NIGERIA and Nigerians in the recent past have been faced with a lot of challenges in all spheres of life. The economy has not served the people as it should have. The cost of living has become so high that citizens live on less than a dollar a day. Unfortunately, we have as a country refused to “nairalize” our economy pitching our currency exchange rate against another country’s currency. The economic purposes of this for the ordinary man who has never seen the dollar is far off and remote. He does not need it to sell his goods neither does he need it to do his daily transactions.
So too is the security situation in the country. The people can not go to sleep with their two eyes closed because if they do, their security is not guaranteed. Kidnapping has become endemic and a large swath of the population are exposed to the menace. The state of the infrastructure in the country are nothing to write home about. When you travel by road in our country you expose yourself to a lot of danger from bad roads and from the activities of bandits and kidnappers.
Stealing from the common patrimony has become a kind of sport. Every day new terminologies have navigated their way into our our spoken grammar. New words that had either made no meaning or had sounded so far off and distinct are common place. These days we here about “naming and shaming” and so many other words because of what our country has turned into. Only recently, President Muhammadu Buhari told a bewildered nation that his government would take sponsors of terrorism to court for prosecution. Weeks after, we are yet to see action being taken against these enemies of the country, whose stock in trade has so endangered the country that trust scarcely exist between the disparate groups that makes up the country.
No part of the country can claim to be secured. Insecurity has become second nature to all regions that make up the country. So much devastation everywhere. Kidnapping, banditry, terrorism, herdsmen “wahala” and all manner of crime spawn the landscape and no one feels safe going about their businesses without taking precautions to ensure their safety. These have led to all manner of agitations putting our communities in continuous state of confusion and strife.
The naming and shaming of those who have brought untold hardships on the people would have brought some kind of succour to a fractured society had the government given any consideration to it. By calling out the sponsors of the many bad things that are perpetrated, people would know who their tormentors are and would be able to take precautionary measures to keep them at bay.
Besides, punishment should be meted out to those who run foul of the law so as to serve as deterrent to others who might be contemplating doing same. When punishment are not meted out to those who do wrong, society loses its moral compass to correct and beat back into line offenders who might not be good role models for upcoming generations. Exposing those who soil their hands either in the public till or cause any form of injury on the society would have minimized and mitigated the many wrongs being done our society.
For the country to grow and develop, it has to rediscover itself. By rediscovering itself, the way things are done must be changed. We can not for 61 years keep doing things the same way and expect to get different results. We should and must try new ways in tune with changing times. We can not afford stagnation. We must move away from our long held idiosyncrasies and determine to work as a collective. The era when region and tribe were the defining indices of our existence is long gone and should be jettisoned. Religion has not helped us too as a people. Indeed, it should never define us as it is a personal relationship between the person and his creator.
We must begin to see this country as one if we are serious about making it work. Our narrow and myopic views must be jettisoned to allow us look at the bigger picture. This we can do by growing our institutions. If our institutions are strong enough to enforce our laws and bring to justice anyone who runs foul of the law then and only then we will begin to get it right. We can not afford to continue to punish only those who do not share the same perspective with us only. Anyone who does any wrongdoing should face the music no matter his standing in the society.
If criminals are not shielded therefore, they are most likely not going to go back to their old ways. Our laws should also be strengthened so that it can work for us without bias.
The National Orientation Agency must be enabled to carry messages of change to all nooks and crannies of our land. And, our recruitment process into our various agencies must change if we are to get the best. The police force and other sister security agencies must be re- orientated to understand the new thinking as they have shown that they are not immune from the illness that has affected our society.
