CORRUPTION AND TERRORISM

A Nigerian proverb says insofar as the last louse has not been killed in the hair, the fingers cannot be rid of bloodstains. I say this to underscore how we must keep talking and acting on our security challenges until we find a common solution to them. We cannot trade blame and behave in a bipolar fashion and yet expect success. Society is only successful because we agree to cooperate with one another. What happens when this cooperation is lost; when this social contract is breached? When it breaks down, people take the law into their own hands. That is when we get anarchy; that is when we get terrorism or whatever we may wish to call it.

BOKO HARAM is the monster that has been created by the inequity of our society. We need to address this situation now or they will win, because the continuing inequity feeds them. It seems to me that they are the winners here. What they seek is attention and that is what they are getting. From the president of the United States wife, his wife, Michel Obama, to the British Prime Minister David Cameron, everyone is holding up posters saying #BringBackOurGirls. Not that this is bad; after all it has drawn the world to our government’s inability to deliver on its first constitutional responsibility – protecting us.  Boko Haram revels in the spotlight, they bask in the euphoria of the global platform we’ve accorded them free of charge.     

It is one thing for global figures and celebrities to post Twitter and Facebook pictures using Nigeria’s most viral hash tag, but what do they achieve by this?  Their intervention should include putting the Nigerian government under constant, consistent and continuous pressure to spend those security votes they have been amassing for themselves wisely by protecting the nation that they have sworn to protect. I know that if this situation had occurred in Europe, and the girls were little white girls, the news would be on 24/7 until those girls were found and all the analysis in the world would take place to investigate the root cause of such an evil barbaric act. Although even Boko Haram or we have managed to get this to the attention of the international community, I am not sure that we appreciate the gravity of what has gotten us here. 

The residents of Borno live increasingly in fear and tension. We should not feel removed at all from Chibok the village. It could be our city tomorrow. Have we taken time to ask ourselves: “Why is it that these girls ready for WAEC exams (O’ levels) cannot speak English?” They are barely articulate. Are they taught in English? What quality of education are they getting? This is true of schools all over Nigeria.  What does this have to do with the state of mind of the average citizen in Borno?

We should hearken to Ayn Rand’s statement: “When you see that trading is done, not by consent but by compulsion, when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing, when you see money flowing to those who deal not in goods but in favours, when you see that men get richer by graft and pull than by work and your laws don’t protect you against them but protect them against you, when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self sacrifice, you may know that your society is doomed.”

Let us see if we as a people have learnt a lesson from the awful situation in which these children find themselves. Let us hope that it will act as a wake-up call to all Nigerians that we need to pull our socks up and start to do things properly.  Remember that we are a sovereign nation. There is so much that outsiders can do for us, short of inviting them into our country to take over our affairs. We are all aware of the dangers of that. In fact it seems that that imperialist mentality is exactly what our government, our colonial monkeys are practising that has gotten us to where we are today.

And in all of this, who is the loser? You and me. We should not allow them and any other copycat body that is watching to feel that they can. The schools are closed, parents and children terrorised and living in fear, their faces all over the international media for the wrong reasons. This is not about religion or ethnicity. It is about good governance. We cannot leave our fate in the hands of politicians; we have seen their hands. We need to demand answers always and keep this marching culture alive; otherwise the terrorists will come and will march all over us. #BringBackOurGirls. 

WE MUST STILL MARCH

We MUST still march because it is about time that Nigerians get more involved in what is happening around them. We need more people to get out of their houses, offices and cars and INTERVENE! We are being led by a group of incompetents even if some good people are among their number. As a government at any level they have been unable to get their act together, and put public interest and even enlightened self-interest before their selfish interest and partisan politics. Look at the result.

Robbers, kidnappers, terrorists, looters and rapists don't ask first what tribe you are from or what religion you practice before they strike. We are ALL at risk. It is Chibok today; it could be Ijanikin in Lagos State tomorrow. No school is safe! Whether it is one girl or 200 girls the fact remains that our female teenage students are being targeted and neither their institutions nor their government can protect them.

Imagine shutting down the economy of our capital for three days to host the World Economic Forum! The irony is that the theme of the forum is youth empowerment, yet they cannot even protect our youths while they are still in school not to mention empowering them. Ridiculous! Perhaps this timing is perfect and SHAME will force them to take REAL and CONCRETE steps instead of just setting up yet another committee. Meanwhile all economic activities have been shut down in Abuja as they are having an economic summit. Is this not a joke? This is an opportunity to show what small economic activities we have but no. They shut us down. They stop us from working, from earning a living.

Nigerians, wake up. Meet with your neighbors and decide how you will protect yourselves, visit your local police station head and ask what precautionary security measures have been put in place in your area. Report 'hot spots' where people hang about all day drinking, doing drugs and gambling. Keep reporting them until they are SHUT DOWN. Alert your gateman and local tradespeople to spot strangers and challenge them about what they are doing in the area. Do not take the law into your own hands but be alert and report anything suspicious.  Our lives and safety are in OUR own hands, no one else's – clearly.  

The next step is to STRIP all those politicians of their security votes and transfer the money to State Police Commands instead. We should fight for this. The commands are local to us and we will thereby be able to monitor it better. This security vote system has obviously become a tool of corruption perpetrated by our politicians. The insecurity we are experiencing is a result of diverted funds. That money should go to the people who have the duty and training to keep us safe and are putting their lives at risk every day to do so.

Anyone stealing police welfare or pension money should receive the maximum sentence!

There is no point 'facing your front' - doing your job, running your business - to make a living that can be seized from you at any moment; to send children to school who can be abducted any day; to enjoy yourself when a bomb can blow you up any time.

And don't be discouraged or allow your cynicism about the noises different politicians are presently making to discourage you. Make SOME effort. I marched to The Three Arms Zone on May 5th, 2014, what did you do about the security situation in our country? Imagine if one of those kidnapped girls was yours. Would you be able to sleep now? I would not. Imagine if you were at the Nyanya bus station. We cannot live like this.

The rest of the world is outraged and are demonstrating on our behalf. They say that charity starts at home. Please stand up and let us fight for our survival. We should let the government know that their primary function is to secure us and if they cannot do that then they have no business leading us. Say NO to incompetent and uncaring governments, and say NO to Boko Haram.

Russian Roulette

Captain Lee Joon-seok, who anchored the Sewol ferry that sank in South Korea, ordered the passengers to stay put in their cabins, despite an earlier warning for the ferry to be evacuated. His orders were obeyed because he was trusted as a leader. Lee did not only betray the trust reposed in him by endangering the lives of those on board, most of who are school children, he also shirked taking his responsibilities as a leader by abandoning ship while others were left to their fate. The few passengers who escaped alive either did not hear or flouted Lee’s instruction founded on poor judgment of an imminent danger.

The president of the country, Park Geun-hye, said the actions of some the captain and some crew members of ferry were tantamount to murder. "Above all, the conduct of the captain and some crew members is unfathomable from the viewpoint of common sense, and it was like an act of murder that cannot and should not be tolerated,” she said. They were arrested, and are expected to face trial. The vice principal of the high school which lost 339 students and teachers in the mishap was so overwhelmed with guilt and a sense of duty that he committed suicide. He just could not live with the reality that his charges perished while he lived. How could he look into the eyes of their parents? He had a conscience. May his soul rest in peace.

Here in Nigeria, three tragedies befell us in quick succession (two of them on the same day) and our response has cold, to say the least. Some weeks ago, the minister of interior, Abba Moro, and the comptroller general of the Nigeria Immigration Service, David Parradang, failed the nation by conducting an insensitive, exploitative and murderous recruitment exercise that got young Nigerians killed and many more wounded. They are still in office and accept no responsibility for the tragedy. The latter is even on the campaign train of the president, dancing Kukere and making merry on the podium with the full knowledge that, though he has failed in the discharge of his duties to Nigerians and has hurt their trust, he didn’t have to take responsibility.

As we are all aware, and as projected in the National Security Adviser’s Soft Approach to Countering Terrorism, there are many pull and push factors responsible for the insurgency we are witnessing today. The impunity of our leaders and their inability to take responsibility are factors being exploited by the terrorists. They have now resorted to bombing bus stations in Abuja and kidnapping school children, knowing full well that no one at the top truly really cares. Rather than look at what we are doing wrong and how we can flush out this evil, the police instead scaled down the number of casualties of the tragedy while its spokesperson advised Abuja residents to “avoid crowded areas”. If you stay in the shantytowns from Nyanya to Masaka, how do you avoid crowded areas? When you put a checkpoint on the main road that creates ‘go slow’ while hawkers ply their trade, how do you avoid a crowd? Their utterances were laughable if only we were not crying already.

So far the security forces have made no headway in investigating the disappearance of our children. The one statement they made on it turned out to be false. That the parents of the girls are braving security risks and searching for their children themselves is an indictment on the military high command.  The minister of state for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, wants us to be grateful to the military for accepting that it misinformed Nigerians. How do over 200 girls disappear without a trace? How did 40 escape? Can they give no insight into their ordeal? Or are they children or friends of the kidnappers who were released? Did they run back from Chad or Niger? Or is all this a game that toys with our lives?

The stark contrast with the action of the Koreans shows how far Nigerian society strays in the opposite direction it’s therefore not our fault. This mentality has made it difficult for us as a people to tackle challenges and forge ahead. Our response is pathetic. The security agencies have now resorted to cordoning themselves off from the public, while we are left exposed to a clear and present danger. Bullet-proof cars are now in high demand, while another bomb blast has gone off in Nyanya, killing yet another countless number of souls. The national conference should bring this to the fore of our discussion and make sure something is done.