left some 25 people, mostly students either shot or stabbed to death; to last Saturday’s heart-rendering attack on Government Secondary School in Mamudo village, Yobe state, which according to conflicting reports, left between 29 and 42 children dead in gruesome circumstances, officials have always claimed that government was on top of the situation. That mantra […]
Is government still ‘on top of the situation’?
left some 25 people, mostly students either shot or stabbed to death; to last Saturday’s heart-rendering attack on Government Secondary School in Mamudo village, Yobe state, which according to conflicting reports, left between 29 and 42 children dead in gruesome circumstances, officials have always claimed that government was on top of the situation. That mantra began following the attack on the United Nations building in Abuja.
It is only a myopic few that do not probably have the unity of Nigeria at heart that can still at this point call these incessant carnages in the northern part of Nigeria a Northern-Nigeria problem. It does not take one with eagle eyes to see that Nigeria is strolling on a self-destructive path and our government is not helping matters with its care-free attitude. With ASUP and ASUU indefinite strikes, the government seems to be lending helping hands to devils bent on destroying the nation.
Nigerians have become used to the over-used monotonous catch-phrase of the Presidency: “we are on top of the situation”. This phrase has lost whatever good intent it was intended to have in that the situation might soon (if it has not) be on top of the presidency.
At least one of the dividends expected to be accrued from giving some selected/elected few the mandate to make decisions for the entire populace is security of lives and property; reality on ground makes it clear that the only secured people in Nigeria are the dead.
Until we can walk abroad and re-create ourselves, until we can stroll along the streets like boulevards; congregate in parks; free from fear; our families mingling, our children (the ones not yet slain) laughing; our hearts joined together in brotherhood which should show a sign of unity of purpose in our circumstantial diversity; until we can go out in the morning and be sure of making it back to our homes in the evening; until we can sleep at night without the fear of being woken by sounds of gunshot or bomb blasts; until that day, we do not have a country!
The onus on all of us is to rise up and face the reality that besets us now; to rise up on the wings on these slain angels – those children that committed no evil other than being born in this country at this time. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of tribal and religious sentiments to the solid rock of brotherhood. With strong hope that our government will not just be on top of the situation, but rather grapple with it, fight it with not just physical force, and enthrone peace and tranquillity to make this country, our country, a safe haven for all.
