The day terrorists visited my home

By Abdul Oroh

I wanted to pause for a while on writing about the daily reports of extreme violence sweeping across the country, at least to deny the marauders, their sponsors and the internal and foreign enemies of the Nigerian people, the oxygen of publicity which, like steroid, enhances their morbid exploits. That was until the violence came fifty meters to my doorsteps. To look away and pretend the worse had not happened was to live in denial.

Nobody should deny the fact that the nation is under siege. What happened in my community Ivbiaro, Owan East Local Government Area of Edo State last week has not happened since Nupe Jihadists swept through the Afenmai part of Benin Empire in the 18th century.

Ivbiaro, home of the Adaobi Shrine was of particular interest to the Jihadists. It was a place of refuge for those fleeing injustice, persecution or those seeking justice from Adaobi who was said to be swift in dispensing Justice.

The community had a reputation as a place where spirits and humans live in perfect harmony and the jihadists and slave raiders were scared of entering the community because those who dared were fought off by mysterious bees.

As a child growing up in the 1960s, I was often asked about the historical status of Ivbiaro- my place of birth – as a community steeped in mysticism.

As youths, we grew up with the knowledge that what might seem invisible could be seen with trained eyes or minds, that the infinities of our deities, invisible spirits, priests, and herbalists would protect us in our daily endeavors of whatever type, wherever we might be, whether at home or abroad, as individuals or as a community.

We were also conscious of the various rules of social relationships, especially those that could bring our families and society disrespect. We were acquainted with family taboos that we had to avoid or values we had to embrace and celebrate in our social relationships.

We were trained on the culture of hard work, respect for elders, to treat women kindly and our parents and grand-parents with deference. We were also to treat the High Priest of Adaobi, Mallams and other religious leaders with the same deference as our parents.

We learned to be satisfied with whatever we had and not to covet what belongs to others or what was not given to us freely.

It was believed Ivbiaro was the road to heaven, and it was common to see those transiting from earth to heaven in Ivbiaro. Local folklore had it that in Ivbiaro, the living, the dead and other spirit beings live and co-habit in peace.

In Afenmai, it was widely believed that when you visit Ivbiaro, you should not say goodbye to your host or community members because doing so would mean instant death or that you would die shortly after. The community was also believed to be a gateway to heaven, with Adaobi as the gatekeeper.

Adaobi is the fabled Edo god who guards the gate between heaven and earth. As a man, he was believed to have the power to tame wild animals and put them to domestic use, and he could, like Moses in the bible, part a river and walk through without water touching his feet.

Many more incredible feats have been attributed to my ancestor and his forebears, which I cannot confirm or deny. What I can confirm is that last week, about five gunmen wearing hoods sneaked into Irhofio quarter in Ubuneke-Ivbiaro, the hallowed grounds of the Adaobi deity, broke into the home of the High priest Alimazoya Aibona, my classmate in high school, and a veteran of the ECOMOG operations in Liberia and Sierra Leone and kidnapped him.

He retired last year from the Army and returned home with his wife to answer the call of his community to fill the vacant sacred position of Ose Adaobi, the high priest of the ancestral shrine. His wife of over forty years Zinatu who raised alarm, was shot dead on the spot by one of the bandits. Their son who was in an adjacent room sneaked out through the window to alert members of the community vigilante group but before the team could be mobilized, the bandits dragged the high priest into the bush, shooting as they fled.

The slaying of Zinatu is the second killing by bandits in the community within a year. Danjumah Emokpaire a former legislative aide to Senator Yisa Braimoh was returning from his farm when he was clubbed to death by Fulani herdsmen who were grazing their cattle in his farm late last year.

Another young man Sadiq Braimah was also kidnapped on the way home from the farm last year. Members of the community had to tax themselves to raise the ransom money before he was released after almost a week in captivity.

The kidnappers of the high priest have reportedly called his son to demand a ransom of one hundred million Naira. The recent murder and kidnapping happened barely a week after six farmers were kidnapped in Ugbovbighan-Erah in the same Ivbiadaobi clan, Ward 10 Owan East.

It was in the same community that the leader of the vigilante group in Erah was killed by Fulani herdsmen after he made a video showing his farm devastated by the cattle. He had pleaded in vain with the police to protect farmers in the community.

I have made the point on this column that since the nation is at war, extra-ordinary measures must be made to tackle the spate of violence and the total breakdown of law and order in the country. That the nation is at war is clear to all discerning minds.

I reinstate again that we need more troops, more modern equipment and fighting tools and more motivation for our troops to deal with the challenges of the time. Nigeria should take the battle to our enemies whether homegrown or foreign.

Max Weber, a German philosopher defined a state as that which must have ‘’monopoly of legitimate violence’’. The Nigerian State cannot be degraded further than it currently is.

Although President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has introduced fundamental measures to reform the economy and build major infrastructure that in the long run, would put the nation on the path of fundamental socio-economic development; and there is no question that the military has been conducting major operations to contain the hydra-headed monster of terrorism, banditry, insurgency and the wave of criminality threatening the national fabric, there is a significant erosion of state institutions for effective governance.

This further highlights the absence of political order. The burden we carry is how to reverse this trend, deal with the problems of nation building, with its foundation firmly rooted in an inclusive democratic process and social development. All these are now being undermined by social dysfunctions like banditry, terrorism, criminality, impunity, grand corruption, and a general feeling of insecurity.

The dastardly killings in my ancestral homeland and other parts of Nigeria is once again a dark reflection of how Nigeria has been weakened. We must all rise to these challenges now. Failure to deal with these problems now, not next year or the year after, will undermine democratic consolidation.

All the on-going reforms would be meaningless and a futile exercise if we don’t step up and defeat the enemies at the door.