They are desperadoes per excellence. Their bodies, spirits and souls tell that much. Their actions, inactions and body language aptly confirmed it. They are in dire need of identity and support.
But their approach is awkward. The reason they are getting it wrong. In an effort to make up, they sink. They find themselves in deep shit. It’s one day many troubles.
Their insistence that religion does not matter now is strange. And they keep on fumbling. Religion is it a lot in Nigerian politics. If not, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) will not be labouring hard to sell its Muslim-Muslim candidate.
You can’t shift the goal post at your convenience. That’s a foul play. In fact, religion is one major pillar of our awkward politics. You probably can’t find it in any sane clime but ours. You deny that to your greatest peril.
Let’s be bold enough. Let’s talk truth to our senses. What portion does a bishop have in the unveiling of a party’s candidate? Absolutely nothing!
Bishops’ portion is in the church. It is their market place. That is where they conduct their business. It is trespassing, misdemeanour herding bishops to a political rally. They have no viable business being there. That is why they were derided as “unknown godmen.” It all the same enriched our rapidly growing political lexicon.
We get things mixed up easily. In the process, we mess ourselves up thoroughly. Governance is not all about politics and politicking. It’s essentially about policy implementation. Nothing else.
Yes, you use politics and politicking to secure power. Partisan politics ends there. You ought to move on to the more serious business. And that’s the business of policy implementation.
Politician who knows his onions will fret not at policy implementation. On this, our species of leaders fails woefully. And still derailing! They keep on drumming it to our ears; that they’re for nobody. They couldn’t have been more correct.
Sampler: University students were forced home more than six months ago. Poor them. Courtesy; strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The Federal Government feigned complete ignorance. Its officials fumbled all the way. They made the whole issue very untidy. They rub it on us with reckless impunity.
Pity! Our children rot away at home. Theirs thrive in private and foreign universities. Ours are decaying. Theirs are graduating in flying colours.
Worst still, you see pictures and images of their graduations. They flaunt them blatantly. Governors, senators, ministers, top government officials are the real culprits.
Their pictures flood every space, traditional and social media. No breathing space. Very nauseating and irritating!
Our leaders are grossly insensitive. They’re blind, deaf and dumb. They leave right things undone. They abandon their duties and responsibilities to our detriment.
This is taking heavy tolls on us. Help! We are being boxed to a terrible corner. The situation is critically under alarm. It is slipping away, out of control.
These resilient terrorists are closing in with the speed of light. They have become more daring and brazen. They are making good their boasts. They’re speedily actualising their threats. There is no stopping them soonest.
Determined and dogged. Their relentlessness is paying off. Handsomely too. They are fast turning the table against us. That is our greatest fear.
Their tenacity is unmatched. You would marvel at their audacity. They boldly took the fight to the President’s home state. Right in Katsina, they hit hard.
President Muhammadu Buhari’s advance team convoy was waylaid. That same day in the night they returned to Abuja. The Kuje Prison attack was a huge plus for them. It was a seamless, smooth operation.
The near zero government response became a boost for them. The terrorists would not ignore that carelessness. It was an unsolicited gesture. And they cashed in richly on it. It was one big loophole. No terrorist would choose to overlook such an encouragement. They intensified the onslaught siege on Abuja.
Peace has literally eluded Abuja suburbs of Kuje, Kwali, Bwari, Gwagwalada and Abaji. Our security agents have gone AWOL. They are usually not sighted. The fear of terrorists has become the beginning of their wisdom.
That informed the hasty shut of all government schools in Abuja. It was a panic measure by a frightened regime. Students were hurriedly sent home on indefinite vacation.
Then the ultimate! What we dreaded most happened. Our collective fear became a stark reality. It was on Sunday night.
A distress call from the Nigerian Law School, Bwari, Abuja, did it. The Guards Brigade responded promptly and dutifully. That was expected and highly commended.
It deployed its men and officers. It was a duty call. The distressed needed to be rescued, urgently. They hit the road, taken all the required precautionary steps.
Sadly, the measures failed them. They ran into the bloody waiting arms of terrorists. It was an orchestrated ambush. And that did them in. They realised it pretty too late, perhaps.
All the same, they fought back. They refused to go down so cheaply. It was a surprise assault. When the dust settled, casualties were heavy.
Lives were wasted and many others injured. Two officers and eight soldiers paid the supreme price. That was the last count. Quiet enormous. Those gallant souls were lost forever.
The officers were identified as Captain Samuel Attah and Lieutenant Ibrahim Suleiman. All indigenes of neighbouring Kogi State. Their families lick wounds while life goes on.
They never for once pretended what they wanted. They are clear and unambiguous. We were adequately warned. They told us in clear terms:
“This is our message to the government of Nigeria. Just as you have seen these people here, by God’s grace, you will see your leaders; your senators and governors will come before us. These ones you are seeing here, we will keep some as our slaves and sell them off just as our Imam told you in the past.
“Just like the Chibok girls that were sold off, we will equally sell these ones as slaves. If you don’t adhere to our demands, we will kill the ones we need to kill and sell the remaining.”
Then, the mother of them all: “By God’s grace, el-Rufai (Governor, Kaduna State), Buhari, we will bring them here.” See the intrepidity, the fearlessness. It’s simply uncanny.
We can’t pretend we didn’t hear them well. We dare not claim we didn’t understand them either. But what did do? We elected to remain timidly unperturbed.
Buhari even opted to do the unthinkable. He found it extremely compelling to jet out to Liberia. Pretending to join experts, yes, to jaw-jaw on insecurity! When your whole house is on fire. He refused to quench it. He rather chose to discuss it outside the country. What uncommon (tragedy?) strategy!
This government is overwhelmed on all fronts; and in all sectors. Terrorists pushing from the bush are putting Nigeria on edge. We are on the brink. Tragic!
These bandits are closing on us by the seconds. They’re expanding their territories. Ours continue to shrink drastically. We’re being pursued morning, afternoon, evening.
No respite. No breathing space. No relief. We are at a calamitous crossroads. Where will our help come from?
The biblical Psalm 122; 1-2 came handy: “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.”
And that seals it favourably for us!