When the self-styled Islamic State (IS or ISIS) released a video
showing the gruesome murder of a Jordanian pilot in its captivity, Jordan’s
response as a government and people did not fall short of expectations. King Abdullah
cut short his trip to the USA to mourn and show solidarity with his countrymen.
His wife, Queen Rania, led the campaign for justice (pretty much similar to
what the #BringBackOurGirls campaigners are doing here, only that our
government sees them as enemies). The official statement from the Jordanian
government was: “We will avenge every strand of hair on the late pilot’s head!”
And that is what they are doing.
We have seen the response of Britain and the US to similar
Kidnappings and murders of their citizens by ISIS. “Jihadi John”, for instance, a British citizen
in the ranks of ISIS has been unveiled. The British government did not rest
until it tracked down the identity of Mohammed Emwazi and placed a name and
face to his voice. Now he is exposed and the intelligence dragnet, you can rest
assured, will do everything possible to neutralize such threats in the future.
This is a government!
In our case, the government was not sure of what information to
disseminate in the wake of the kidnapping of 200+ Chibok school girls. Their
first response was to deny the incident, claiming that it was fabricated to
embarrass the government of President Goodluck Jonathan. Can you imagine? They
have just done this again with the fuel scarcity. Then, the Theris-God-o video of the president’s
wife’s show of shame went viral. Lest we forget, there is also the grilling
given ex-minister of information, Labaran Maku, by CNN’s Isha Sesay. Do our leaders
look as if they care or know what they are doing?
Thanks to the effort of the #BringBackOurGirls campaigners (may
God continue to bless you all), the issue attracted global attention and the
Nigerian government suddenly had to be seen to be doing something. Yet, almost
365 days after, we haven’t heard anything. We have no information on their
status, whether they are dead or alive, where they are. We do not have any
intelligence on the kidnappers. Rather than profile prominent members of the
terrorist group, all we do is kill Shekau three times and want him alive the
fourth time! Is there no intelligence about Boko Haram, who they are and what
makes them tick?
My conclusion is that our lives are not worth much in the eyes of
our leaders. Around the world, many are beginning to realize that our
government cannot protect us; that our lives mean nothing. Thank God for Niger,
Chad and Cameroun. The Chadian president has stated unequivocally that a lot
more could have been done a lot earlier, if the Nigerian government had allowed
it, hadn’t deliberately put impediments in their way. What has changed?
They have come to the realization that they can lose the elections
unless something positive is done. But are we deceived? Yesterday, the Vice president in a desperate bid, called
for the elections to be conducted without using the card reader. This is the
device produced at great expense to the tax payer, to authenticate the PVC
holder. The card reader will ensure that the holder and the card are genuine
and will negate or reduce the instance of rigging. The PDP have been slow to
appreciate that INEC has actually made giant strides since the last elections
to stop as much as possible the incidence of rigging.
After 54 years of our independence, it
is possible at last for change to be effected, not violently by the military in
a coup d’état but with people power through the ballot box, with real votes counted,
yours and mine. We can for the first time actually achieve free and fair
elections and have a say over who leads us. We cannot allow for anybody to tell
us that authenticating who a citizen is constitutes electronic voting. The
accreditation exercise does not allow for anyone to rig the votes counted and
renders useless any PVCs that have been stolen.
We are important and can vote in or
remove anyone that is not securing our lives and welfare. This can change the
way business is done in Nigeria forever. It is for this reason that suddenly the Northeast
has become a Mecca of sorts for the president and his officials. Closed-door
meetings at the Villa with parents of the Chibok girls are now frequent, just
because elections are around the corner.
But a leopard never changes its spots and the fact that they have
just forced through Obanikoro, a man fingered for election fraud, to the
position of minister is just a forerunner of what we are to expect.
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