“For this end, Africa needs a type of citizen, a dedicated, modest, honest and informed. A man who submerged self in service to mankind. A man who abhors greed and detects vanity. A new type of man whose humility is his strength and whose integrity is his greatness.”-KWAME NKRUMAH
Many Northerners are silent while Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari prejudice government sets a dangerous precedent, removing Southerners in key positions and replacing them with Northerners. When south regains power and same thing occurs, don’t challenge the oppression precedented by the tyrant.
When Major General Muhammadu Buhari started flocking his regime with his kinsmen, townsmen, clansmen and people of his race, sectional and religious backgrounds, many otherwise respected opinion leaders didn’t see what was wrong with it.
Everybody seems shocked by high wave of insecurity in the North and elsewhere in the nation even when it is obvious that over the years that the irresponsible breeding of children, uncaring almajiri system and the short-sightedness of Northern leaders all conspired to raise a generation of young men who are functionally uneducated, unskilled and jobless, and often undisciplined.
The ever growing large number of these young men have always been a time bomb that is waiting to detonate. The adventurous ones left for major towns, stumbled on opportunities and became artisans, maiguards, farmhands, shoeshiners, water-fetchers and Okada riders. Many more got trapped in the village and scraped along. Many of these trapped ones have, obviously turned to violent crimes for survival.
The tragedy in all of these has resulted in banditry, violent crimes and other vices going on in the nation and no northerner Governor or legislature is bold enough to touch the Almajiri issue. The cry for a better society and sustainable development from citizens have always been treated like rants of a recalcitrant child by the Nigerian government.
The truth is this current regime can’t be reasonable either in their actions or what they say. They have demonstrated it time and time again. We have a proactive government when it’s against innocent citizens demanding for their fundamental or human rights. A sleeping one when its against bandits whom are kidnappers that will later become Boko Haram in Fulani Herdsmen in disguise.
Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari government greatest approach to the nation’s woes is being shocked, react, condemn and do nothing. Gov. Abubakar Sani-Bello of Niger on Wednesday confirmed the abduction of 27 students, three staff and 12 family members by gunmen at the Government Science College, Kagara, in Rafi Local Government Area of the state.
With the spate of insecurity and near total collapse of this administration Major General Muhammadu Buhari praise singers insist he is in control of security in Nigeria. Under this regime, peaceful protesters are terrorists. Kidnappers, Rogue killer Fulani herdsmen and any wicked group like Boko Haram operating in any part of the North are bandits. Nigeria is indeed, in dire need of a saviour.
On Wednesday, February 17, 2021 were, the Minister of Defence, Maj. Gen. Bashir Magashi (retd.), said Nigerian should be alert and defend themselves against bandits terrorising their communities. Yet same man is against the ownership of guns by private citizens. While urging Nigerians not to be cowards, Magashi said bandits sometimes attack their victims with a few rounds of ammunition.
The current minister of defence words corroborates and reaffirms that of former minister of defence and elder statesman Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma on 24th March, 2018 when he said, “I ask everyone of you to be alert and defend your country, defend your territory, defend your state. You have nowhere else to go. You have no where else to go.”
The major goal in a country should be to advance the course of social development and to ensure the upliftment of the living standards of the citizens! A country shouldn’t be all about keeping it together, killing and maiming to guarantee it’s existence, to the extent the existence of the country becomes even more important than the existence and quality of lives of the citizens!
The contract is that the state serves the people, and the people fight for the state! A useless country is actually the worst curse to her citizens! The country exists for the citizens not the other way round. In essence, the importance of the country depends on the usefulness of such union to the human beings living in the country.
But here, in this convulsing amalgam, we always talk about Nigeria like an abstract! As if the country exists alone or in a vacuum. It’s as if Nigeria is god, some kind of deity that deserves daily obeisance, irrespective of its alarming shortcomings.
Nobody queries the obviously utter uselessness of the country to her bemused citizens. We fought to keep it one, die everyday to keep it one, struggle to keep it one, yet our lives get worse everyday!
If the country can’t help improve the quality of lives of the citizens and can’t advance the course of social justice, what’s the essence of it’s tortuous existence then? Or are we going to fight another war to reinvent a false union that only works for a totally corrupt bunch of criminal elite? It’s time to wake up and smell the coffee.
NIGERIA IS BLEEDING AND UNDER SIEGE…
Odusanya is the convener of AFRICA COVENANT RESCUE INITIATIVE ACRI.
