The Making Of A Dangerous Nation
By
Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye
"Something startles me where I thought I
was safest,
I withdraw from the still woods I loved,
I will not go now on the pastures to
walk..."
-- Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
in the poem, 'This Compost'.
In October 2004, Professor Chinua Achebe
told Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria's "civilian" ruler at the time,
that Nigeria under his watch was unarguably "too dangerous." That was
about five years ago. Today, words would fail anyone, including Achebe
himself, to describe Nigeria's current state.
And if by any stroke of misfortune the
2011 general elections still throws up this same band of (mis)rulers,
whose insatiable greed and obscene display of unearned wealth now
constitute the greatest and most effective incentive for the
prolongation of Nigeria's current nightmare of kidnapping, violent
robberies and ritual murders, what this country will become in the
next few years from now is better imagined.
Penultimate Wednesday (July 15, 2009),
The Nigerian Tribune carried a very brief story
whose significance may have been lost on many people. At 3.00 am on
the Sunday of that week, a thief was caught in the bedroom of Mr. Sule
Lamido, the Governor of Jigawa State. The story, according to the
newspaper, has been duly confirmed by the Governor's Director of
Press, Muhammad Sanu Jibrin.
Before now, who could have imagined that
a thief, any thief, would have been able to violate the sanctity of a
governor's bedroom? But that has now become part of our history. I
won't be surprised to hear tomorrow that a governor or his wife has
been kidnapped and taken to an unknown destination, from the safe
confines of the Government House. Given the horribly complicated
security situation in this failed state we call our country today,
such a possibility already stares everyone in the face.
There is always a huge price to pay when
a nation is left in the hands of an irresponsible and wayward elite to
do the only thing it knows how to do with it, namely, primitively
bleed it pale and callously run it aground. That is today the story of
Nigeria. And the situation is becoming horribly complicated. Those
outsmarted in the grab-and-plunder game have taken up arms to get
their own share of the cake, provoked mainly by the sudden wealth
being flaunted by the "lucky few" with easy access to public funds.
Now, the smell of blood and death hangs
in the air, like a dreaded epidemic! Fear walks on all fours. Yet, the
looters are still busy plundering, hoping to use what they have
accumulated to purchase safety and comfort for themselves in the midst
of death and destruction. What a foolish thought.
Penultimate weekend (July 18, 2009),
Saturday Independent reported the gruesome murder of two
former aides to the Education Minister, Dr. Sam Egwu, at the burial
ceremony of the father of a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain
in Nnewi, Anambra State. A Federal lawmaker, Paulinus Igwe Nwagwu, who
was also hit by bullets from the same gunmen, however, still has his
life intact, and is currently receiving medical attention an
undisclosed hospital. It was even reported that due to "the deadly
onslaught of this gang of killers", Gov Sullivan Chime of Enugu State,
and Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who were already set to
attend the funeral in Nnewi became scared and retreated indoors. Do
you blame them? When a state fails, not even governors or deputy
senate presidents can appear safely in the open, despite the
intimidating security apparatus at their disposal.
And make no mistake about it: this can
only get worse, the political and ruling elite decides that looting
and plundering of commonwealth must not remain inextricably
intertwined with governance, and that Nigeria needs to be healed and
rebuilt and not continuously gang-raped.
Well, the bad (or good) news is that
very soon, treasury looters may no longer find any safe ground to ply
their lucrative trade. The words of British clergyman, Willaim Inge,
may soon come alive to everyone: "A man may build himself a
throne of bayonets, but he can't sit on it." Indeed, no one
can sow the wind, and expect NOT to reap the whirlwind. Nigeria
appears to be the only country where people are busy eating and
drinking poison, and yet wishing to live. Our rulers live their whole
lives destroying the country, and yet wake up each morning expecting
to see it flourishing like a May flower. No, you don't bring home
ant-infested faggots, and expect to be excused from the visit of
lizards. For goodness sake, Nigeria is too young to die. It has never
been this unsafe. And no part of the country is immune.
Two weeks ago, on a Friday, a heavily
armed gang reportedly raided two commercial banks in Nsukka, Enugu
State; they took their time to thoroughly clean out one bank before
moving to the other to repeat the same exercise, killing a Divisional
Police Officer (DPO) in the process. While the reign of terror and
bullets persisted, no form of resistance came from any quarters. When
they were through with the banks, they moved with an even greater
fanfare to the Nsukka Police Station, where all the ill-equipped and
poorly motivated policemen had fled for dear life. Then they opened
the cells, released all the inmates and razed down the police station.
After the robbers had finished their
operations and gone, the Enugu State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO),
Mr. Ebere Amaraizu, told Saturday Independent (probably
from his hideout in Enugu) that the Police Commissioner had dispatched
some more policemen to Nsukka to go and help catch the robbers.
Nigeria, Great Nation, Good People!
Whether we like it or not, the rise of
violent crimes is to a large extent being provoked by the massive,
unrestrained looting going on in public institutions. Time was when
everyone, including criminal elements among us, watched passively as
those in government, their relatives, mistresses and errand boys
became rich overnight and obscenely flaunted their ill-gotten wealth
before every eye that could see. Now the situation has changed.
Those without access to government
coffers now have access to guns. But in their determination to "make
it" like their counterparts in government and politics, they are
unable to achieve reasonable discrimination between those who acquired
wealth by dint of hard work and those who bled the treasury pale. I
have heard it said several times among the populace that if the
robbers and kidnappers would direct their efforts solely on those
carting away public funds, no one would bat an eyelid. It would then
amount to a balance of criminality. They steal from the public; the
thieves and kidnappers steal from them! And so long as those outside
this godless ring remain untouched in the desperation of the two camps
to out-steal each other, no one would complain. Imagine such a
reasoning flourishing in supposedly sane country!
Welcome to Nigeria, a country no one
wishes to slave or die for. Nigeria is like a collapsing House,
cordoned off by the Ruling/Eating Class, who are busy day and night
carting away the much they could before it goes down. No one is
interested in rebuilding it so it could remain for all of us. But the
marginalized out there have taken up arms to force their own portion
out of the looters. There is "war" in the land which might become more
complicated, ensuring that there would be no more places to hide. And
as 2011 approaches, it is bound to get worse.
But why can't we decide today to halt
this massive looting and start rebuilding Nigeria? If graduates get
jobs tomorrow, will they steal and kidnap? We better open our eyes to
the stark reality of today's Nigeria and act fast to fix our country
for the safety of both the ruler and ruled. But if we continue
pigheadedly on this path of perdition, even a blind man can see what
this place will become tomorrow.
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