It is yet another mourning period for Nigeria. My heart bleeds for Gwoza. But for how long must our tears continue to drop over self-inflicted pain? The Frankenstein monster that was cultured yesterday seems to be wreaking deadly havoc today. Very sad! I hope you read about the meeting of the South East governors concerning Nnamdi Kanu. It looks like a good move, or what do you think?
Wrong application of politics, religion delivering tears in Gwoza, others
The story of the Frankenstein monster seems to be at play in Nigeria in relation to the escalating insecurity and mindless killings going on.
Frankenstein told the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who created a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment.
The monster came upon a small boy one day who was horrified by him; the boy said that he was the son of M. Frankenstein. The creature murdered the boy because his goal was to cause severe pain and suffering for Victor, and the boy, whose name was William Frankenstein, was Victor’s youngest brother.
“They began to play politics with it and brought religion into a matter that was serious.”
The wrong application of politics and religion has become a major drawback to Nigeria’s all-round development.
Government policies are good only when they favour one’s own part of the country. Unfortunately, political actors have allowed their behaviour to be determined by religion and ethnic politics.
Just like Victor Frankenstein used an orthodox means to create the monster that later left him sorrowful, the wrong application of politics and religion by the privileged few in Nigeria is seriously afflicting Nigeria.
The Gwoza suicide bombing incidents that took place a few days ago with the many casualties would not have happened had all efforts been geared towards containing the monster of insurgency in their infancy.
When the Islamist insurgent Boko Haram began its virulent satanic bombing campaign in 2010 following the controversial death of Abubakar Shekau, politicians were using it to score some political points.
Read also: Gwoza suicide attacks: Death toll hits 32 — Shettima
They began to play politics with it and brought religion into a matter that was serious.
The then President Goodluck Jonathan was called all manner of names and when his administration tried to move against the terrorists, he was accused of carrying out an ethnic cleansing.
While those who claimed to love the North better than the government continued to whip up ethnic and religious sentiments against the Jonathanian regime, the insurgents continued their onslaught, bombing anything and anywhere that caught their fancy.
In case you are in doubt of the havoc they have wreaked on the nation since 2010, you may visit Wikipedia and check the “Timeline of the Boko Haram Insurgency.”
If there had been a concerted effort at containing the monster at the embryonic stage, perhaps, other sister-criminal elements called bandits would not have arisen. Today, nowhere is safe and the battle has escalated to places never imagined.
Katsina, the home state of the immediate past President, Muhammadu Buhari, has fallen under the control of assorted insurgents and terrorists.
While Buhari presided over Nigeria, despite the unprovoked massacres that took place, perpetrated by Boko Haram and bandits, he never regarded them as terrorists. He carefully chose his words whenever he was describing groups that were taking lives of innocent Nigerians.
Early last month, in June, about four police officers and 20 other people were brutally murdered by bandits in Katsina communities. The other day, a lecturer at Katsina State University was killed and his two children abducted.
Since Jonathan left office, successive administrations and governments have not been able to tame the dragon. What has happened is that every part of the country has been invaded by all manner of insurgents, dispensing terror and holding down the levers of Nigeria’s development.
Those who employed religion and bad politics to badmouth the Jonathanian regime suddenly discovered they could no longer tame the monsters they cultured.
Today, we are in tears over the needless lives lost and the mortal injuries inflicted on innocent fellow citizens in Gwoza, just because politicians wanted to score cheap political goals by giving birth to all manner of propaganda, albeit to pull a wool over the eyes of the unsuspecting and naïve populace.
It is Gwoza today; no one knows the village or community that will be visited next by the bloodthirsty murderers.
I hope those who cultured these monsters are happy now!
Read also: South-East governors to meet Tinubu over Nnamdi Kanu’s release
South East leaders and the Nnamdi Kanu question
The South East Governors’ Forum had a meeting Tuesday, saying that they would soon send a delegation comprising some prominent Nigerians to meet with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to ask for the release of Nnamdi Kanu.
This decision is coming after a lot of grandstanding by some of the political actors in the zone. It is salutary that the governors have come to the point of seeking a permanent resolution to the political impasse. They have come to the realisation that the continued incarceration of Kanu was rather worsening the situation in the zone.
The mistake many Nigerians have been making when discussing the negative impact of the activities of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) is to localise it. You hear people say, “Oh, let them continue to destroy the economy of their place.”
It is not just about the Southeast economy. It is the economy of Nigeria. For instance, there are important markets in the South East where people from the neighbouring countries of Togo, Ghana, the Benin Republic, and others visit to buy goods.
Also, dealers in all manner of clothes from various parts of the country go to Aba or Onitsha to buy dresses, shoes, belts, and other fashion accessories in bulk. These items are taken to various parts of the country to add to the economy of Nigeria.
The sit-at-home policy, which has been in force since the incarceration of Kanu, has not only hampered business transactions in the zone but has also affected the economy of the country.
For instance, every Monday, no commercial aircraft takes off or lands in any airport in the zone; no vehicle, commercial or private, plies the roads there; and no business meetings involving companies or embassies are held anywhere in the zone. No memorandum of understanding (MoU) is signed in the South East on Mondays.
So, if anybody believes it is an Igbo headache alone, that is naivety at play.
Some of the political actors in the South East had tried to grandstand over it, calling the bluff of the enforcers of the sit-at-home. But they have found out that the fear that had been instilled in the people has stuck so much that IPOB does not need to make a fresh announcement of sit-at-home before it is complied with. That is where the state governors’ hands are tied.
The people believe that if any government says, Come out, by the time they come out and something happens to them, would the government be there to protect them? That is the mentality that has sustained the draconic order of the IPOB.
The move, at last, by the governors to seek a political solution to Nnamdi Kanu’s issue is salutary.
They must also not stop seeking the release of Kanu; they should also discuss the need to dismantle some of the road blocks in the south-east that have made the zone look as if it is under siege.
