame where it rightly belongs.
She would not speak when prominent Fulani leaders openly take responsibility and justify attacks in many parts of Nigeria.
I think Kadaria is playing hide and seek with the TRUTH but unfortunately, Nigerians are wiser and the media know better than her absolute vilification of the truth, her ethnic bais and illogical prognostication.
