By Boma Nwuke
A common proverb says East or West, home is the best. Home is truly the best due to the comfort it provides one which other locations outside of one’s home do not have.
How did we get here is one question that is on the lips of so many nationals especially those conversant with the era of oil boom, when money was so much that how to spend it became an anthem.
We once had a country where citizens criss- crossed the length and breath of the country happily ,without fear of being kidnapped or killed, that, for now is history as what is happening now is a direct opposite of what was obtained in the past. It would be uncharitable to describe the situation on ground as a kid’s stuff as it has proven to be a jig saw puzzle and a keg of gunpowder ready to explode.
The war drums are beating accompanied by familiar warrior’s dance steps and we sit and do nothing.
The nation is in distress, overwhelmed by multitudinous problems that are getting ready to make a hole so that the centre can no longer hold,yet we watch and do nothing.
Nigeria is our home country. We can disagree as people of diverse ethnic nationalities guided by different fundamental values. We can fight for relevance, we can bicker as members of different political parties but what we should not do is destroy the little we have been able to build over the years.
We do not need an angel to tell us that Nigeria, our dear native land is in trouble.We do not need a soothsayer to deafen our ears that our nation is standing on a precipice neither are we in a dream land where we see our country falling to pieces.
It is no dream, It is reality.and we must rise to defend our country. We must do all we can to neutralize the forces of darkness from all corners of the country. Those who are saddled with defence of territorial integrity must rise. Those who are entrusted with protection of civil life must wake up. Time has come for the clergy to rise more than ever. Time has come for parents especially those who have younger children not to spare the rod. Time has come for older parents to draw the ears of their children and make them understand that the price for evil is hurtful.
The leadership of our country watch helplessly while the nation burn. The leadership of our communities watch hopelessly while the youths who own the future set norms and values on fire and introduce a new dawn of criminality. We watch as kidnapping replace hardwork, we fold our hands and watch as school children are abducted from school for ransom and even butchered by those whose appetite for the products, techniques and mechanisms of Western education is not alien but out of hypocrisy and wickedness, see western education as bad and disrupt the education of others.
The North East is on fire as more often there are reports of either invasion of vilages in epicenter state of Borno or neighbouring Yobe state where only recently, Geidam, the hometown of the Acting Inspector General of Police and a former governor and Senator Ibrahim Geidam was made hollow by Boko Haram terrorists.
The North West bleeds as bandits hold sway in a similar tradition with their co- criminals, and terrorist, Boko Haram.They impose taxes, extort communites,rape women, rusttle cows and destroy farmlands.
There is tension in the North Central, South East and South West where the storm is gathering to sweep out the remnants of unity from the dangling clutches of a federation.
How did we get here? In less than six months, Nigeria will celebrate 61 years of nationhood. We will in october do the ritual of remembering our heroes past,whose effort gave a lifeline to the people, their selfless contributions set the path for freedom from the shackles of colonial rule and enabled a state of emancipation where the people have control of their resources and manage their own affairs.
Since its birth in 1960, Nigeria has encountered many challenges, surmountable and otherwise, but one thing is clear that the country todled and trotted to where it is today.
Today ,our own dear fatherland has a criminal bar as western and even neighbouring countries label us as having peculiar patterns of crime.
The perception of our friends and neighbors is harmless is because they are not too far from the truth.
Nigeria has become a sleeping giant. A giant that is scared of liliputan, a giant who sees destruction so glaringly but desires to sleep and snore, A giant who sees a rocky slide but without a sense of direction and fitness decides to stagger and slip .What kind of giant is it?
That giant must arise and finish obstacles on his way. Obstacles of terrorism, obstacles of banditry, obstacles of secession. That giant must reassure those who look up to it that hope is not lost.
No more time for bravado. No more time for dissenting voices. Things are no longer at ease. The centre can no longer hold. It is time to pull back and congregate at the round table.
As a matter of urgency the federal government must stop migrant herders into the country. Already, the influx of over 1000 fulani herders from Niger Republic around Abuja two days ago is causing tension in the Federal Capital Territory and we ask , How did we degenerate so quickly,so badly? Who is beating the drum for this herdsmen to dance?
Times such as this calls for caution and reflection, We do not want to be another Rwanda. We do not want to be a second Somalia and we do not hope to become a Southern Sudan.
The one sure way of winning back our nation is for our leaders to do away with what divides us, settle the issue of equity, fairness and justice. Address with immediate alacrity the issue of poverty and unemployment so those who are ugly and gaunt do not eat up the sleek,fat cows..
Let’s give peace a chance.
A sincere contribution to a sinking nation on the anniversary of my birth.
