Let’s worry about things to come

On June 16, 2011, a Thursday, Nigeria experienced its first suicide bombing. It was a significant strike meant to shatter the symbol of civil and orderly existence of Nigerians. The executors went for the heart of policing, targeting the Force Headquarters and missing then-IGP, Hafiz Ringim, by a quarter. An account said the bomber drove into police car park, alongside Ringim’s convoy. A camera footage sent to then President Goodluck Jonathan showed a 15-minute interval between then IG’s arrival and that of the merchant of death. Nigerians were outraged. The sigh of we never see this kind before, filled the land. Ringim was consumed. Or of what use was an IGP, who was almost blown away by a “baby” bomber. That was the thought then.

A decade after, Nigerians have seen the irukiru obe gbegiri (all manner of all sorts). Death has become one of the cheapest not-demanded commodities, and today, it is available everywhere, (nothing hyperbolic here) in the country. When killings get a bit grisly for humanity these days, the fear of something worse happening the next day, forces some kind of tortoise head into mourners’ mouth, making commensurate wailing impossible. Gradually, the national psyche is yielding to a deadness that comes with sorrow, the heart can’t bear.

When someone grieves without tears, Yoruba elders worry. They see withheld tears as a prevalent danger. Grieving Nigerians, wailing over the basket case the country may become, God forbid, are being labeled public enemies by the government of the day. Except, maybe, there is a particular way the power comptrollers want the people to mourn the soft underbelly of the nation’s security system that is now completely exposed to enemies of humanity, with the attendant tragedy of epic proportion.

On Thursday, Oga Garuba Shehu, as usual, went after grieving Benue governor, Samuel Ortom, wondering why he should cry for his daily-butchered people, instead of helping President Buhari re-echo his orders to security chiefs, to end the ongoing national carnage. May God forgive Oga Garuba.

Expert opinions support Ortom and other wailers. Beside the psychological salve of crying, they argue there are direct physical benefits. It was established that before someone cries, blood pressure and heart rate climb, and the tears, then help the body return to baseline levels, a process known as homeostasis.

Another good news for wailers is that crying is said to release stress hormones including cortisol which can build up in our bodies and cause psychical and emotional stress. Crying also stimulates the production of endorphins, our body natural pain killer which trigger a positive feeling. Wail, Nigerians, wail. Your country is going to the dogs.

When Daddy G.O asked Nigerians to pray for the country to heal, I believe he is being prophetic, because it appears what is currently with us, in the guise of insecurity and collapsing economy, is what Yoruba will call kese kese (just the prologue) and we should save our worries for the kasa kasa (something worse). For sniggering fellows, it should be clear that only God can now get the country out of the mess, it drove itself. A Sai-Baba faithful with recognizable identity in Nigerian politics was with me on phone Thursday night, singing the helplessness of power operators, including federal ministers who are now shunning air travels, to avoid running into small small boys with explosives in one hand and sub-machine guns, in the other.

Media handlers of the current administration are mendacious and in their alternative fact prognosis, they can resort to the bravura of wetin eye neva see sef. Yoruba have a telex version ‘a ri iru eleyi yi, eru la fi nda ba ara wa’. True, countries have failed, are failing and will continue to fail.

At the last count, with an estimate combined population of 350.6 million people, 14 countries of the world are officially regarded as failed states.

They are Yemen in Asia, with total population of 28 million, Somalia, a country in Africa with 16 million people, Syria also in Asia with a population of 18 million, Lebanon, another Asian with 6.9 million people, South Sudan, Africa’s latest nation with 13 million people, Afghanistan, in Asia, which connects the Middle East to Central Asia, with 32 million people and former Burma, now known as Myanmar also in Asia with 53 million people.

Others are Chad in Africa with 14 million population, Iraq in Asia with 38 million people, Rwanda in Africa with 12 million people, Liberia also in Africa with 5.1 million people, Sudan, another African with 42 million population, with another two African countries of Central African Republic, 4.6 million people and Democratic Republic of Congo with a whopping 68 million people, rounding off the number.

In all, two continents of Asia and Africa shared the list on almost equally basis, with Africa slightly tipping the scale at eight failed countries, to Asia’s six. If Nigeria is eventually held as another African country officially fulfilling the parameters, it would take Africa’s number to nine, with a total population of 374.7 million, from the current 174.7 million people.

Maybe, this is the league where they want Nigeria playing. In April 2012, there were just 18,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Two years later, in April 2014, they have shot to one million. And that was between two failed states!

The President is not without blame for frittering unusual national goodwill, heralding his presidency in 2015. As Igbo will say, he stole too much for the owners to see and the rest, as the new cliché says, is story.

Between the above-quoted date signaling the entry of suicide bombing into Nigeria’s security diary and Wednesday July 23, 2014, suicide bombers had morphed into news reporting regulars. But on this day, another suicide bomber broke news. He targetted a certain opposition leader in Kaduna, taking 82 other souls away. But the opposition giant survived by grace.96 hours to the air-breath escape, he had issued a formication, to then President Goodluck, warning dangerous clouds are gathering and vultures are encircling, over moves to impeach his party’s sole governor then, Nasarawa’s Umaru Tanko Al-Makura.The prophet was almost the victim of his prophesy. That opposition giant is today’s President Buhari, now shepherded by a Lilliputian in Villa.

Yoruba will say ‘ohun wa leyin ofa, ju eje lo’ (too many things are beyond man).

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