In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, at least that is what the Bible says, he created land and sea, the bird of the air and the beast of the field and he looked at his creation and saw that it was good, then he created man and everything went downhill since then. On Tuesday 18th November, a suspected Boko Haram member who tried to detonate a bomb at the Gombe line park, Gombe state was apprehended and burnt to death. The mob that quickly assembled refused suggestions that the bomber should be handed over to the police. Now, this is not a new phenomenon, extra-judicial killings has become very rampant in Nigeria. Certainly, nothing like this happens in any country worthy of respect. We have lost our humanity, we have lost our sanity. Nigeria has returned to the Hobbesian state of nature. In this state of nature, every person has a natural right or liberty to do anything one thinks necessary for preserving one’s own life; and life is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short”.
The reality of our world, first as Africans and second as Nigerians boldly suggest that there is a chronic absence of a supportive fertile soil on which human rights principles can thrive. Against the temptation, I refrain myself from blaming this mob for failing to rise above their primitive urges. Nigeria has been less than fortunate in its leadership. We have placed our lives in the hands of people who have so rudely shocked us and made nonsense of our sane aspirations for a good political system and economic stability. Their greed and corruption has destroyed everything we hold sacred. For malignant reasons, a sect has decided that the best way it can control the nation is through the abduction and destruction of life and property on a large scale and on the other hand is the cult of mediocre whose primary function is to protect life and property of the citizenry but does this with sheer laxity. Life has become so cheap to those who job it is to protect us. As vexatious as these bombings are, especially with the huge casualty figure, they have carried on as if nothing serious happened, the few steps taken by the Government is nothing but a knee-jerk reaction of the moment, nothing strategic. These terrible events will be nothing other than a reference point in the nation’s travail. We can be sure of this; no lessons learnt, nothing in the way of preventing a future occurrence.
The “’national house of embarrassment” is more concerned with boxing, high-jump and karate than with its legislative duties. They sit there every other day, talking rubbish and doing nothing, yet they go home with unbelievable sums of money at the end of their seat-warming sections. In how many ways has the activities of the members of the house contributed to the lots of Nigerians, especially in Yobe, Adamawa and Borno? Yet they still have the guts to openly display their folly and ineptitudes. We are a lawless nation with lawless law makers.
The Refusal of the mob to hand over the suspected Boko Haram member to the police emphasises the criminality and incompetence of the Nigerian police. Security Operatives always complain of citizens not forthcoming with information regarding perpetrators of crime in the society. Do they know the Nigerian public respects and trust armed robbers, kidnappers and even Boko Haram more than them? That is, if Nigerians still have any modicum of trust for force. The police recently used its intelligence report to prevent the speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, from entering the National complex and his attempt to attend meetings but this intelligence source fails them in halting Boko Haram activities. Nigerian police is one of brute force than intelligence. Vigilantes groups and Civilian JTFs have recorded more success than the Nigerian soldiers who seemed to have encouraged the insurgents by running away and leaving villages to be overtaken without a fight. If this is what we will continue to get from our security operatives then we are doomed. Our trillions spent on security is a waste!
Nigerians are simply on the edge, this explains the ease with which some Nigerians lynch and burn suspected criminal. These Nigerians are what they are because their leaders are not what they should be.
With love,
Poison Ivy
