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When the stream of protests over the cartoon which t he Muslims deemed
offensive to their faith and which attracted condemnation from all
quarters including people of other faiths started flowing, I had
patiently waited for it to flow towards the bank of Nigeria, I expected
it to overflow its bank and cover the street, I was not disappointed
because I was not left to wait long to see my expectation become a
reality. I must confess though, that my only surprise was the timing, I
expected it much earlier than when it finally did.
When the row was on heat on the cities of different countries of the world, I watched BBC everyday, surf all the necessary informative sites, expecting to see the pictures of what was f inally witnessed in Nigeria few days back, when nothing came up, I was already beginning to ask myself if the cartoon news has not gotten to Nigeria, I was totally convinced that the possibility of the row passing without leaving its mark in Nigeria was trillion out of trillion. It cannot possibly be that Nigerian Muslims, especially northern Muslims will watch the mountain of protests that was shown on TV on daily bases and simply chose to let it pass without taking part in the show. My conclusion was a healthy no, I concluded that Nigeria cannot let history pass her, at least, now it can be remembered as a country with the highest number of casualties as a result of a cartoon published in far away Denmark. While I had no difficulty in concluding that the flow of protest will eventually get to the Nigerian soil, and also while I concluded without difficulty that it will certainly take a new dimension in the shore of Nigeria, I had and still have serious problems understanding why the authorities seem willingly helpless or reluctant in protecting lives and property of the innocents. Doesn’t it take anybody in its right senses to understand that history states that in Nigeria when an organization chooses to organize Miss World and the Muslims feel offended by an article in a daily newspaper, Christians pay dearly for it, that when USA chooses to Bomb countries like Afghanistan or Iraq, Nigerian churches have to suffer f or it because without them such bombardment would not have taken place in the first place, does it mean that our security experts did not understand that if the first act of violence can be pardoned as a mistake, the second as act of rascals, the third, fourth etc is already a habit. Are the uncountable acts of violence not enough to make us understand the necessity of treating that habit with all seriousness it deserves? Doesn’t anybody agree with me that a bad habit needs be check meted when it endangers the right of others to exist? Ooops! Sorry oohh!!!. I forgot, how can I not remember that everybody is busy in a dubious third term business, the security of Nigerians of course is secondary. I actually decided to punch my keyboard when I read another unexpected piece, the northern governors gathered and as I anticipated, once again termed the violence the work of rascals, it ends there, they will all wait for the rascals to unleash unbearable pain on the innocent unprotected Nigerians before they gather again, make another pronouncement, wait for the next level, in fact I have a hunch that the rule of the game is not about to change, since the same old wing bags, the butt-peddlers are bent in giving that country un-ceremonial burial. The reprisal in the East though understandable is also regrettable, because the victims also happen to be those that have absolutely nothing to do with the violence, those whose only crime is belonging to a particular ethnic group. Why did I say that it was understandable, because, racialism is not a monopolized venture of a particular ethnic group, the people of Onitsha probably wanted to voice out exactly that, but as we saw, the result of such emotional reactions could be far reaching. Just as one person commented: “any time when small thing happen them go start to dey kill our brothers and sisters, na wetin concern us concern the cartoons”. That is the question that I do really doubt that the perpetrators of this latest mayhem will ever make public. The row over Iran is quickly building up, when the unavoidable finally starts, and river of doom begins to flow, it will quietly escape the nearest Iranian neighbours but I need not remind you that it will leave the biggest visible mark when if gets to the shore of Nigeria. Simple law of sequence! Well, that, is still months away, but before it comes let them publish we’ll with all pleasure do the killings.
Okoh Emeka
Moscow
All comments to:
mekkyworld@yahoo.co.uk
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