As if anyone needed to be reminded of the magnitude of carnage we are currently enmeshed in, the attention of the world has once again beamed on the Nigerian state for all the wrong reasons. Of a certaintity, it has become one scourge too many. The killings and siege we are currently facing have reached a crescendo. The latest bombings in Nyanya that claimed over 70 lives is only a rude reminder for all those that are conned by the notion that the Boko Haram war is a battle for the North. The message of this latest killings is clear: if Abuja can be once again be vulnerable, everyone had better sleep with one eye open.
Only this year, the cruel madness have seen over 1,500 civilians arrive at their early graves. These were hapless Nigerians whose only cardinal sin was to be Nigerian. In the midst of the stark reality of poverty, these Nigerians set out to make a living. They were surely the downtrodden, for the very rich will not mill around a motor park, a bus station or be found in a public secondary school in Yobe. These were Nigerians united by their pains, with scars of untold hardship and perennial sufferings. They were defenseless, they were helpless. These were Nigerians who despite their daily hardships, have learn to wake up each morning with the unflinching hope that 'e go better'. Let's not kid ourselves, the vast majority of those that have been affected by the insurgency attacks have been the very wrecked and poor of our society. Again, what exactly were their sins? Obviously, because they were Nigerians.
In saner climes, with all these blood letting and state of tension, politics will be relegated to the background and everyone will seek to forge a way forward. Alas, ours is the reverse. As many innocent Nigerians meet their untimely deaths, our politicians are seizing on the inferno and playing politics on such a critical issue. The PDP and
the APC are trading words, crude politicking is the order of the day, the machinery of governance is trapped with a battle to be in power. Such is how much we have lost our insanity. Be it APC or PDP, the politicians need to take a long look at themselves and tell themselves the home truth that they have not done enough to salvage the situation. It beats reason that in the midst of a salient issue as this, anyone will be talking of winning elections in 2015. It is either these politicians are not humans, or they have sold their soul and conscience to the inordinate quest for fleeting power. The latter seems closer to the truth. Human life as long as it is that of a petty trader selling wares at the Nyanya bus station that was claimed, life goes on. As long as it the life of that 15 years old school boy in Yobe that was terminated, we shed a tear, and move on to the next story. So long as it that unknown 13 years old girl that was abducted in Borno state, we lament and continue our rat race. At best, we rant on social media and on current affairs programs on radio, but we simply move on. It is no gainsaying that the value for human life in our turf has become equated with nothingness.
And then there is the lingering leadership question. Nobody is insinuating that the Goodluck Jonathan adminstration is the cause of the carnage, but, such is the demand of leadership. The bulk always ends up with the leader. It is not enough to declare a state of emergency. This is a war. The current battle confronting our nation is an unconventional one, and only an unconventional, concerted and ingenious approach will do. Without mincing words, the various governors and so called Northern elders have not done enough. They have all failed their people and failed the nation. Our leaders had better stand up to the daunting challenge of leadership, otherwise, they might not have anyone to lead or have any more funds to siphon. Such is the perilous reality facing us.
These are indeed trying times. It beats the imagination what the talk shop that is the National Confab is actually currently deliberating on. We can talk and debate as we like, while Boko Haram are winning the war on us all. This is real. We all had better get serious or else we will have no nation to call our own someday. Desperate times requires desperate actions. Nigeria will flourish again!
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