‘The game of politics has been left to ruffians, 419s, graduates of miracle centres and all forms of never-do-wells’
Sometime in the week, I received the following letter. I have, as usual, taken the liberty to tinker a little with it to make it more readable. Please read it first.
However, not too long ago, Alaba, an orphan of the Olatunji clan in Igogo, Ekiti state, was kidnapped in the almost silent, peace-loving community. This sent a strong message because it raised questions about the exact beginning of the tragedy of our deviation from the path of honour, integrity and all that is culturally good and normative. The orphaning of Alaba is significant here only because she is one of the unfortunate people in Nigeria (a country where peoples’ welfare is not part of governance, and citizens are on their own) who became an orphan at a very young age.
Everyone seems persuaded of the aberration that military government is. It altered our lives and values as a people. Having said that, however, I believe the days of Shagari and his henchmen, Umaru Dikko and Adisa Akinloye, were the worst in Nigeria’s recorded history. And every year appears to be getting worse than the previous one ever since. Conscience seems to have taken flight out of here. Abacha’s days marked another peak in the history of savagery as they stood against everything that civilization stands for.
The emergence of the new breed politicians introduced another dangerous dimension to the Nigerian dilemma. Since this new breed took over, governance has ceased to be by intellect but by brute force and sheer brigandage. The real men of honour have been scared into taking cover, within the professions and private enterprises, leaving the game of politics to ruffians, 419s, graduates of miracle centres and all forms of never-do-wells.
Alaba, the orphan, was said to have been coming from work in Ifaki, Ekiti state, in a car in the company of three other women, only for their car to be snatched and used to convey them into a bush from where, I later learnt, a call was made by one of the captors to a man: ‘we have got some males and females o’. The evil men were said to have earlier kidnapped some men who were returning from the Ewu Ekiti day celebration. The captives were later known to have been tied, hands and legs, awaiting the arrival of another evil man who, as is now being suggested, trades in human parts!
Through the miracle of God, one of the captives who, incidentally, knew the terrain well, escaped and went to Orin to inform the community from where a message was sent to Igogo. My home church in Igogo, the Roman Catholic Church, was said to have been on a monthly crossover-night, during which a special thanksgiving service is held in celebration of a successful transition from one month to the other. Alaba, a chorister, was conspicuously missing. Then a message from her phone into her sister’s phone abruptly stopped and anxiety rented the air until a hint came from the escapee in Orin.
The Igogo Church immediately got a bus and filled it with the men, leaving the women to continue the vigil. Off they went to Orin for detailed information and reinforcement, if possible for a journey into the bush that was hosting the men of evil and their captives. All the efforts the evil men made to move their victims on hearing human voices failed because the voices appeared to be coming not only from behind but also in front of them. Rescue was coming from the combined force of the Roman Catholic Church, Igogo, and the good people of Orin, who had gallantly surrounded them! The kidnappers were left with no choice but to take to their heels, abandoning their catch, and an Okada, owned by someone I learnt, is now in custody.
The lesson: The issue goes beyond Alaba or any of the other victims. As a people, we will have to desire a good society to have one. Politics, especially this Nigerian brand, has no chance whatsoever to guarantee us a good society where the citizens are assured of life devoid of fear and panic. Our traditional rulers, the custodians of our culture, might need to sit up and rescue our communities from evil men, the same way Yobe hunters are giving hope to Yobeans in the face of the evil boko haram. Politicians, in whatever form can’t and won’t!
Ekiti state government and the federal government must rise up to celebrate these heroes. Anyone who, like Ladi, the Yobe hunter and her group, takes steps, no matter how little, to save even a single life, deserves to be celebrated as it is done in all the civilized societies we claim to be imitating. We need to encourage heroes if indeed we desire to make progress as a people and as a nation.
In most places where democracy is properly defined as government for the people, as opposed to this government for politicians and their families, each of them would receive a presidential phone call immediately as a starting point in their celebration. Antoinette Tuff received a phone call and spoke to President Obama, who on behalf of himself and Michelle, his wife, and the entire American people, thanked her for saving the lives of school children in a De Kalb, Georgia (US) elementary school. She stood face to face with death as she, though trembling and bare-handed, confronted and disarmed a gun-toting youth! No human society, in which mediocres and charlatans, not heroes, are given prominence, can expect to make progress.
The names of these heroes, in this kidnap case, can be obtained from the Reverend Father in the Mission House, Roman Catholic Church, Igogo. I urge Mr. President to send a bill to the national assembly today, declaring these people heroes, alongside the Yobe lady hunter (Ladi) and her group. The literary giant, Sam Omatseye made a similar call in his essay, in which he did a comparative assessment of Ladi the female hunter of Yobe and Diezeani, the female petroleum minister turned OPEC president.
William Aborisade, 07032555486.
A few comments are needed here. The narration above is just one of very many of such detailing the experiences of different individuals. Some have been lucky to escape while many have not been so lucky. One thing is clear. Never in the history of this country has there been such blood thirstiness as now as most politicians have now come to believe that they cannot win any election, even to the headship of their families, without making human sacrifice. That was how Niger Delta militancy and book haram began. So they prey on us economically and in the flesh. The lowest point of our national history was when a bomb blast killed hundreds of people in Abuja and some people went there to pick up human flesh to sell!
Secondly, unemployment is doing things to us, clearly. Now, people are prepared to do anything to survive, and it does not matter if it includes catching other Nigerians for politicians to use in rituals. Callousness and indifference appear to have taken the place of respect and fear for the humanhood of others.
Thirdly, Nigerians need to come together as a community to fight this evil practice whereby we are preyed upon by our rulers economically and socially as well. Just the other day, one entire express road was blocked to human and vehicular traffic in my city because some party was doing its primaries there. The rest of us had to squeeze through a small lane for hours to get home. I was in a western country once when a major election was going on but no one was discomfited for it. Indeed, the politicians were consigned somewhere, away from decent view. So, why do our politicians behave like jungle kings here?
