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By Sonnie Ekwowusi
The madman says that there is nothing wrong with him except that whenever he wants to say one thing another thing comes out of his mouth. We must resist the temptation of mirroring our country with the madman’s mirror and concluding that nothing is wrong with Nigeria. Of course something serious is wrong with Nigeria. Those who think that Nigeria is still on the road to Somalia are mistaken. Nigeria had already reached Somalia. In the last six years Nigerians have been witnessing a steady and progressive deterioration of those cherished values which form the superstructures for the building of our national ethos. The old image of Nigeria as a citadel of peacefulness, fraternity, cultural and moral renaissance seems blurred. Amid the country’s abundant human and natural resources, there is poverty, fear, suspicion, disorderliness, hatred and chaos. On social media, on the pulpit, lecture rooms, market places, stadia and other fora, Nigerians soberly ask the following question: What does the future hold for us and our children?
This is a painful reality. But we must come to terms with it. The most significant achievement of the Buhari government in the last six years is to drag Nigeria into the membership of failed states. This is not surprising. A country reapeth what it soweth. In the last six years President Buhari has been sowing Fulanism, divisionism, nepotism and tyranny. This is why we are harvesting chaos, anarchy and failure today. Imagine the most populous and most richly endowed African country joining countries such as Somalia, Yemen, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, South Sudan and Myanmar as a full-fledged failed state.
Amid the complete collapse of state machinery for protection of lives and property, anarchy has been let loose upon Nigeria. The Hobbesian bellum omnium contra omnes (war of all against all) characterized by barbaric abductions, assassinations, arsons, bloodletting, communal bloody feud, kidnaps, banditry, gun running and so forth now reign supreme in different parts of Nigeria including, for the first time, the hitherto peaceful Anambra State. Amid the reign of mayhem in different parts of Nigeria, aggrieved ordinary citizens masquerading as “unknown gunmen” are now laying siege to different corners of the town and assassinating their perceived enemies or offenders. We now live in a country bereft of the rule of law. No law. No Justice. No peace either in men’s hearts because peace grows in the crannies of justice. Uncertainty, confusion, fear and apprehension rule the lives of many. We now live in a free-for-all country where nobody seems to be in charge of anything or anybody. We go to bed and wake up itching to hear the sad news of another abduction or assassination. If the abductors are not on prowl trying to abduct their victims, some hired assassins are lurking in the corner to capture their next victims and assassinate them. One analyst believes that the assassination of Dr. Chike Akunyili may not be unconnected with family feud over property. If this is true it means that families, friends, relatives, townsfolk and other citizens are now resorting to violence, self-help and use of force in settling personal disputes and disagreements. And as you and I know very well, recourse to self-help in settling personal disputes is a recipe for anarchy.
I read somewhere that given the heightened insecurity of lives and property in Anambra State at the moment some Anambrarians are now fleeing Anambra State and seeking refuge in Lagos. I hope this is untrue otherwise we are really in trouble in Nigeria. Oh! Lord, we raise up our shackled hands and beseech thee to take revenge on our behalf. Lord hearken to the assistance of your children drowning in the rivers of human blood, flowing down the streets and alleyways of our cities, towns and villages. Sit no longer blind, Oh! Lord. Let not our cries sink in silence at midnight. This is our land and the land of our ancestors. Protect us in it. Dislodge their plots and concoctions. They lay siege to the country expressways to kill us, we who are innocent, we who have committed no crime. Yet they want us to love Nigeria; they want us to dream of no other country except Nigeria. They want us to sing Nigeria’s National Anthem and recite her Pledge in order to feel proud that we are Nigerians. Yet they make Nigeria unlivable for us. In the last six years the Buhari government has been sowing the wind and today it is reaping whirlwinds. In the last seven years the government has been vilifying and persecuting the oppressed. Yet this is our country. And they want us to love our country. But how can we love a country that derives joy in spilling the blood of her innocent citizens? It is no longer news that Nigeria’s finest human capital, especially the medical doctors, nurses and other medical personnel are fleeing the shores of Nigeria day by day. Foreigners make mockery of us. They laugh at us and say that ours is a country of terrorists ruled by terrorists for terrorists. How do they say it again? When one finger touches oil it soils the rest. The political sins and misdeeds of a handful of our never-do-well political leaders are being visited on ordinary citizens. Poverty, hunger, and terminal illness continue to afflict many Nigerians. These days many Nigerians are finding it difficult to eke out a living or eat two meals a day. Many parents can no longer pay the school fees of their children and wards. Many patients in many Nigerian hospitals are just waiting to die either from their illness or out of neglect owing to their inability to pay their accumulated medical bills. Of course the prices of foodstuff and the prices of practically everything in Nigeria keep soaring.
The most tragic, in my view, is that the Buhari government is unwilling to disclose the identities of Nigerians incriminated in financing Boko Haram and terrorism in Nigeria despite the assistance given to the government by the United Arab Emirates and other countries to that effect. Reacting to public criticism on the refusal of the government to name the terror sponsors, the Federal Attorney-General said that revealing their identities will jeopardize investigation. This is an indirect way of informing the public that the names of the sponsors, for obvious reasons, will never be revealed by the government. I have just finished reading the essay entitled: Cornflakes For Jihad: The Boko Haram Origin Story by David Hundeyin. It is a must read. In this classical essay, David unearths the historical roots facilitating the financing of terrorism in Nigeria dating back to pre-independence era.
No man, no woman of good conscience can be at ease after reading the aforesaid essay. Equally no street, no broadway, no village path can remain silent amid the stillness of death lying everywhere in different parts of Nigeria. With torn and bleeding hearts we may be smiling but we may not know peace until Nigeria goes the way she had been fated to go.