The Upper Crust

Killings: Here we go again

 

With Uche Nnadozie

In the last several days, there have been several chilling killings around the country in different states. Delta, Edo, Ebonyi, Kogi, Benue, Plateau, Taraba, Oyo states, etc, the killings are not essentially dissimilar. However, the profile in some cases look a bit different. Most happened in the farms, yet a few were off the farms or forests. In fact, some were adoptions. Others bore vestiges of hateful murders. Like in Kogi, it was more of a slaughter. In Delta, the governor came out to worsen the massacres by declaring that villagers now pay “protection’’ fee to herdsmen in order to have access to their farmlands in their homelands.
If we add the recent murders to the unceasing but chilling massacres since the dawn of the year, then what we have in our hands is enough to halt everything and focus on security. Nigeria, unfortunately has become a slaughter slab. It’s like different versions of gangs have seized the streets and the bushes. They kill for joy and drink the blood of the innocents and government, whose duty is it to provide security as the grund norm for the social contract just have no clue. We are back to where we were pre-2015 general elections. Unfortunately, before 2015, we could put a finger to the carnage. We could point to Boko Haram. Today, we are not sure who is killing Nigerians. Some say herdsmen. Others say Boko Haram. Then again, others say hired assassins. I don’t know.
But what I know is that it is telling that our security apparatus have failed to point us to a particular profile. We can’t say for a certain who’s killing Nigerians. Secondly, the government’s information machinery is dead like ‘dodo’. There’s no concerted effort to keep Nigerians updated, to expel mass fear and engender trust or hope at least. We are at that point where everyone is for himself and God for us all. No one knows whose village is next to be savaged. It is that bad. Government has completely ran out of ideas, not even of intelligence but of communication. Ministry of Information and Culture, National Orientation Agency, NOA, etc are criminally passive. Nothing. So unbecoming.
Part of the problems of the last regime was doubt. They doubted even their own shadow. Instead they played politics with everything even when it was obvious their clueless art of governance was exacerbating the precarious security architecture in the country. This time, the government lacks agenda. They don’t seem to know what to do or how to do it. Things are just left in the hands of providence. But providence does not run a country, men (women) do. And they do it with brain and brawn. We should be tickled by the armada we possess. We should be shown our weaponry. We should bark and bite. We should make examples. We should move in. We should engage the blood thirsty factions. People of the world should not be left with any doubt what our corporate agenda as a country is at a time like this. But..!
Personally, I had expected a fire fight over the stealing of the girls of Dapchi. The effrontery should not have endured more than 12 hours. It should have been one choice. A direct order by the commander-in-chief to damn all consequences and rescue the stolen girls. The order should not mind collateral damage. At some point Nigeria must show its might. Somethings MUST not repeat themselves. One of them is Boko Haram kidnapping girls in large numbers, especially after the president and the army chief had described the group as dead. But we allowed them go away with our girls and all the president can say is that his government prefers to “negotiate’’. I am dumbfounded. This is not the president I voted. This president plays so weak. We have inadvertently opened a kidnapping franchise for groups of filthy men. They can come at us at will…and all we can muster is “negotiation’’. Tears!
As the elections of 2019 draws nearer, it appears the killings will continue. The president has since shown that he’s incapable of firing his staff. Even those who openly assail his powers are retained. Those who betray his trust are elevated. Those who dismiss his orders are summoned to a hearty conversation in Aso Rock. While they tell us its a ‘’query’’, the offenders return to their routine. We record more bloodshed, we witness more deaths. Our farms continue to be killing fields because the president cannot or does not know what it means to bring urgency into a matter that requires urgency. When your country men, women and children fall to the bullets of evil marauders and your security chiefs in spite of all the antidotes they presented to you fail to arrest the situation, the best door they deserve is the exit door. But this president has no sort of balls.
However, it is not until we are all dead before this president does something. The National Assembly can come in to stem this. NASS is in a great position. They have legislative sanctions they can use. The people too can organise. Protests and strikes are legitimate tools of dissent in a democracy. I do not like how things are going. We cannot afford to regularly bury our country men and women on account of massacres perpetuated by ‘’unknown’’ gunmen. From January to December: unknown gunmen! So why do we pay all these security agencies? And please do not tell me about herdsmen. don’t even try to put Fulani as a prefix. The moment you do that you lose the argument. The people killing Nigerians are terrorists. Their aim is to cause sufficient fear among the populace for possible political gains. Our security and intelligence agencies should identify these people. Enough of playing cheap and playing to the gallery. Nigerians’ lives matter.

Show More

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Check Also
Close
Back to top button