Help Rebuild Village Church Burned Down by Bigots

The burn-out building you see is my family church in the village of Abuyab in Zangon Kataf local government area, Kaduna. It is located less than a mile away from the house where my father was born. It is the Church where my parents got married in 1975.

I have heard tales of that day – about the dashing young army officer (my dad), his adorable bride (my mom), and the spectacular music the wedding band played – it was a day of celebration for the village, it was a peaceful period for my people and it was a hopeful time for the nation.

Like my parent’s marriage, that Church has seen both good and bad times, navigated both crises and triumphs, and has gone through periods of disrepair and restoration, but remained standing firm until the early hours of Tuesday the 13th July.

Fulani herdsmen descended on the sleeping community and attacked defenceless people – the young, the aged and everyone in between. They shot at anything that moved, looted houses of those that got out in time and burned down everything they could. Thankfully, my uncles, aunts and cousins were able to make their escape before the murderers got to my ancestral home. But not everyone was so fortunate.

Every night for two weeks in July, these marauders attacked, sacked and levelled villages in Zangon Kataf, including the home of the Agwa Tyap – the monarch of my people. They did so unchallenged, while the State and Federal Government turned a blind eye as they massacred its citizens. Though there’s a military garrison in Zangon Kataf, it wasn’t ordered to intervene and protect lives and properties, a common complaint made by soldiers in the aftermath of several Fulani massacres.

More than 100 people have been killed, 19 villages /communities razed to the ground and over 10,000 displaced people. My entire village was destroyed – with hollow shells of habitation left standing. My grandfather’s house – which has stood for more than a hundred years – the houses my father and his brothers built around it, memories of generations upon generations of living and farming on that piece of land, erased just like that.

Worse, the media have paid little attention to the plight of my people. Most Nigerian news platforms ignored what has happened and is happening in Zangon Kataf and Southern Kaduna as a whole. The situation is barely a blip in international news, even as this dreadful existence has been our reality for more than seven years. Just another African dysfunction – or so it would seem.

But it is more than that – for several reasons, most Southern Kaduna people have come to believe that the State government is actively working against them – the evidence supports the view that a deliberate displacement and land grab is currently underway in Southern Kaduna. And by its actions and inaction, the State government is at best complicit or worst providing aid and comfort to terrorists.

Help us rebuild our Church in defiance of bigotted government officials.