When a nation becomes a slaughterhouse

I don’t need power at the cost of spilled blood – Viktor Yanukovych The spate of killings across northern Nigeria clearly reveals that the hireling in this noble calling is looking for fame and fun, but certainly not the arduous task he has sworn by the Holy Qur’an to undertake. While Nigerians are losing their […]

I don’t need power at the cost of spilled blood – Viktor Yanukovych

The spate of killings across northern Nigeria clearly reveals that the hireling in this noble calling is looking for fame and fun, but certainly not the arduous task he has sworn by the Holy Qur’an to undertake.

While Nigerians are losing their lives to chronic nightmares like banditry, kidnapping, armed-robbery, ritual killing, Boko Haram and inter-communal violence on a day-to-day basis, the supposedly servant Buhari is in a castle replete with opulence and comfort issuing empty threats and disregarding warnings and giving series of unworkable matching orders to the already exhausted service chiefs.

Scores of women are watching helplessly as their husbands are bludgeoned and butchered; children witnessing how their parents are mutilated and their houses burned to ashes.

Ceaseless cries of anguish from these powerless communities appear to be falling on deaf ears.

The number of families that are facing homelessness has risen to an unprecedented level as a great many of them have deserted their villages.

Calls and some piece of advice given to the president to sack the service chiefs for lackluster performance have gone unheeded.

From the first 10 days of June, Borno alone has witnessed 19 attacks, according to the state’s NSCDC Commander, Abdullahi Ibrahim.

The North is currently meandering on a circuitous journey of bloodshed.

140 persons were reportedly killed in just one week in Borno, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger states.

Sadly, the government is abdicating its responsibility and laying the blame elsewhere.

The president’s failure to address the issue of insecurity equates to abdicating his responsibility to his successor.

Before the president is awakened, the nation has already been bogged down by many challenges beyond his imagination.

Surprisingly, on the eve of electioneering, he displayed so much energy.

He set foot in every single state and entreated Nigerians to extend his contact beyond 2015.

Now he wields enormous power with relish and talk, acting like a cruel omnipotent dictator.

As every dance has its body language, he uses body language to get his message across in exactly the way he wants it.

It was a must-win-at-all-cost situation when President Buhari gave an unprecedented matching order to security agencies to eliminate anyone who made attempt to snatch ballot box.

And now murderers are getting away with their murder and butchery on a brutal scale without getting or facing the wrath of the authority.

This is how Nigerian government places very low premium on human life and safety.

It is a long-established orthodox by our leaders to be slumbered, wrapped in sleep-numbing embrace when it comes to serving the electorate, but put so much energy when they are all-out to retain their juicy seats.

Also, the security agencies are very much effective while on political duty; but always act like an ineffectual buffoon even when occasion calls for protection of lives and property.

Nonetheless, the declining capacity of our security agencies occasioned by lack of motivation ranging from inefficient deployment of available manpower, poor salary to non-payment of allowances is shifting Nigeria from a once peaceful nation to anarchical country.

Section 14 (2b) of the 1999 Constitution clearly states that: “The security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.”

The endless killings of innocent souls confirm that the administration of President Buhari has lost its power of coercion to non-state actors.

These innocent villagers never demanded pipe borne water, constant electric power supply, sound healthcare system from the government; all they need is the state of feeling safe, stable and free from anxiety.

Unfortunately, the government of the day has failed to provide these essentials.

A Hausa proverb says: “Kowa ya sayi rariya, ya san zata zubda ruwa.”

The interpretation is: “Whoever buys a net, knows that it can’t hold water.”

The current captain of the ship exhibited gross incompetence in his first term, but Nigerians deemed it appropriate to extend his contact beyond 2015.

Now the ship is capsizing; those who fought with every ounce of breath in their bodies have gone to low.

Note! They would resurrect when his tenure expires to continue castigating his successor.

Amiru Halilu  wrote in from Kaduna –  [email protected]