It is rather superfluous to harp on organizing nationwide protests in Nigeria, having regards to the fact that we are already enmeshed the quandary of a horde of ruderless youths with unimaginable propensity for violent volatility at any fleeting moment.
Nigeria is a veritable breeding ground for street urchins who roam menacingly about the nooks and cranies of our cities, towns, and villages, driving fears and intimidation into the hearts of innocent law abiding citizens and causing great threats to public order, peace and harmony.
Here in Lagos, at any time, either during the day or in the night, no vehicled owner ever prays to have any form of disappointment from his vehicle on the road. Be it a punctured tire, or overheating, or any form of fault that could cause one to momentarily pull over by the roadside for repairs. No sooner the occurrence of such incident, that these vagabonds would emerge from various locations and gather around the victim of the incident, making all manner of monetary demands, which the refusal of the victim can result in his being brutally attacked, battered, and fatally harmed by the urchins. If a Lagos resident is moving from one part of the city to another with his domestic items in a truck, he must pay these urchins a huge amount before allowing him to offload those items. The payment must be made under their unbearable and irresistible pressure and unwavering conditions. On traffic jams in Lagos, commuters are routinely exposed to the ferocious presence of these young men who wear very veral and rapacious looks, with a predatory impulse towards innocent people on the road, even in the comfort of their vehicles !
From Kano to Port Harcourt, Sokoto to Awka, Jalingo to Benin city, the foregoing dreadful Lagos situation is replicated in virtually all the cities of Nigeria. That of Abuja is even worse. Hoodlums now attack people right in the comfort of their homes, in their vehicles, and on walking exercises in the neighborhoods.
We must thank God for the unrelenting proactivity of the nation's security outfits, chief among which, of course , is the Nigeria Police, in their untiring efforts to bring these terrific situations under control. Otherwise, this country would have been worse than hell to live in.
So, everything considered, we've all along been victims of protests by irate citizens who are now aggrieved for being rejected and deprived of the basic necessities to ake out even a modicum of subsistence and survival. They now vent their grievances on the rest of us, innocent members of society. To them, whoever is riding on a nice car, or living in a fairly decent house, is an automatic member of the club of their oppressors who should be attacked to extort what they deemed to be their rightful portion of the commonwealth. It is this mentality that ignites and spurs these vagabonds to assail their innocent victims with no compunction or contrite at all. They even feel justified to do so.
The strength of the nation's police and other sister agencies to contain this situation is not inexhaustible. In fact, it is now getting to a point where the nation's police, due to a number of factors, chief among which are provisional and internal inadequacies, all of which combine to adversely affect its operational efficacy, may be overwhelmed and fatally eclipsed by the scary security situation. So, the proactive security measures of the police and its sister agencies may not be enough to surmount the national tragedy.
In view of the foregoing realities, the government needs to do far more than it is currently doing to simmer down this boiling situation in the country. However, one must not fail to acknowledge the fact that the government has put a number of palliative measures in place to assuage and relieve the masses of the enduring agony under which they now labour in pains. But to be candid, these alleviating measures fly in the face of the provocative extravagancy of government officials. The government needs to do more in this area of governance.
It is not enough to tell people that things will be fine, or that the future is bright when, in reality, things are terribly bad. When the pains, agony, and misery bedeviling the populace, all defy the palliative measures being applied to address the situation.
It is not enough to preach hope in an atmosphere of hopelessness and disillusionment.
It is not possible for the poverty striken masses to keep believing in the euphemism, sophistry, and rhetorics of the rulers who keep flaunting their illicit wealth so recklessly, mindlessly and insensitively before hapless masses.
The extravagancy, flamboyancy, profligacy, and unconscionable ostentatious lifestyles of the rulers to the knowledge of the impoverished citizens wouldn't let any homily of a renewed hope sell with the people. For the government to win the heart, understanding, sympathy, cooperation, and loyalty of the citizens, its principal members and officials must identify with the citizens in their lifestyles and be sincere, both in words and action. Their outward disposition must conform to the reality of things with the masses who put them in power with their votes. Otherwise, no amount of palliative or oratory display at the press conference will make any sense to the people.
For instance, how can the national assembly justify its purchase of vehicles of 160 million Naira for each of its members in the face of this grinding poverty? How can the monies that are borrowed under many lethal conditionalities be shared, stolen, and mismanaged by our managers to massage their greed, while the ordeal and pain of refunding the debt is passed onto the masses under the guises of depressing taxes and other obnoxious economic policies? How can the parliament justify its stupendous take homes and unreasonable allowances under such a parlors economy as ours?
And to add sslt to our injury, all the foregoing atrocious and stunting escapades are happening under the watch of a president who keeps preaching renewed hope to the people? A presidency that buys a jet for $ 150 million for the sole use of the chief servant of the nation? A presidency that built a 20 billion Naira mansion for its vice president? A government whose ministers are being drilled routinely by the parliament for massive corruption? How can the people keep reposing their hope, confidence, and trust in such government?
Let the government look at itself in the mirror and do the needful. A stitch in time, saves nine.
