A nation in need of men
They have strong allies in the rulers of today who chose the unholiest of seasons to inflict unprecedented hardship on the nation – the very people they claimed voted them into power. They lie by the whiff; surreptitiously changing the goalpost when men are asleep. What sort of rulers steal the joy of a nation […]
They have strong allies in the rulers of today who chose the unholiest of seasons to inflict unprecedented hardship on the nation – the very people they claimed voted them into power. They lie by the whiff; surreptitiously changing the goalpost when men are asleep. What sort of rulers steal the joy of a nation on New Year’s Day, a time of strenuous economic and security challenges? Only seven days before they bombed the nation with unprecedented hardship, their colleagues, emotional robbers detonated explosives as their own Christmas hampers.
The Madalla blasts killed not just the targeted Christians, but innocent Muslim passerby. If they believe they are martyrs, they went to the hottest part of hell by burning right from the earth. They and their sponsors would never find a peaceful rest. With true leadership, Nigeria ought to be mourning. But Goodluck Jonathan displayed as he has consistently done, that he has no iota of human feeling; he decked himself in his sunday best and sheepishly went to another church to worship. Not only does he and his cabinet lack the logic to put the nation together, they lack the words to rally a people under siege. Imagine a president telling his people that they would get used to bombs the way they have acculturated with armed robbery?
And to show his grand capacity to inflict maximum pain and discomfort, he fouled the air he promised to deodorize by withdrawing the over-orchestrated subsidy on New Year’s Day, a time it would have the maximum effect. A time when half of the country left their base to exchange goodwill with friends and family. Not only is he toying with his capacity to inflict pain and despair, he is experimenting with the greatest sadness for the greatest number. This man plays God by sitting comfortably in Abuja where he enjoys the filthy lucre that his stolen mandate allows him – free food, free fuel and relative security.
On that New Year morning, he arranged with his minions to attend a town service, singing and clapping while his heart is filled with bile towards his citizenry. In his harangue, not a mention was made to the socio-economic horror he has just unleashed on the nation. When news of his wicked policy filtered and those who earlier blessed him began to curse him, he had the temerity to Tweet that their curses would amount to nothing because, he has been blessed by one of the most revered leaders of his faith.
Its incredible that this man is a classical epitome of Prophet Jeremiah’s allusion – the heart of man is evil and desperately wicked, who can know it (Jer 17:19). This president has cemented the foundation of hatred among siblings and is gradually leading us to the events of pre-1966. His subtle campaign stratagem and pronouncements severed the nation’s cord of geographical and religious compass. But in the midst of it all, he smiles sheepishly having fun on the calamity he inflicted on the nation. Not imbued with the capacity to rally people with words or action and feeling totally non- accountable to none.
He is fast turning revered institutions into skeletons. At one point in this country, when all else fails, people rush to barracks for safety. No more. They go to the army barracks to test their sense of freedom of association, no more. The Jonathan presidency is so bereft of ideas and lacking in impact on all fronts that Nigerians could have asked God to return Sani Abacha.
This man is a commander of mischief from whom the rump of the police are borrowing dangerous tactics. With the examples of the occupy movement on one hand, and the Arab Spring on the other, youths armed with placards took to the streets. Except in Abuja where police rough-handled them on the first day, it was largely peaceful. But when some people chose to occupy Kano, the police kept watch in the day only to turn on them at night. The innuendo is simple – if they attacked them in the daytime, cameras are there to make sure it goes viral, at night when people are sleeping, who will capture the faces of the cowards?
With this level of wicked ingenuity, how are we sure that Boko Haram is not our government trying to justify its chunky security vote in this year’s budget? How are we sure these looters would not put their long throats over and above the continued unity of this nation? They never sit down to ask if by the time the party is over, there will still be a nation for their children. They may be above board today, untouchable in their own sight, but so did Zine Abidine Ben Ali, Hosni Mubarak and Muammar Gadaffi. There is always a day of reckoning no matter how long the darkness there is always the dawn of day. In the meantime, Nigeria needs gallant men to checkmate the antics of these wicked cowards; who, stripped of the weapons of brutality that surrounds them, would pee when asked to dare go to Wuse market.