I have read a couple of articles 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 the reasons we are beleaguered by the elements of doom, who do not know any value in 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 was that the siege is not on the North alone. It is a siege on the nation, except you tell me that our bound in a federation is a joke. If we are tied by common leadership and many other symbols together identified as Nigeria, forget it, we are 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 the literature and read little to know the fact that actually same parents who burnt the fingers of their kids when reported stealing and taught students stealing are bad are actually in support of the silence of doom on all the destructives.
Do some parents still punish little ones over little theft and beat them over stealing from their purse? 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 the neighbourhoods? Why?
There are actually a number of reasons we have come to this point of The Siege.
And they are things we do or don’t do over the years that cumulated to this tangle. Why are we complaining 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 we identified above. We are a common people, with common destiny, but we take pleasure in forcing and rearing things that divide us and ignore those that unite us, simply because certain persons among us are abusing our respect and loyalty in grand betrayal of trust to ensure that division in which lies their advantage for political and economic hegemony against collective interest.
There are peacerisk behaviours in the families, the neighbourhoods and practices in the communities, encouraged, sponsored and funded by some bad element patrons; some bad parents seen innocent from the overt, but are silently orchestrating trouble, violence and destructives in the neighbourhoods. And because they are never suspected, they go with everything.
There are the bad parents who raise their kids to be rude, disrespectful, and offensive to others on the street. They like the kids to invite trouble for them to shirk it off as bravery in the neighbourhood.
They are known for loving their kids all through, and this culture is where they land them. They are agents of doom – sadists – if you like, whose believe is that whatever that is hidden is not open to accountability. Their own God doesn’t actually see.
We are typically a wicked people, irrespective of our sections of the divides we come from; no matter the educated, the learned, the Godly and pious.
We have each found advantages in the misfortune of public interest on which we base our lives and would not want anybody, policy, thing or leader to tamper with the way we base our lives, no matter the wrongs with us.
We have moved from taking pleasures in the misfortunes of other humans members in the custody of the family, the ward, the work place, the community, the ministry, the LGA, the state and the nation to mocking them and even celebrating their failures, their losses, their victimisation, sickness and even death. And we take the gossips, the mockery, round, ourselves.
That is why even when a relation is sick, we make sure they are not well treated until they die we will pull the bags of money to celebrate their demise, and in some cases it is the money of the deceased we hid from their healthcare that we use to sponsor the post death parties.
And we think that the God we worship doesn’t see all this injustice to ourselves or that He simply doesn’t bother. Sometimes you wonder if Nigerians’ believe in God is actually true and if they really believe there is accountability in another life as they preach?
Whatever befalls another human, it is near your door. It is only a matter of time. This is an assertion that we hear often, but it is always ignored, and our ways just get worse.
The second reason is the stubborn habit in us as a collective. Even when our hands are burnt in a fire, we will still dare to put them the remnants of the hands in another. It is simply our stubborn refusal to change that is coming back at us.
We have derailed from the rail of humanity for a long time now, with our lives getting rather lower. No one takes responsibility. We shift it all on the system, different government, and other 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 are actually driven by us, because it is humans, Nigerians that work in them.
If the human doesn’t change, the system doesn’t. In any case if you come this far trying something stupid that fails all the years and under different governments, why don’t we each look at the mirror.
That is reason with all the changes in different governments over the years, policies didn’t work, or didn’t work well; the economy stagnates,; the society devaluates; the government hijacked by my whims and your caprices which can never be serviced to your satisfaction and mine, because it is all vanity.
Then we came to the cross road, where we either push to improve or push to perish. Every one of us was complaining things are bad even before now, and things have to, must change.
And then with prayers and by the mercy of God we found the true meaning of a determined leadership and committed government, dashed to Nigeria courtesy of the victims of the cruelty of our life as a people – the poor and weak, women and children; the underprivileged and the handicapped.
It is at their mercy that we have come to this stage. And if you think these times are worse, know that is called, Godordered ‘revenge of the poor’ you have abused, humiliated to the edge of life, denying them rights and everything life needs. It is harvest time.
Everybody was shouting change until government meant it well and came up with its programme, “Change Begins with Me”. On the very day of the launch, some of us rose to ask: how can a government that promised us change demand change from us? God have mercy. So we are serious we want change but we don’t want to change?
What did you do with the opportunity? Knowing the fact that for government to make progress and move in our ways, we must change our ways. That is the only idea for change.
God knows by the holy books, by all theories, by all research findings that it is the only way. But where is the change? Who is talking change now? What do we do with the agenda of change?
What followed was the reclaim of same bad attitude, shortchanging of any one, the government or the system on the simplest opportunity we get. Our attitude of government still remains it must service our ego, whims, region, tribe, village or anything about ‘me’ and you as 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’s opposite. Individually, Americans and even Israelis are good persons. It is their systems that are selfish, greedy. That was because they submerged their personal interests under the systems’ interests in order to empower and develop the systems.
Now that the systems are strong and powerful, they pay individuals more than they invested in them. In our case, the neighbourhood must remain poor and even if it must give us without getting, it must spark fire and violence because we have denied it everything and it has lost everything to a point of extreme overbalance.
And still, as things deteriorate, we still deny that we need to give the system first. The only way now 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 the system 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 to the inaugural of the Northeast Development Commission. The hopes we read every day since the inaugural by the President are impossible.
It is sad that those hopes are bent on the same old idea that it will turn out things in magic ways, or it will begin to put food on the table and sweep the homes of everyone in the northeast.
That was a Commission meant for rehab of the displaced. But see how the welltodo are usurping the chances of employ, contracts. Ok. Yes. No problem. Some persons must work there.
Things are pushed by them. But my fear is the possibility some of us go there with the same old mind that refuses to change: to work to get more than that is due to them; to shortchange the needy targets by hoarding foods/materials/money away from the centres, the routes and the sites.
What manner of individual capitalism do we practise? In a cruel capitalists’ whim in a system that works on pragmatic economic ideas and not pure capitalism? No?
Now we have pushed it to a point where someone of the west is asking if capitalism is still worth it as an economic system. We have outgrown our ego and selfish interest out of the highest capitalist sensation and we ended up at a point of no return or no point 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 that we threw out of our lives by just saying them.
We have not helped this government, much after the poor – yes, the poor because capitalists never wished it came on board, sorry. Few of us obeyed its policies, directives and followed its ways, with many still praying.
But those who obeyed are the powerless. A lot of powerful are actually working against the tides. The curse on our disobedience are the various sources of the marks of fear, poverty, lack off/limited fruits farming we 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 in such ways. And we have all been paying. Everybody is a target now. If some of us were thinking business as usual, there is need for a review. It is now going places and including everyone.
But why should a victim of the failed system suffer same siege after all their years of suffering? It is because they watched things deteriorate. They didn’t look, care, resist, or fought to stop evil.
They support the bad, the evil, and the thieves. They backed lies and falsified truths. They denied the right of the cheated and rewarded the cheats with handsome share of the victims.
These are common issues in society but they are covered by the dirty, dark cloth of hypocrisy to shut everyone – victims and witnesses silent forever.
And the system’s inability to give back justice on rare reported matters has not changed under a new order of change. So life continues as usual.
But as we continue in this vicious cycle of recycling the same old attitudes like before, we should not complain 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.
