7/27/2019 SAM NDA ISAIAH

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SAM NDA-ISAIAH 2,334 like this 5 hours ago

Will Things Continue Like This?

The new normal in Nigeria is very abnormal. In one single day recently, there were52 different murders in different parts of the country. And, as far as I know, no oneis being held to account for any of these murders. About a fortnight ago, more than50 people were killed in a bus-stop in Kano in a single incident. A couple of dayslater, 24 people were killed in Plateau State in renewed violence, the following day,13 more were killed in the same Plateau State. By weekend, the death toll in Plateauwas about 100. Murders of one or two people are no longer reported in the newsmedia because, according to one editor I once queried why a certain news item wasmissed, only two people were killed. Nigeria is losing its soul.

At issue is that our country is not being governed properly. The way PresidentJonathan currently governs the country is not how to run a country. There is nocountry in the world that is free of crime; it is the way an entity deals with crimethat will determine the security situation of that entity. Crime flourishes in Nigeria fora reason and even a kindergarten pupil should know why. Crime flourishes in ourcountry because there are no deterrents.

I was in Singapore a fortnight ago and over a single crime which I am still not sureis codified as a crime in Nigeria forty-five different people, many of them

foreigners, were charged in court. Some were later discharged but many of thosearrested are now headed for prison. They were all charged with the crime of engaging in sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old girl. Countries that are secure arealways those, which by choice, are tough on crime. In Singapore, it is deathsentence for arms trafficking. And arms trafficking is defined as being in possessionof more than two firearms. In Nigeria, when was the last time anyone was chargedwith being in illegal possession of firearms? How many times have we heard thesecurity agencies announce that they had impounded lorry loads or even ship loadsof arms and ammunition and then the story just fizzles out? We must have all lostcount. How many culprits have been arraigned in court for such offences and jailedsince President Jonathan became president? Even the very few who were convictedbefore he became president are now being pardoned and even compensated.

We have he ard of the uncovering of bomb making factories several times in thepast and nothing eventually came out of it. Where is the attorney-general of thisfederation? Nobody, not even his detractors can question the credentials of theattorney-general, but why is he so incapacitated? No attorney-general can be thisincompetent or absent- minded unless he is under a specific directive from the Ogaat the top not to do anything. Nigerians are really confused. Nobody knows what ishappening anymore. The police, SSS and all other security agents can arrest all thecriminals in the world but as long as they are not tried and punished, they arewasting their time and ours. Even as I settle down to write this piece yesterday,several gunshots and explosions were being heard from different parts of Kano and

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these gunshots and explosions would continue and they will spread to other parts of the country if President Jonathan does not start running the country as any averageleader should. Running a country should not be the rocket science that Jonathan istrying to make it unless there is something else many of us dont know.

Apart from the apparent incapacity of the attorney-general and minister of justicewho by the way is a successful lawyer and senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN) to boot,there are many other happenings that cannot just be explained. When theopposition merger appears to be moving smoothly and there appeared to be abrewing political alliance between the North and the South-West, we started hearingof the intention of Boko Haram to bomb Lagos. Some munitions were uncovered andas usual, we have not heard that any of those arrested would be arraigned in court.In any case, how can we expect anyone to be charged this time when no one hasbeen charged in court for killing those professors who were murdered whileworshipping in the university chapel at Bayero University, Kano last year and no one

has been charged with the murder of General Muhammadu Shuwa in broad daylightin Maiduguri? And, by the way, what is this confusion about some would-be Lagosbombers being arrested in a property belonging to the Bayelsa State government inLagos? Somebody has to clear the air as quickly as possible please because I dontlike what people are already saying.

It does not even appear that the president thinks there is a problem. All thatpreoccupies his mind these days is how to seek re-election and continue in Aso Rock beyond 2015. He certainly does not intend to run on his record because he has norecord to run on. Is it not a cruel joke that the president intends to seek re-election

when he cannot manage the elementary challenge of keeping the country safe fromhoodlums? I do not know whether the president intends to rig the 2015 presidentialelection but if he intends to do so as many people believe, then he certainly doesnot know how gravely unpopular he has become. Any politician who is ready to rigelections with that kind of desperate unpopularity should also be ready to face thedesperate consequences of such action. But the president is perfectly within his rightto seek re-election and no one has any right to deprive him of those rights. The onlyright that the rest of us can exercise is to save our country from inexorable collapseby stopping him from continuing beyond 2015. And we must all exercise that powerwith everything that we have.

But between now and 2015, whats going to happen to us? Are we going to continuelike this? Who are those funding these murderers? And why is it so difficult to findthis out? Are they fifth columnists or blacklegs? Or maybe they are just simplyghosts as the president himself would say. Why wont the government start bymaking arms trafficking a capital offence and actually enforcing it? Or at the veryleast, why shouldnt the government just start charging people in court today forbeing in illegal possession of firearms? And seriously, is there anything stopping thepresident? And what prevents President Jonathan from ordering the immediatearraignment of all those arrested in connection with the several murders in the land?Or, are we going to continue to rely on South Africa and the United Kingdom to dealwith our criminals? The more one thinks of this, the more confused one gets.Certainly, things cannot continue like this.

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