The ill-conceived protest with the banners and placards displayed is a mockery of the thousands of people killed in the Middle Belt and an insult on the collective sensibilities of all Nigerians, especially people who have lost their loved ones in the killings in the middlebelt. Such protest and the inscription on the banners questions the humanity of this present government and its agents. It also exposes the lack of empathy of this government in periods of disasters in the nation. That the sponsors of the protest could mention the names of well-meaning personalities from the North Central zone who have always spoken out against killings in the zone, as sponsors of attacks on the people shows pettiness, insensitivity and lack of empathy on the part of the sponsors. It also constitutes a monumental embarrassment to humanity that the said ministers and governors who are sponsors of the protest chose this time to sponsor miscreants to protest against the National Assembly and also politicise the killings in the Middle Belt, in utter contempt of the sensibilities of the people of North Central zone and the entire nation still in mourning over the continuous gruesome killings of hundreds of innocent people in that zone by herdsmen in just two weeks.
One would have expected the actors to at least feign remorse and sobriety at this critical and sober moment in the history of our nation when clergy men, the international community and all Nigerians of goodwill are sober and putting aside political divide to rise against the precarious security flaws in the nation which has led to unprecedented loss of hundreds of lives and property across the nation, in just two weeks and thousands of lives since the beginning of this year. But no, the unscrupulous elements decided to sink deeper into the abyss. They chose this time of national soberness to insult the dead and the living through sponsored protest against eminent personalities like General Danjuma and others from the zone for their statesmanly comments on the killings in the middlebelt. It is sad for the nation. The show of shame at the National Assembly further exposes the Federal Government’s insensitivity and lack of empathy to the plight of ordinary Nigerians who are daily at the receiving end of the incompetence of the government and its security chiefs.
It also exposes the desperation to continually put the blame of its failure to protect the masses it swore on oath to protect on anyone other than itself, and those who speak out to condemn the gruesome killings in the North Central and other parts of the nation. Isn’t it saddening and odd that some people sponsor protesters against those speaking against gruesome killings while the killers walk freely and enjoy maximum support and executive backing? In all of these, where is the interest of the nation, and the citizens who are killed daily? It has only passed a vote of confidence on those who have failed woefully in their responsibility of protecting the lives of the citizen as well as their principal who is supposed to reposition the nation’s ailing security apparatus to wake up to their responsibilities.
If there is any good the incompetence of the government’s handling the affairs of this nation has done, it is simply opening the eyes of Nigerians to the reason why they need to endure all forms of hardship involved in getting their PVCs and exercising their right to vote for a government of their choice in 2019.
- Ahmed lives in Abuja
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