One of life’s most poignant aphorisms is one which recreates the impermanence of life. When people say that no condition is permanent, they mean it as both a statement of hope and a testament to defiance. People have lived to witness the fiercest storms finally and improbably wash by, and they have come to learn that even the thicket darkness will someday lift.

For the long-suffering people of Southern Kaduna, the election of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as president of Nigeria in 2023 has brought them unexpected succour. Shortly after he assumed office, Tinubu took the unprecedented step of appointing General CG Musa who is from Southern Kaduna as the Chief of Defence Staff. The masterful appointment was a masterstroke on so many levels.

While Southern Kaduna has always been a flash point, the period between 2015 and 2023 proved especially bloody, with terrorists chewing up and spitting out the people of the zone. Dozens were killed every month in Southern Kaduna while Muhammadu Buhari as president and Nasir El-rufai as governor were content to do nothing.

In those days when the blood of innocent, vulnerable rural dwellers flowed freely in Southern Kaduna, with whispers of genocide, ethnic cleansing and systematic killing, in addition to abuse of their sensitivity because the governor did not give a hoot and it was done with brazen arrogance, the ideal thing would have been to balance the Christian-Muslim equation in the state as was done in years past to ensure peaceful co-existence.

Recently, the Vice President, Kashim Shettima, was in the zone for a condolence visit during which he revealed that the Federal Government planned to establish a Federal Medical Centre as well as a university in the zone.

The current governor, Uba Sani, came with an agenda for peace, humility, and reconciliation and the bloodbath ceased. The diverse ethnic groups in the state have seen themselves as one, and oneness has returned.

The Tinubu government is about to follow up with a university and a Federal Medical Centre in the zone. The university would help the killers and their victims to interface and embrace civilization and socialization in an atmosphere. On the other hand, the Federal Medical Centre would improve critical healthcare for the people.

Surely but steadily, the government of Governor Uba Sani is reminding the long-suffering citizens of the state of the time of Ahmed Makarfi because he was a peaceful person.

For all the horrors they have survived in the past twenty years, the good people of Southern Kaduna deserve critical infrastructure as well as lasting peace and security.

Now that a new Pharaoh is in town, one that is deaf to the sirens of religion and tribalism, there is no better time to console the people.

It is hoped that other neglected parts of the country who have known depredation and destruction, either as a result of environmental degradation or terrorism, will come to experience a similar level of attention at the hands of the Nigerian government.

If every part of the country is to feel a sense of belonging, then the government must take measurable steps to promote inclusion and unity.

*Willie-Nwobu can be reached at ikewilly9@gmail.com