“Another reason I always look at some Nigerians from the south and north who shout ‘let Nigeria be divided:’ “Do they know what they are saying? Do they think that is feasible anymore? Would it be beneficial to all concerned? We will look at this next.”
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Three years after my article, the security situation has escalated to a higher level, with kidnappers demanding billions of Naira as ransom as they operate in broad daylight with impunity. So, I am paraphrasing and updating my article with recommendations for the way forward.
Three groups of terrorists are holding and squeezing the nation making it move in a calamitous movement (manner). In the northeast, Boko Haram is calling shots. With the possible exception of Maiduguri town, no town or village is safe in Borno state.
With a root in palliatus, a Latin word, palliative is anything meant to palliate, i.e., relieve, decrease, ease, assuage, soothe, help, etc., a situation. That situation could be a disease, dispute, deprivation or anything that discomfits. While hospitals palliate diseases by administering medicinal palliatives, in our case, the word has taken a political meaning. Politicians now dole out whatever they feel the people want as a palliative, in most cases against poverty.
The legislature is the most influential and powerful compared to the other two. The legislative arm is the heart and brain of government, as it can make and unmake the two different arms because it can have an overbearing influence on them, even though the judiciary is always a judge in a tussle between the executive and legislature. The executive formulates, implements, and funds government policies, projects, and programs in line with constitutional provisions, while the legislature regulates and oversees the executive and judiciary.
Government, and here I mean the federal and state governments, must always be truthful and fair to the citizens. They must also make their agencies work. The government must let government function. In almost all cases, it is the government that makes government fail because the actors do everything from a prism of personal gain. Nothing about service anymore. Then there is the Nigerian syndrome of “Do you know who I am?” Gathering clouds.
Obasanjo is a survivalist par excellence. At barely 24 years old, he developed his first survival instinct in 1961. Obasanjo was captured in the Congo Republic by the mutineers while he was evacuating Roman Catholic missionaries from a station near Bukavu. The mutineers considered executing him but mysteriously released him.
When you critically look at Nigeria, or the North, and its situation, what is happening is not excusable. Take instances where warehouses or trailer loads of food were attacked and stripped of everything: Is it hunger where you see a purportedly hungry man hurrying away with two or three bags of rice on his shoulders and returning for more? Or able-bodied youths, both male and female, fighting their way through the madness to grab as much of the loot as they can, taking them somewhere for safekeeping and returning for more?
The convener, Professor Attahiru Jega argued that Nigeria has one of the most educated, professional and astute elite any country would be proud to have. He however pointed out that the same Nigerian elite is one of the most divisive, fractious and quarrelsome in the world, apparently set at destroying the unity and developmental potential of the country.
These days, the words dominating the air are “hunger” and “protest”. And that, we are told, is because of two others – “dollar” and “salary”. Unfortunately, those capitalising on the latter two words to push for the first two words hardly mention the words “production” and “security” which are fuelled by justice and fairness. And there can be no justice without the rule of law.