I write this text with tears in my eyes. I didn’t know a day will come when my beloved country will be a valley of the shadow of death. A country where we now live with perpetual fear of been attacked anytime, any day and anywhere, no place is safe. People are killed on daily basis, carcases littered on the street like that of a chicken. We can no longer travel to any part of this country with the hope of arriving safely. We have been sentenced to death, attack and kidnapping for the offence of being a citizen of Nigerian under this government. Not a single day has passed without hearing unprecedented wave of different but overlapping security crises from kidnapping to extremist insurgencies. Every corner of the country has been hit by violence and crime.
Just this week, we lost promising Nigerian youths at the Abuja – Kaduna train attack by bandits; and what was their offence, just being a citizen of Nigerian under this Government that has failed its citizens. According to Global Conflict Tracker Report, over 350,000 lives have been lost to insurgency in Nigeria since 2015.
One of the primary responsibilities of the government is the protection of lives and properties of its citizens according to the 1999 Constitution as amended. Section 14(2)(b) 1999 Constitution as amended provide thus: “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government”. But this government has woefully failed us. This government failed Dr. Chinelo Megafu Chinelo, Amin Mahmoud, Barr. Musa Lawal-Ozigi and many others who have died as a result of insurgency.
The question I will continue to ask is this, where did we get it wrong? Do we still have a President in this country? Yes, but an incompetent one. A President who calls himself the commander-in-chief of armed forces, but commands nothing. A President who is insensitive and thoughtless to the plight of his citizens. A President who does not care about the survival of his citizens neither does he value their lives. A President who is not even ‘aware’ of what is going on in his country. Mr. President, you will definitely be remembered when you leave office come 2023 but as a President who could not do anything when his citizens were been killed like chickens. A President who could not do anything when armed bandits, kidnappers, unknown gunmen and boko haram were having a field day killing, maiming, destroying private and public property and dispossessing people.
Finally, Mr. President, the scale of the insecurity in this country has threaten the very fabric of Nigerian society. With every attack, human lives are lost or permanently damaged and our faith in democracy and the country is diminishing. Mr. President when you were elected in 2015, you promised to protect citizens from terrorists and criminals. But just less than one year left in your final term in office, the country is more unstable than it’s been in decades. Mr. President, please do something. IN AN UNJUST SOCIETY, SILENCE IS A CRIME.
God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Melaye is a former Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
