With the growing insecurity of lives and properties invoked by the incessant bombings and upheavals in different cities in Nigeria, one is force to wonder where the country is headed. It is disturbing and really embarrassing that while other developing economies are bruising up their knuckles to pull down every stronghold against their advancement as a people, we are adopting vices that have ruined hitherto model economies. Why terrorism; why the bombings? What message are we trying to pass on? Is it not enough that we have bastardized our economy with the instability built up by frequent ethno-religious crises, armed robbery, militancy, and their likes? Why can’t we just let Nigeria be the great country it was destined and designed to be? Why are we so deep into the dung of greed, corruption, hatred, selfishness and mediocrity?
The terrible thing about these bombings is that they are ill-timed and detonated not only to take lives and properties but to incite religious riots and crises; and make a caricature of our security systems. Analyst have postulated that the ease with which these bombing were carried out and the unproductive investigations thereafter, are capable of encouraging more terrorists’ activities in the country. The Jos Bombings were on Christmas Eve and some happened right inside the church; the New Year Eve’s bombing – even though it went off in a barrack – was rumoured to be in Dunamis Church and beside the New Year celebrations are known to be popular among the Christians. The insecurity sparked up thereafter succeeded in ruining the celebrations for many families; many Christians were scared to attend church services both on Christmas and New Year.
It is disappointing that the trend is getting stormy as we get closer to the 2011 general elections. However, this provides us a link to the solution of the problem in the sense that by understanding the different players in the polity presently, one can easily point their finger to a more specific direction. It is obvious that the tussle for the First Citizen’s job in this country has evolved into a deadly ‘do or die’ affair. Since the days of presidential declarations late last year, Nigerians have been living in fear. The question we need to ask ourselves now is ‘who will benefit most or will be more opportune from a major instability in the country?’Somebody is definitely trying to remind us of how unsafe we are or intimidate us into setting a ground for their dubiousness during the general elections. We all know you can never have credible elections in times of crises, or tension!
It will also serve to point out that as soon as we give these bombings some religious inclinations, the enemy will have succeeded. I don’t believe the Muslims were responsible; or that it was motivated by any form of extremism. We have been living relatively at peace and without such level of massacre for decades, why would our Muslim compatriots just wake up few months to a very controversial PDP primary and start blowing up churches? We have hard tougher times in the past along religious lines; none ever led to bombings, why now? Also, if it were extremists like Boko Haram – as many people suspect – I think they would have owned up by now; at least to take the supposed glory. So let us not allow anybody incite us into a false course; Nigerians are civilised to tolerate one another, irrespective of our ethno-religious diversity.
What we need now, is some actions; we need to make an example of the plotters. Nigerians are getting over-fed with promises and emotional outbursts against our enemies – we need them in our jaws. There are those who have threatened violence; we have enough motives and we know where to search for these bugs that are about ruining our fabric. But this information will do no good if we don’t invest in confirming our suspicions and bringing these evil people to justice. The writing is clear enough on the wall; Nigeria is headed for trouble and if we get there, Ivory Coast’s case will be child’s play. For a country, which should serve as a good example to other African countries – being the head of her region – we should really be disappointed at our sovereignty.
