Re: Tense, harsh life inside Nasarawa refugee camp

I had never voted in all my life of almost four decades on earth but I did during the last general election because I was keen in having some meaningful changes, the same urge which made many Nigerians refuse money politics and voted for candidates who they thought would liberate them. I read with dismay […]

I had never voted in all my life of almost four decades on earth but I did during the last general election because I was keen in having some meaningful changes, the same urge which made many Nigerians refuse money politics and voted for candidates who they thought would liberate them. I read with dismay on page 8 of the Weekly Trust newspaper of Saturday, December 10, 2011 (‘Tense, harsh life inside Nasarawa refugee camp’) and was dazed. I may not frown at the problem that took our brothers and sisters to the camp as such, but I do frown at and reject vehemently the attitude of people in power to the situation and the treatment they mete out to the victims. We know they have a superficial problem but that does not reduce them to beggars who have not got any choices.

If truly the two state governors and the members of their cabinets are serious with serving their people by putting smiles on their faces, now is the time to display their allegiance. But what did we have? Rotten food stuff were taken to them, in fact poison as Victor Giwa, the secretary of the Tiv Youth Organization (TYO) rightly put it. The only consignment of relief materials that got to the camp was rotten and not fit for human consumption.

One wonders if the issue of the rotten food was a coincidence or a deliberate act to mock the people in dire need. The purchase committee or whoever is responsible for the food items should have a case to answer before Nigerians on how they came about the rotten food.  Why should Nigerians always think of reaping when their brothers and sisters are in pains? Nigeria is in serious trouble, people in power do not understand the meaning of the oath of office they swore to or have forgotten.

Shakirah Tiamiyu (Mrs.) wrote in from Dutsen-Alhaji, Abuja.