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They sauntered into our innocent lives in 2015. They met Boko Haram insurgents on ground. And they lied to us. We didn’t force them. They vowed to crush the mutinous insurrectionists. They even gave a time frame of six months for the task.
Almost eight odd years down the line. They never quashed Boko Haram. They couldn’t have, anyway. Instead, they increased our woes. We are worse off now than when they happened to us.
They are leaving us with bandits, terrorists, Fulani killer herdsmen, kidnappers, rapists, murderers, ethnic armies and their dreaded likes! These are their horrible and ugly footprints.
Before they came, there was no need for Amotekun. No Ebubeagu. No ESN, Benue State Community Volunteer Guards, et al. We were only contending with the Boko Haram Islamist sect.
They have shamelessly opted for sordid and vile tactics. And two ministers are strenuously driving the new strategy. Rauf Aregbesola, Minister of Interior, and Lai Mohammed, Information and Culture, are in the forefront.
They are doing so ferociously with all the strength they can muster. They knew they lied to us in 2015. They sold us beautifully packaged fake hope. It was black market. Yet, we bought it hook, line and sinker.
Seven odd years after, the hope collapsed on all of us. So? Aregbesola and Lai were sent to us on Monday. They taunted us with wild and weird claims. False and dubious! We never asked for it.
Aregbesola was so audacious and reckless. He unleashed on us a floodgate of blatant fabrications: “We must all know insurgency preceded our administration, regardless of what anybody wants to believe or say.”
Agreed. Insurgency preceded you. But it was contained and curtailed to the North East. Now, it has festered unrestrained. Aregbesola suddenly realised this. And he confessed: “There are insurgents in the North East, bandits in parts of the North West and North Central, militants in the South South, separatists in the South East and ritual killers in the South West.
“All over the country, we have constant attacks on pipelines, electricity cables and other critical national infrastructure.”
This government takes delight in sheer grandstanding. It won’t desist from deceit and self-denial. Its top officials have lost it completely. They have become laughing stocks.
We have decided not to take them seriously. It’s a great risk to believe them.
They feign gross ignorance. They pretend they still have a thick skin. They live in delusion and illusion. What a strange combination of the absurd.
Read Aregbesola’s lips again: “What we face mostly now are clashes of cowardly attacks from those routed in one locale or the other moving to give the false impression that they are still strong. That is the essence of the scattered nature of their strikes.”
Their eerie dream: “Our ultimate goal is to eliminate them (terrorists) all together and restore total peace in every inch of the Nigerian soil.” And he swore: “That we are going to do, by God’s grace, by December of this year.”
This is quite laughable. General Muhammadu Buhari was thirsty for power in 2015. He promised the impossible. He vowed to get rid of Boko Haram in just six months of his becoming President.
It’s clearly over seven years since we allowed him to happen to us. Insurgency has increased in unprecedented bounds. It expanded its territories. It has covered the country effectively.
Aregbesola knows the government he serves is only grandstanding. It can’t be trusted anymore. What you didn’t have capacity to do in seven years, you want to do in less than four months? Say that to the marines.
What do you take us for, brainless? What you don’t have, you can’t give. And we give that to this government. He is convinced we know that this is fake news. Hate speech of sorts:
“This is sounding tall but take it home. We are determined to ensure that every inch of the Nigerian soil is safe. The determination is there and the order has been given.” This is laughable. #Yeyenatu.
And Lai dared not miss out on this. This is his familiar terrain. He wouldn’t let go that golden opportunity. It has been a while since we heard from him. The reason he barged in on us uninvited, unsolicited:
“We are here to tell you that, while we may not be there yet, our military and other security agencies have succeeded – and are succeeding – in substantially restoring security across the nation.
“As far as the daunting security challenges we face are concerned, we can tell you that the worst is over. Never again will terrorists and bandits and their cohorts hold sway in our country.” #Loriiro.
These rulers opt not to feel our feelings. They behave as if they live on the Moon. They choose not to see what we are seeing. They decide to be indifferent to what we’re going through. And it’s deliberate.
Lai, just listen to yourself: “The worst is over and peace and security are gradually returning to the land.” His conscience pricked him immediately. He almost retracted his outburst.
He begged: “Please, don’t misunderstand or misrepresent this assertion. We may still witness isolated cases of security challenges here and there, but it will not be on the scale that we have witnessed in the past.”
They are being haunted and taunted by their failed promises. Do you blame them? When they promised us change, we didn’t interrogate the change.
They have delivered their own brand of change. That is the type of change they know. And that is the change they have the ability to deliver. They wickedly brought us from “top to bottom.”
They are fast running out of ideas. Even precious time is not on their side. They wish they could hold back the hands of the clock. That is beyond them. That belongs exclusively to God, nobody else!
In the past, they played skilfully the blame game, excuses and buck passing. They did that thoughtlessly for close to eight years. But the harder they tried, the harder they failed. They crumbled, fumbled and staggered all the way.
By their sour fruits, we know them. They are raising belated hopes. They are persuaded it is not possible. Yet, they keep on vowing to turn things around. At this 11th hour?
It is their conscious effort to keep on grandstanding. They are deliberately insisting on falsehood as if it’s the truth. Constant insistence on lies is the game. They whitewash deceit and falsification effortlessly.
They are stoutly determined. They will continue to walk truth on its head. Never again! We won’t allow them to dress up fiction for us in fake robes. That is dead on arrival.
These ambassadors of false hopes are on the prowl. They are seeking preys to kill and destroy. They must be tamed. That is our resolve. And we’re adamantly resolute!
