The Southern Kaduna killings By Editorial Board, Guardian Newspaper

Tragic as the horrendous killings of indigenes by so-called herdsmen in the southern part of Kaduna State have been, the indifference and prevarication of state actors at both state and federal levels, who exhibited criminal negligence instead of being proactive in halting the carnage is morally wrong and despicable.Now, fear and distrust reign and a whole race of people is feeling let down by a state in which the people are supposed to have a stake. Nigeria can and should do better.

The poor approach to the crisis was earlier sign-posted by the alleged payment of some ransom to the herdsmen by the Kaduna State government under the leadership of Nasir El-Rufai. Indeed, the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU) had demanded to know the identity of the Fulani herdsmen to whom ransom was being paid and the amount involved. In response, the government has claimed that it was only implementing aspects of the recommendations made to the previous government of the late Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa by a committee on the same crisis. That committee recommended compensation for cattle killed during the post-2011 election crisis in the same area. Meaning the El-Rufai government’s claim to a solution is actually an exacerbation of the problem.