Editor: The news of the attack on the Emir of Kano and the Mali-bound Nigerian soldiers coupled with the scare in Lagos of planned attack on a church by Boko Haram over the weekend unsettles any security conscious observer.
From the look of things, it appears Nigeria is under siege. One is not saying that the government is not doing enough to tame the wave of the attacks but it appears the attackers, call them any name you wish, are penetrating deeper and deeper daily. Can any lover of Nigeria keep quiet under this apparently hopeless situation? If the attacks continue unabated, can it not undermine our much vaunted oneness?
I read a few days ago of the wife of a Southwest governor condemning those talking of a revolution. I have already heard Chief Olusegun Obasanjo too saying Nigerian unity is not negotiable and that men like Achebe and CAN stalwarts should stop bringing back the memories of the civil war. Good as those admonitions are, the reality on the ground on security in this country has not convinced the generality of Nigerians that all is well with us economically and security-wise.
If those in power do not see anything to bother much about if the poor who go to churches on Sundays are slaughtered, and do not see much that is wrong with the unemployment situation in the country coupled with poverty in the land, then they are free to continue to live in the paradise of their imagination until those who are feeling the pinch rise to question the status quo ante.
If we are to be sincere with ourselves, the way things are going calls for caution in the way affluent ones among us talk when the have-nots are lamenting. Poor governance and terrorism seem to have come to stay, same for wants and poverty. Those are the ingredients of revolutions in other climes especially when those who should address the situation appear callous, gallivant about and preach tolerance in the face unjustifiable attacks on the innocent.
Soji Obebe,
Dugbe, Ibadan.
