When terrorists attacked Paris, it evoked the
most amazing national and international solidarity movement. It was truly
heartwarming to see the response of the common man on the street and that of
the French government in immediately beefing up their security and hunting down
the perpetrators of this evil. They have not stopped there. They, along with
the other members of the EU, are already looking to putting in measures to
further improve their surveillance of this threat. They have engaged the Muslim
and Jewish communities to again look into inclusion, racism, religious
tolerance and the Ultra Right. They show clearly that whatever the reasons for
what is happening, whatever anybody’s views, they must respond fast in securing
the lives of their citizens. This is the primary function of a state.
The news
of Boko Haram razing of Baga and the killing 2000 people in its wake filtered
in and has crushed my spirit. I use the term “filtered” because if I had not
sought the news, I most probably wouldn’t have heard of the harvest of
destruction and deaths which took place in Nigeria.
The passive mention of the Baga massacre on
BBC’s Outside Source was even
justified by the presenter, who reckoned that the difficulty in getting
accurate information from Nigeria often reduces the potency of events grabbing the
headlines. He is justified; we all know how difficult it is here to get to the
bottom of things! Defense spokespersons have put the death toll in Baga at 150
as against 2000 reported and shown by major international media!
However, nothing justifies why 22 deaths were
more horrific – and trigger a louder international response – than 2000!!! For
too long, the international community has ignored the atrocities going on in
Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states. The people in these areas are terrorized daily;
death, destruction, trauma, grief and hardship have become their new normal.
Our rulers use their lives as political pawns and show no empathy. Is this who
we are?
Countries
around the world rallied round France, its government and its people. They
attracted 60 world leaders to Paris to stand in solidarity and say no, not in
our name. Is the international community’s
response to Nigeria as a result of our own heartlessness at the plight of an
“ethnic” group in the North East?
Why has the international community ignored
Nigeria? The question is in the answer. My initial thought was that outside the
country the extent of the attacks was not fully understood. But that’s just not
the case. The simple truth is that we are being ignored because we do not care.
Life is cheap here. Presidential candidates of the two major political parties
are averaging three states a day campaigning for either “continuity” or
“change”. What continuity, what change? We should allow them to have rallies in
empty stadiums. We should show them that we do not approve. An African proverb
says the owner of a heavy load prompts help by being the first person to lift
it.
It took France 52 hours to track down and neutralize
their attackers. Here in Nigeria, our security forces have killed the leader of
Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, three times and still counting! It took weeks
before government officially accepted that 200+ girls were abducted from their
hostels in Chibok, now they are lying about Baga.
Our
president sent words of condolence and solidarity to the French government; we
begin to imagine who should feel the sense of loss more. When we should be busy
burying our innocent dead, rescuing our abducted citizens, resettling our
displaced persons, we are trending #JeSuisCharlie. An Abuja High Court threw out the case of the
mastermind of one of the deadliest attacks –the Nyanya bomb blast – who was
arrested on the run by Interpol in Sudan, because infighting among our security
agencies resulted in evidence hoarding. I weep.
When the #BringBackOurGirls campaign brought
international attention to our plight, what did our government do? Rather than
leverage it and seek global support against terrorism, presidential spokespersons
and political bootlickers made the campaigners the President’s enemies.
We should
hearken the advice of John Stuart Mill that, “War is an ugly thing but not the
ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings,
which think that nothing is worth war, is much worse. The person who has
nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than
his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being
free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.”
We must dispense with rulers and look for
leaders. Make sure this time we choose carefully and make our votes count, or
there may not be a next time.
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