Nigeria has been in different phases and colours of unrest in the last few weeks. In fact, 2020 has been a year of untold troubles for the whole world in general and Nigeria in particular. The COVID-19 pandemic, which started as a health scare last year, typical of the yearly flu scare in the Western Hemisphere became a full scale pandemic in 2020. Many people allegedly died in the mayhem and countries are still recovering. In Nigeria, the wave of the pandemic across the country crippled economies and rendered many people invalid, ineffective and unemployed. It was against that backdrop that criminality began to rise across the country. The men and officers of the now defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) came in and swarmed on the alleged criminals. Incessant harassment of motorists, pedestrians and people in their homes became the order of the day while people languished in hunger and inertia due to lock down of movement of persons, goods and services. The harassment reached a climax, when peaceful protesters took to the streets of major cities in the South East and South West to challenge those embarrassments. The protesters were challenged by the police and the army and trouble ensued. We were asked to retire to our homes and curfews were imposed on many towns and cities. Hoodlums whom the devil made easy predators went around and looted private and government property. They carted away suspected palliatives in warehouses and factories. They blamed the governments for keeping food and logistics from the masses. In their anger and anguish, they classed with law enforcement and many lives were lost in the process. Reprisal attacks were let out on government premises in my locality, Aba. Below are pictures I took last week following the uprising of buildings in the Aba Town Hall of Aba South Local Government Area and the Customary Court on Pound Road, Aba. The picture of the window was the total vandalism of a skill acquisition centre in Aba South, which the vandals carted away with all the sophisticated equipment that taught skills in food processing, fashion and designing, hairdressing, desktop publishing, interior decoration, agricultural business and other such skills.
It is against the above synopsis that I'd like to lament the attitude of the Nigerian Armed Forces towards the Nigerian citizenry, whom they call 'bloody civilians.' Apparently, the 'greatest sin' on earth was to be a bloody civilian who was a trouble maker, a looter and a lazy Nigerian youth. I wouldn't know how anybody coined that term but I heard it for the first time during my National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Ibadan in 2004. I was posted to a military establishment, an Air Force secondary school, having graduated the University of Ibadan, Oyo State and the women with whom I served came back with the story from the airmen of how the greatest sin on earth was to be a bloody civilian. If citizens of Nigeria were that bloody as typified in the picture above of a bloodied Nigerian flag, which was from the bleeding body of a Nigerian, then we truly cannot be protected by the armed forces. Do we need another armed forces to protect our lives and property or do we protect ourselves? I suspect that there are aliens who are here liaising with those bad citizens to topple our democracy. We must not let these evil people fester in our land. Patriotism only will heal this country. God bless Nigeria.
No comments:
Post a Comment