I have read a couple ofarticles on why the north is under siege, one from a security expert and the
other by a police officer. They were both right in their accounts of thereasons we are beleaguered by the elements of doom, who do not know any valuein human life.What they don’t or didn’t remember to say was that the siege is orchestrated by the enemies of the unity, progress and development of Nigeria, who have held the majority poor of the population hostage over the decades, in a culture that has permeated the lives of even the victims of the perpetrated evils by the few, for selfish, overriding, wicked interest, which is that they must live mighty above everyone else, at all cost, in all conditions and no one, not even God dares to stop them.
What they didn’t say wasthat the siege is not on the North alone. It is a siege on the nation, exceptyou tell me that our bound in a federation is a joke. If we are tied by commonleadership and many other symbols together identified as Nigeria, forget it, weare also bound by fate. And what goes around comes around.
The first reason is the fact we have confirmed through the cruel culture of silence. Where are the advocates of the development of this country? my heart bleeds that among them are scholars of diverse background; leaders of thought who knew this country from the scratch.
We only inherited theliterature and read little to know the fact that actually same parents whoburnt the fingers of their kids when reported stealing and taught studentsstealing are bad are actually in support of the silence of doom on all thedestructives.
Do some parents stillpunish little ones over little theft and beat them over stealing from theirpurse? Why? What for? When we support public decline of good habits and culture,why do we harden the kids over something they will soon lose to theneighbourhoods? Why?
There are actually anumber of reasons we have come to this point of The Siege.
And they are things we door don’t do over the years that cumulated to this tangle. Why are wecomplaining about the insecurity again? Is it double standards?
The idea that insecurity should only consume those we hate and spare us, our people? Well such an idea had angered God in history and punished those who tried to be smart, and now, may be; this is well also a curse, because you don’t dare God and go free.
The first thing is what weidentified above. We are a common people, with common destiny, but we takepleasure in forcing and rearing things that divide us and ignore those thatunite us, simply because certain persons among us are abusing our respect andloyalty in grand betrayal of trust to ensure that division in which lies theiradvantage for political and economic hegemony against collective interest.
There are peaceriskbehaviours in the families, the neighbourhoods and practices in thecommunities, encouraged, sponsored and funded by some bad element patrons; somebad parents seen innocent from the overt, but are silently orchestratingtrouble, violence and destructives in the neighbourhoods. And because they arenever suspected, they go with everything.
There are the bad parentswho raise their kids to be rude, disrespectful, and offensive to others on thestreet. They like the kids to invite trouble for them to shirk it off asbravery in the neighbourhood.
They are known for lovingtheir kids all through, and this culture is where they land them. They areagents of doom – sadists – if you like, whose believe is that whatever that ishidden is not open to accountability. Their own God doesn’t actually see.
We are typically a wickedpeople, irrespective of our sections of the divides we come from; no matter theeducated, the learned, the Godly and pious.
We have each foundadvantages in the misfortune of public interest on which we base our lives andwould not want anybody, policy, thing or leader to tamper with the way we baseour lives, no matter the wrongs with us.
We have moved from takingpleasures in the misfortunes of other humans members in the custody of thefamily, the ward, the work place, the community, the ministry, the LGA, thestate and the nation to mocking them and even celebrating their failures, theirlosses, their victimisation, sickness and even death. And we take the gossips,the mockery, round, ourselves.
That is why even when arelation is sick, we make sure they are not well treated until they die we willpull the bags of money to celebrate their demise, and in some cases it is themoney of the deceased we hid from their healthcare that we use to sponsor thepost death parties.
And we think that the Godwe worship doesn’t see all this injustice to ourselves or that He simplydoesn’t bother. Sometimes you wonder if Nigerians’ believe in God is actuallytrue and if they really believe there is accountability in another life as theypreach?
Whatever befalls another human, it is nearyour door. It is only a matter of time. This is an assertion that we hearoften, but it is always ignored, and our ways just get worse.
The second reason is the stubbornhabit in us as a collective. Even when our hands are burnt in a fire, we willstill dare to put them the remnants of the hands in another. It is simply ourstubborn refusal to change that is coming back at us.
We have derailed from therail of humanity for a long time now, with our lives getting rather lower. Noone takes responsibility. We shift it all on the system, different government, andother parties in the opposition, regions, and tribes.
No one remembers that the system, the tribe,the governments, the parties and all the organs we blame in the system areactually driven by us, because it is humans, Nigerians that work in them.
If the human doesn’tchange, the system doesn’t. In any case if you come this far trying somethingstupid that fails all the years and under different governments, why don’t weeach look at the mirror.
That is reason with allthe changes in different governments over the years, policies didn’t work, ordidn’t work well; the economy stagnates,; the society devaluates; thegovernment hijacked by my whims and your caprices which can never be servicedto your satisfaction and mine, because it is all vanity.
Then we came to the crossroad, where we either push to improve or push to perish. Every one of us wascomplaining things are bad even before now, and things have to, mustchange.
And then with prayers andby the mercy of God we found the true meaning of a determined leadership andcommitted government, dashed to Nigeria courtesy of the victims of the crueltyof our life as a people – the poor and weak, women and children; theunderprivileged and the handicapped.
It is at their mercy thatwe have come to this stage. And if you think these times are worse, know thatis called, Godordered ‘revenge of the poor’ you have abused, humiliated to theedge of life, denying them rights and everything life needs. It is harvesttime.
Everybody was shoutingchange until government meant it well and came up with its programme, “ChangeBegins with Me”. On the very day of the launch, some of us rose to ask: how cana government that promised us change demand change from us? God have mercy. Sowe are serious we want change but we don’t want to change?
What did you do with theopportunity? Knowing the fact that for government to make progress and move inour ways, we must change our ways. That is the only idea for change.
God knows by the holybooks, by all theories, by all research findings that it is the only way. Butwhere is the change? Who is talking change now? What do we do with the agendaof change?
What followed was the reclaim of same badattitude, shortchanging of any one, the government or the system on thesimplest opportunity we get. Our attitude of government still remains it mustservice our ego, whims, region, tribe, village or anything about ‘me’ and youas individuals.
And that is the self that keeps destroying us as a people, because as individuals we are too bad and as a people we are worst because we never come over genuine issues to take home.
We are the West’sopposite. Individually, Americans and even Israelis are good persons. It istheir systems that are selfish, greedy. That was because they submerged theirpersonal interests under the systems’ interests in order to empower and developthe systems.
Now that the systems arestrong and powerful, they pay individuals more than they invested in them. Inour case, the neighbourhood must remain poor and even if it must give uswithout getting, it must spark fire and violence because we have denied iteverything and it has lost everything to a point of extreme overbalance.
And still, as thingsdeteriorate, we still deny that we need to give the system first. The only waynow is to invest ideas, patience, habits, and moral values in the families,communities and the system in order to rebuild them so we can grow and thesystem will begin to be stable, peaceful and helpful in due course.
The self can never be serviced to satisfaction at the expense of common interest because GOD is not a cheat. You cannot take yourself, personal interest above the interest of others who share equal rights and opportunity from the very system you want to own for live, instead of changing to help it work for everyone.
We woke up this week tothe inaugural of the Northeast Development Commission. The hopes we read every daysince the inaugural by the President are impossible.
It is sad that those hopes are bent on thesame old idea that it will turn out things in magic ways, or it will begin toput food on the table and sweep the homes of everyone in the northeast.
That was a Commissionmeant for rehab of the displaced. But see how the welltodo are usurping thechances of employ, contracts. Ok. Yes. No problem. Some persons must workthere.
Things are pushed by them.But my fear is the possibility some of us go there with the same old mind thatrefuses to change: to work to get more than that is due to them; to shortchangethe needy targets by hoarding foods/materials/money away from the centres, theroutes and the sites.
What manner of individual capitalismdo we practise? In a cruel capitalists’ whim in a system that works onpragmatic economic ideas and not pure capitalism? No?
Now we have pushed it to apoint where someone of the west is asking if capitalism is still worth it as aneconomic system. We have outgrown our ego and selfish interest out of thehighest capitalist sensation and we ended up at a point of no return or nopoint of easy, safe return.
And then the third reason,which is gross disrespect to disrespect to leadership or what we know as,‘constituted authority’. This comes as one of the many divine principles thatwe threw out of our lives by just saying them.
We have not helped thisgovernment, much after the poor – yes, the poor because capitalists neverwished it came on board, sorry. Few of us obeyed its policies, directives andfollowed its ways, with many still praying.
But those who obeyed arethe powerless. A lot of powerful are actually working against the tides. Thecurse on our disobedience are the various sources of the marks of fear,poverty, lack off/limited fruits farmingwe have witnessed and we are likely to witness this season.
It is a promise of God.That when you establish a value against His orders and wish, you will pay insuch ways. And we have all been paying. Everybody is a target now. If some ofus were thinking business as usual, there is need for a review. It is now goingplaces and including everyone.
But why should a victim ofthe failed system suffer same siege after all their years of suffering? It isbecause they watched things deteriorate. They didn’t look, care, resist, orfought to stop evil.
They support the bad, theevil, and the thieves. They backed lies and falsified truths. They denied theright of the cheated and rewarded the cheats with handsome share of thevictims.
These are common issues insociety but they are covered by the dirty, dark cloth of hypocrisy to shuteveryone – victims and witnesses silent forever.
And the system’s inabilityto give back justice on rare reported matters has not changed under a new orderof change. So life continues as usual.
But as we continue in thisvicious cycle of recycling the same old attitudes like before, we should notcomplain about the insecurity around us, because we are our own insecurity.
It is your habit that can secure you or not.Don’t expect it from Government. Your only option is to change. And now.
Meanwhile, stop beating that child for little offences. Knock your own head instead.
Hassan Alhaji Hassan can be contacted on 08032829772/08050551220 (text only with full names and address)a[email protected]
The views expressed in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect WikkiTimes’ editorial stance.
