Nigerian elections and right to life

Let me start this post election admonition with some quick facts; girls were indeed abducted from the Government Secondary School in Chibok and that the figures remain conflicting, it is even safe to conclude that no one knows the exact number of girls abducted not even the government, even Boko Haram has lost count of their damage.

Before Chibok, Boko Haram had established a tradition of abducting girls and women, for countless reasons, the authorities were quiet, the media reported a few it could and let me tell us many parents equally kept quiet and took it all in their stride.

Cruel fact is that, several hundreds of girls that are victims of this terrible group have paid the ultimate price, a few have escaped with almost irreparable damage, others have become part of them, and we have not done much.

One recalls the dramatic negotiation and Chadian ballet between Modu Sherif, Idris Derby and Jonathan, for a fact it simply occurred to me that we are not really a serious people on matters that we should be serious. Fact is, one simple answer, many of our tales of nationhood looks like that of morons and idiots.

We have lost men and officers, more villagers have been killed and loads of propaganda, half-truths, misinformation and sheer falsehoods, fight between now opposition PDP and governing APC. But fact is that we do not have value for lives, while the daredevil Boko Haram group seems to have frequently had the edge, making all sorts of demands, releasing videos, and creating more confusion begs the bigger picture.

• Ambode loses ward to PDP

So we have just concluded the presidential and National Assembly Elections. Some scores of lives have been lost and despite our clinging to all sorts of PVC and voters rights, as a people we have no right to life.

Rights to security, rights to health, education and more, which ultimately leads to quality life, are denied Nigerians. Nigerians are denied justice, citizens are killed and no one is liable. Campaigns have seen all sorts of promissory notes but the truth is elusive as in the last few years.

The fact is that some girls just disappeared. They were abducted because our institutions are not working the way it should, the girls’ will/may not be found because we are not sincere people, and because many of them are dead, and because we are largely and easily divided by our selfish motives. We all engage in blame games, but let us remember that the longer we are on this Chibok saga we only portray ourselves as morons and idiots.

Prince Charles Dickson PhD,

pcdbooks@outlook.com