They slept on the night of March 15th 2014 and as they had done the nights before, they prayed before they slept and hoped to carry on with life the next day, but that was not to be. Over 150 innocent and unsuspecting people of Moroa land in the southern part of Kaduna State - mostly women and children both pregnant and nursing mothers - were sent to an early Mass Grave by sworn enemies of the region, suspected to be Fulani herdsmen. All the churches in the areas affected also went down in ashes and so too every grain and food item. Eternity itself will be too short to thank those who will take the trouble to share in the pain of my people by sharing this story and reward seven-fold those behind this evil.
I have shed so much tears and still shed tears but then I have to take time out to speak or else I remain a specimen of futility to my generation at large, to my state and my people of Southern Kaduna in particular and to humanity in general.
It is common human folly to keep mute when evil befalls the house of another, thinking as we often do, that it is not my household that is affected. However, evil is not a permanent friend - when it is done with your neighbour, it finds its way to you. Also, a threat to life anywhere is a threat to life everywhere. The eternal drama of life has a way of rewarding its actors and actresses both in time and in eternity.
By this post, I wish to arouse the conscience of all those who are not from southern kaduna or from Kaduna, or even Nigeria; I wish to draw your attention to the height of inhuman cruelty and crime against humanity perpetrated against my people, the place of my origin, in the southern region of Kaduna state last Saturday week.
I wish to end with this quote by a pastor in Nazi Germany who chose to be indifferent to the crimes against the Jews and others as the Nazi government visited hell on them. He had said:
"First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a communist;
"Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a socialist;
"Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a trade unionist;
"Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Jew;
"Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak out for me."
Pastor Martin Niemöller
I wish to add: now they have come for Southern Kaduna, now they have come for Maiduguri and Yobe and Adamawa, if you keep silent because these are not your places, be rest assured that, in the course of time, they will come for you...only that time it might be too late as there may be no one to speak for you.
Behold the Mass Grave
Mercy Musa Swanta
