A first-timer to my Twitter handle in the last 48 hours would most likely mistake me for the President and Commander in Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The number of citizens who have been demanding me over the gruesome murder reported on Sunday of a woman named Harira and her four children is beyond words. While some were concerned about the gruesome murders, others decided to attack and hurl insults at me, with a few threatening to harm me. Many paid no heed to the murders until late Monday and Tuesday when the religious and ethnic colouration was fully blown and capitalised on. Yesterday, 60 farmers were reported to have been killed in Borno State. There is an eerie silence because there is no ethnic or religious colouration to be added to the killing, so there is almost no outrage. A few days earlier, a lawmaker in Anambra State was killed, and my “Twitter police” were nowhere.

 I am writing this piece to show how heinous and soulless we have become as a nation. When people are killed, what matters to many is not the fact that human beings have been killed but the tribe and ethnicity of both victims and perpetrators. Many are willing to justify and defend any atrocities as long as they share an affinity with the perpetrators and only highlight killings with whom the victims share some relationship. How do we expect to have peace if we refuse to call out atrocity whenever it happens? Why should the tribe or religion of the victim be more important than their humanity? Many have attacked and even said I am not a Muslim because I do not become more outraged when the victims are Muslims. How do I reduce myself to a soulless being who bases her empathy on shared affinity and not shared humanity? I refuse to be influenced by religious or ethnic sentiments. All I care about is the humanity of humans, just like me. I do not play an ethnic or religious card for human life. Your humanity comes first with me. I see you as a human being. Qur’an 5:32-34 is explicit that for every human being that is killed, humanity is killed. And if you feel strongly about holding Aisha Yesufu accountable for her actions and inaction: please be free.

I’m not going to be more outraged because I share an affinity with somebody. I will be as outraged as I can be anytime any human being is gruesomely killed. Also I will hold the President who is an absolute failure and responsible for the killings in Nigeria. The Nation’s security is in the hands of the President and Commander-In-Chief, and the bucks stop at his table. Citizens have allowed the government to abdicate its responsibilities. The President and Commander-In-Chief that swore to protect lives and properties have not even dignified the victims of these gruesome murders with a word. Many of the politicians jostling to replace the President are not being held to account, yet citizens are very comfortable attacking their fellow citizens who owe them nothing rather than facing their leaders who owe them everything

 As long as we continue this shenanigan and the attitude of allowing killers to get away because they have not touched our own, Nigeria will turn into a country where no value is attached to human lives both by government and citizens.

 Until we speak against all evil, no evil shall be stopped.