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Constant Fear of Death Ruins Our Polity It is very difficult for those with sound minds and self respect worthy of substance to get into politics these days for the fear of being soiled or worse, slaughtered like a goat. It has become a field for hustlers who have nothing to loose. Whatever it takes, they are willing to go the distance. In many countries including ours, creating business and employing people can be rewarding in the short term and make you rich in the long term. For most, politics is the shortest distance to riches. So the field is crowded with vultures in power leaving little room for sincere civil servants.
We are the poor, the helpless and the meek that have given up and decided to join them by singing their praises with the hope that some money may trickle down to us before we and our children starve to death. There are not too many of us who are willing to protest or fight to death as we used to because we know the consequences. However, we are recruited as hooligans to fight their causes to death, willing to risk death in the desert rather than face what belittles us at home. So those that raise their voices and condemn atrocities are severely punished as a deterrent to others.
The latest amongst those who expressed fear of death in the hands of opponents is the Chief Law enforcer, Attorney General Aondoakaa. He claimed his opponent wished him dead. Who are we to dismiss his claim when we knew what happened to a former Attorney General, Uncle Bola Ige? We do not want to claim any threat, real or imagined a hoax in view of our violent climate. Nor do we want to spend all our resources protecting every big man for fear of being attacked when common folks like us suffer even from those who are suppose to protect us. So this fear cut across Nigeria.
Bola Tinubu and El Rufai, none of whom are saints, have been written about for high handedness and condemned accordingly but there is an odious arrogance coming from those in power at the Federal level reminiscent of our dark military days. If you express fear for your life especially in a society such as ours where prominent politicians have vanished, they can turn it on your family. If you are a critic of the Government in the press or on the internet, you can be summarily detained.
Tinubu and his friends expressed fear of assassination. Instead of the authorities working with them cooperatively, they jumped all over them as if assassination of politicians is unheard of in Nigeria. It brings back bad memories. Here is not the place to list names of those who had been assassinated in all the political parties for reasons best known to people who have been rightly labeled “nest of killers”. If you cannot express fear of assassins to police, who do you call, Ghostbusters?
There is a war of words going on now to nail El Rufai. He had stepped on some powerful toes during his term in politics. But we all know his sins are beyond that. It has more to do with the fact that he exposed those that demanded bribe from him before his confirmation as minister, standing up to those who built on utility land in Abuja and as a member of the radical North working with the South. If we really want the Country to stay unified, why not wisely encourage young men from all parts of the Country to shoulder that responsibility without the fear of being hounded later.
As for the Internet critics, there is not very much they can do about it. We are past the dark ages when the printing press moved from one house to another in order to evade the secret Nigeria police. You can close down the press but the Internet is beyond your reach. So live with it. For every Nigerian critic detained, there are hundreds coming to life. You can neither kill it nor decapitate it. If you wasted all the hard currencies those in Diaspora sent into Nigeria in exchange for your foreign expensive toys, it sounds like a case of monkey dey work, baboon dey chop!
These days, Diasporans have been given a bad name so that they can be easily hanged. They are called stone throwers into their fatherland by those hit, who throw billion of dollars out of their fatherland. Who are the culprits? Those who got hit by stone thrown into Nigeria for throwing billion of US dollars out of the Country or those who send billions of US dollars into Nigeria to create jobs, feed, cater and pay school fees for relatives and friends.
In addition to all the problems we have like never knowing when armed robbers are going to strike at home or on our way, time spent looking for water, public flogging and being caught between political assassins and kidnappers, Nigerians refuse to give up. They still make time to enjoy themselves. If everyone takes it on, it will be a fast track to depression. Many of us place water on top of our priority. If you can not afford bore hole or regular supply of water, we spend too much time searching around. In face of all these Power Holding Corporation can promise electricity but we cannot hold our breath on promises.
The solution for this pervasive fear in the polity is some goodwill as late Waziri Ibrahim of GNPP used to say it: politics without bitterness. Some of them from each political party need to form a committee pledging to make life sacrosanct no matter what their differences. There is too much violence as it is and contribution to it by politicians make matter worse. If many of us stay away from politics, why can’t we have a peace of mind?
The amount of time politicians spends planning to kill one another show that they would rather use their brain for mischievous ends than devote it to saving the Country from squalor. They are the one training and encouraging dare devils who waylay bullion vans when politicians lay them off. Yet the common people who get killed in the process have never seen or encounter so much money in their life. As the banks graduated into helicopters to transport money, armed robbers would devise way to compliment them.
Poor people cannot travel within the Country in peace; those from Diaspora get sinking hearts as their planes descend into Nigeria air space heading to the sweet home they have been looking forward to. Our daily working paths are full of traps and misadventure spreading into villages. It is with pride to see Nigerians defy all these risks to get some sanity in their life.
Anytime some of us we see a Nigerian long distance runner, we should reflect on our business men and women who swear they can never live outside Nigeria after each trip abroad. We may wonder why a Nigerian would train for a marathon to get a price when most would be satisfied with 100 metre, the shortest distance to get their golden flee. Nigerians are strong and incorrigible, yet only those who are opportunists make the distance in violent endemic society. It is this fear of violence that keeps efficient people away from politics.
Well, there are those who say Nigeria is not as bad as Lebanon or Somali. True but must we wait until it gets worse than what it is right now or do we see and end to our criminal gangs at home? Fortunately or for some consolation, we are not noted for violence crime to make money abroad.
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