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We are talking about our country. Last week we were on it under the title “dealing with ants infested woods”. We have a country that is on the edge. This much we must admit. The detested scenarios seen in Yemen, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan, Afghanistan and Somali are almost with us.
Only last week a well armed column of our soldiers on patrol in the Bornu State border region led by a General was successfully ambushed by terrorists and decimated. Felons captured the General and killed him in the most brutal and bizarre manner. This father of a family and many others with him died trying to save the rest of us.
The national response left a sour taste. The military command wasn’t certain it lost an officer of that cadre. The tardiness reflected in the initial press release the Army directorate gave to Nigerians, in which they denied his capture and killing. By the time this discourse was being penned the army had not come out with a statement admitting the development. Citizens only got to know through a video footage released by the barbarians in our house. We can call that audacity of barbarism.
That a group of deviants could contemplate to attack the army of a country tells a terrible story on its own. That they could execute their evil mission with high level of impunity confirms that what we are up against as a country isn’t a case of few citizens dislocated trying to get back at society. What we face is a clear case of groups declaring a full scale war against our people, the country and its sovereignty. The heightened kidnaps spreading across many states as a confirmation the insurgents are not only gaining ground, they are winning. Little time stands between them and the objective of turning the entire country upside down. The fear in the land is so thick it could be cut with a knife.
We must understand our situation if we must find a quick and lasting solution. This general state of insecurity didn’t just happen to us. Nigerians with eyes open went out and began to court trouble. From independence rather than embrace ideas we made a pact with disagreement and conflicts. Our leaders wanted Nigeria but didn’t want their people to stay in harmonious relationships with the rest of the components. We tarried in the hope that time and nature would do for us what was clearly our responsibility to do. Moulding solid pillars and planting them very deep into the ground was the responsibility of the citizens led by patriotic but visionary leadership. We didn’t understand that so we chose to beat about the bush.
There are foreign interests with intent to stall our aww country from being the light bearer for the Black race. There’s no doubt about that,we said that much in our last week outing. This truth needs emphasizing again,” the most fatal blows to a fortress are not struck from outside its walls, but are plotted from within its chambers.
Nigerians are the root of our current threats towards annihilation. The first would be bad and negative politics. Rather than collegiate, cooperative politics some have led us to successfully supplant that with supremacist philosophy and runs. It can’t work. It can only throw up contradictions which most of the time throw factors and variables that have high probability to tear and devour. We ought to have learnt from experiences elsewhere. Examples abound.
The destruction of federalism is at the root of the rise at instability. Federalism refers to the terms component units agreed to trade their independence for a united Nigeria. It was to a loose autonomy, with each group having her structures in place yet subordinate to a central government. The major objective was to produce checks and balances against possible misadventure of irrational supremacist rise and advancement. Under this arrangement regions would have policing authority so been firmly in-charge and having ability to cover unpopulated spaces. We killed the idea and consequently left so many spaces ungoverned or unmanned. So what did we expect? Peace?
Nature abhors vacuum. once we left gaps it must be filled and in our case citizens who profit from chaos stepped in and are making the most from our indiscretion and lack of fortune. Unfortunately, men and women who offered themselves for leadership didn’t come to help the country grow rather they ascended to help pursue narrow interest they ought to know won’t work. Perhaps they don’t know it won’t work in our kind of clime.
We mentioned this point last week but it is worth repeating. In a supposedly secular country with what should be secular constitution issues pertaining to Islam, one of the faiths, is the only one that got mentioned 73 times. The same constitution provides for Islamic jurisprudence alongside the common law. What a foundation.
The story of how various military heads of state struggled to smuggle religious matters into national policies are common place. They succeeded and that has emboldened the successor generation to take the reckless affront further. Hired barbarians have spread across all corners like their masters have often boasted “they are waiting for orders to strike”. Tension is everywhere. Nobody knows who the next could be. A state of trepidation has engulfed everyone and the land. It is a fearful atmosphere. This is the reward we are reaping. It is yet morning on creation day. The journey to “mutunda” has just started. Some of us pray fervently it doesn’t turn full circle because the consequences are terrible.
Our reaction has been but thorough. It has been off mark. Why are the leaders afraid to say come let’s sit down and renegotiate the terms for building a virile country where love would abound and the people turned very productive? We do see our leaders visit regions, mix with cronies, hear normal talks and then return to be cocooned in the federal capital? Why are our afraid to have a real conversation with the people directly?
Apart from federalism, constructive engagement would have been any tool that would have granted us peace and stability. We take South East as our example. The present leader of the country, Bola Tinubu, is yet to meet with authentic Igbo leaders nearly three years into office. He wants their votes for a possible reelection for which he has established a South East Development Commission that is yet to take off nearly one after it was constituted. He is doing roads. He wants an Igbo prominent figured jailed in England brought back home. All these to endear himself to the Igbo race. Yet, if you live in the South East you will know the masterstroke to enhanced peace and stability would be to release Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from detention and not all these gestures dancing around their real desire.
But our government won’t go that way because in the warpef view and analysis of the haters of the country a certain group in the country must be taught a little lesson. They must be told they fought a civil war and were defeated by force of arms. This is the mentality creating instability in place of peace. What is holding establishment of state police authority them hire more men and to put sophisticated guns in their hands. Is it just about the fear Governors would abuse it? Why must it be the army that is saddled with the protection of the entire landscape of our country? What is the logic?
