Kene Obiezu
SIR: Every strong and united country is defined not by an absence of wounds and fissures but the ability to forge ahead in spite of them.
The EndSARS protests which tore through the country like a tornado, splitting it among many lines, may be currently missing the presence of people out on the streets, but it will be an illusion to think the protests expired, or to think the present government has fully tackled the issues which bore the protests in the first place.
The current silence is more akin to the one that of the graveyard; and one needs neither prophecy nor clairvoyance to predict that it will not be long for far more vociferous protests to erupt. This is inevitable and even necessary because at this juncture, Nigeria needs critical voices more than cheering ones.
As the protestors lingered on the streets, thugs were mobilized by yet unidentified persons and clashes ensued. In the wake of the abhorrent Lekki toll gate shootings, the protesters withdrew their presence from the streets and looters, abhorring a vacuum, took over, shredding many buildings where Covid-19 palliatives were stocked.
The law is taking its course in some instances, but the wave of righteous anger currently roiling over the country is simply overwhelming and unless concrete steps are taken to make things right, not just for the current crop of Nigerians but also for unborn posterity, one can only imagine that it will take a longer time for things to take proper shape.
The time now is for healing. Every iota of hubris must be put out of reach. Nigeria is a country with many avoidable problems. Solutions must be urgently crafted to phase out those problems.
The EndSARS protests found such unprecedented levels of support because for long, Nigerians have lived the brutality of its police force, with the channels of accountability occluded by corruption and bureaucracy.
A lot of young people are unemployed in what is an appalling waste of human resources. This scale of unemployment is a national tragedy. The on-going ASUU strike is another one.
The Covid-19 Pandemic forced the country into making some painful choices which included a lockdown. However, even before that, ASUU downed tools, citing government infidelity to past agreements.
More than six months down the line, Nigerian undergraduates remain at home in circumstances that scandalously betray the shameful lip-service the government pays to education in the country.
Nigeria‘s police force needs to be reformed, but so is every institution in Nigeria especially the security services who are sometimes consumed by the very power they wield on behalf of Nigerians.
The government needs to focus on the task at hand and reassess its priorities. At the moment, Buhari‘s government appears staffed with too many people who because they are starved of the publicity that positive performance naturally engenders, get too easily distracted by the criticism which every responsible government should even crave.
The country is wounded and bleeding in many places. The many wounds of the country are deep and what is required from every stakeholder is humility not hubris. This is because while humility will aid healing in the country, hubris will only derail it.
- Kene Obiezu, Abuja.
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