SAM NDA-ISAIAH 2,334 like this

5 hours ago

Will Things Continue Like This? The new normal in Nigeria is very abnormal. In one single day recently, there were 52 different murders in different parts of the country. And, as far as I know, no one is being held to account for any of these murders. About a fortnight ago, more than 50 people were killed in a bus-stop in Kano in a single incident. A couple of days later, 24 people were killed in Plateau State in renewed violence, the following day, 13 more were killed in the same Plateau State. By weekend, the death toll in Plateau was about 100. Murders of one or two people are no longer reported in the news media because, according to one editor I once queried why a certain news item was missed, only two people were killed. Nigeria is losing its soul. At issue is that our country is not being governed properly. The way President Jonathan currently governs the country is not how to run a country. There is no country in the world that is free of crime; it is the way an entity deals with crime that will determine the security situation of that entity. Crime flourishes in Nigeria for a reason and even a kindergarten pupil should know why. Crime flourishes in our country because there are no deterrents. I was in Singapore a fortnight ago and over a single crime which I am still not sure is codified as a crime in Nigeria forty-five different people, many of them foreigners, were charged in court. Some were later discharged but many of those arrested are now headed for prison. They were all charged with the crime of engaging in sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old girl. Countries that are secure are always those, which by choice, are tough on crime. In Singapore, it is death sentence for arms trafficking. And arms trafficking is defined as being in possession of more than two firearms. In Nigeria, when was the last time anyone was charged with being in illegal possession of firearms? How many times have we heard the security agencies announce that they had impounded lorry loads or even ship loads of arms and ammunition and then the story just fizzles out? We must have all lost count. How many culprits have been arraigned in court for such offences and jailed since President Jonathan became president? Even the very few who were convicted before he became president are now being pardoned and even compensated. We have heard of the uncovering of bomb making factories several times in the past and nothing eventually came out of it. Where is the attorney-general of this federation? Nobody, not even his detractors can question the credentials of the attorney-general, but why is he so incapacitated? No attorney-general can be this incompetent or absent-minded unless he is under a specific directive from the Oga at the top not to do anything. Nigerians are really confused. Nobody knows what is happening anymore. The police, SSS and all other security agents can arrest all the criminals in the world but as long as they are not tried and punished, they are wasting their time and ours. Even as I settle down to write this piece yesterday, several gunshots and explosions were being heard from different parts of Kano and

these gunshots and explosions would continue and they will spread to other parts of the country if President Jonathan does not start running the country as any average leader should. Running a country should not be the rocket science that Jonathan is trying to make it unless there is something else many of us dont know. Apart from the apparent incapacity of the attorney-general and minister of justice who by the way is a successful lawyer and senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN) to boot, there are many other happenings that cannot just be explained. When the opposition merger appears to be moving smoothly and there appeared to be a brewing political alliance between the North and the South-West, we started hearing of the intention of Boko Haram to bomb Lagos. Some munitions were uncovered and as usual, we have not heard that any of those arrested would be arraigned in court. In any case, how can we expect anyone to be charged this time when no one has been charged in court for killing those professors who were murdered while worshipping in the university chapel at Bayero University, Kano last year and no one has been charged with the murder of General Muhammadu Shuwa in broad daylight in Maiduguri? And, by the way, what is this confusion about some would-be Lagos bombers being arrested in a property belonging to the Bayelsa State government in Lagos? Somebody has to clear the air as quickly as possible please because I dont like what people are already saying. It does not even appear that the president thinks there is a problem. All that preoccupies his mind these days is how to seek re-election and continue in Aso Rock beyond 2015. He certainly does not intend to run on his record because he has no record to run on. Is it not a cruel joke that the president intends to seek re-election when he cannot manage the elementary challenge of keeping the country safe from hoodlums? I do not know whether the president intends to rig the 2015 presidential election but if he intends to do so as many people believe, then he certainly does not know how gravely unpopular he has become. Any politician who is ready to rig elections with that kind of desperate unpopularity should also be ready to face the desperate consequences of such action. But the president is perfectly within his right to seek re-election and no one has any right to deprive him of those rights. The only right that the rest of us can exercise is to save our country from inexorable collapse by stopping him from continuing beyond 2015. And we must all exercise that power with everything that we have. But between now and 2015, whats going to happen to us? Are we going to continue like this? Who are those funding these murderers? And why is it so difficult to find this out? Are they fifth columnists or blacklegs? Or maybe they are just simply ghosts as the president himself would say. Why wont the government start by making arms trafficking a capital offence and actually enforcing it? Or at the very least, why shouldnt the government just start charging people in court today for being in illegal possession of firearms? And seriously, is there anything stopping the president? And what prevents President Jonathan from ordering the immediate arraignment of all those arrested in connection with the several murders in the land? Or, are we going to continue to rely on South Africa and the United Kingdom to deal with our criminals? The more one thinks of this, the more confused one gets. Certainly, things cannot continue like this.