Thursday, 17 May 2012
Christmas Bombings: A Nation Courting Death By Okey Ndibe
Last Sunday, Nigeria made another bloody bid for global infamy as bombs detonated in churches in Abuja and elsewhere in the country. At the time of this writing, the death toll stood at more than twenty-five, and was expected to rise. That’s a staggering loss of lives. Once again, Nigeria earned the world’s attention for the wrong reason.
As the rest of the world exchanged Christmas cheer, Nigerians reeled from devastation and death wrought by rabid terrorists.
At a time like this – and the story of Nigeria is increasingly a collection of times like this – one confronts the ultimate question of whether Nigeria makes sense. And whether there’s ever a cost-effective way to make the incoherent entity called Nigeria work after all. Those who planted the bombs are doubtless opposed to the idea of one Nigeria. They also disdain the basic idea that all lives are sacred.
Just as disturbing is the sense one gets that President Goodluck Jonathan has no clear path or plan to take Nigeria out of this devastating maelstrom. The man and his deputy were reportedly partying at the time the bombs went off, wreaking havoc. As the world recoiled in horror, Mr. Jonathan and his coterie continued to gyrate! It took numerous hours before he deigned to speak to his bereaved, battered fellow citizens. That’s simply appalling.
To be an attuned leader is to recognize that you must rally to comfort your people at their moment of distress. It also means being able to spell out what you’re going to do to arrest the reign of senseless violence. Instead, Mr. Jonathan told Nigerians to brace themselves for the burden of death by Boko Haram bombs – until such a time as the group’s hideous militancy “fizzles” out.
Mr. Jonathan’s initial silence – his missing voice – brought him no credit as a leader. When he spoke, he hardly impressed the nation that he understands the scale of the crisis – or that he knows his way around it. Instead, it was easy to detect alienation, disconnection and bewildered. Nigerians deserve much better from their leadership.
Several people came to me at mass on Christmas to voice their dismay, shock, and sympathy about Nigeria’s latest entry in the world’s harvest of shock-and-awe acts. It is nothing short of depraved for any group to think that God sanctions the taking of human lives, even the lives of so-called infidels. Let’s make no mistake: there’s no redeeming feature to the killing of innocents. Nothing excuses the assaults on worshippers.
The terrorist acts were callous, cruel, and senseless. They seemed calculated to trigger the kind of sectarian bad blood that may push Nigeria into the cauldron of a horrendous war. Inexcusable and cowardly, the bloody attacks – and their toll of deaths, injuries and destruction to property – bode ill for a country where cheer is already a scarce commodity, hope disappearing fast.
Each day, Nigerians are forced to accept new depths of crudity and violence as the norm. We are in danger of becoming a country where the slaughter of hundreds, even thousands, of defenceless citizens is deemed a normal fact of life. We have come to a stage where horror has become as familiar to Nigerians as humane, life-affirming practices are to people in much of the world.
Nigerian officials protest vociferously whenever any foreign governments or their agencies suggest Nigeria’s fragility, or predict that its continued corporate existence is highly endangered. Nigerian officials insist that the Nigerian union is solid, fortified, well cemented.
Yet, it doesn’t require a clairvoyant’s flair to realize that the official proclamations of a healthy Nigeria are based more on wishful thinking and delusions than reality and sound logic. Nigeria is a troubled, and troubling, polity. It is an unexamined concept; it is, above all, a creation of British fiat that we love to pretend is viable.
Socrates famously contended that an unexamined life was not worth living. One must stipulate that an unexamined nation is not worth preserving.
President Jonathan may not have done much to ameliorate the nation’s problems, but the problems predate him. In fact, the tragedy of Nigeria is rooted in fifty years of failed leadership, betrayed dreams, foregone paths, and squandered opportunities. In fact, part of the solution must entail an admission by Mr. Jonathan that Nigerians have not settled the fundamental question of whether they wish to coexist, and on what terms.
There’s little chance of the Nigerian police and military winning the war against Boko Haram. How do you win against an unconventional enemy that believes it operates under divine commission and guidance?
In the end, we must come to terms with the real prospect that Nigeria is a dying idea. Each bomb that kills and maims innocent citizens propels a fifty-year old country that doesn’t know itself towards doom.
Downsize Greed For A Change
Last week, President Goodluck Jonathan held a media chat to defend his government’s determination to remove fuel subsidy early next year. I thought it was a flop in the sense that the president did not come close to clinching the case. If anything, he came across as a political magician seeking to offer the abracadabra of fuel subsidy removal as the one-answer-fits-all recipe for tackling all of the nation’s crises – from corruption through unemployment to infrastructural wretchedness.
In some sense, Mr. Jonathan was arguing that his policy was essential to creating jobs, developing infrastructure, and slaying the monster of corruption. How one wishes that governance could be reduced to such formulaic simplicity. Then, assured that they would live happily ever after, Nigerians would overwhelmingly support the removal of fuel subsidy. Alas, alas, that’s not the case – and President Jonathan, as far as the majority of Nigerians are concerned, has not had an impressive say, even though there’s no question he’s determined to have his way.
Yet, there was one statement that Jonathan made that resonated. In perhaps his most high-minded statement in a long time, Mr. Jonathan said that Nigeria was not broke, “but as a responsible father, you save for your children.”
That’s exactly the standard that Nigerians should hold their president – and other public officials – to. At its worst, the tragedy of Nigeria has to do with a palpable indifference to the idea that there’s a future, and we’re at once responsible for shaping it and answerable to it. Too many Nigerians, public office holders as well as the Okoye, Musa and Segun on the street, behave as if there’s no tomorrow, no future.
It’s comforting, then, to hear Mr. Jonathan voice an interest in the future. Still, one wonders if this invocation of the future wasn’t just a mere rhetorical trick.
Nigerians are rather familiar with the deceptive art of leaders who ask them to make big sacrifices in order to reap heaven on earth – in the future. Former General Ibrahim Babangida promised us great things from his structural adjustment program (SAP). The wonders never arrived, but that didn’t stop Mr. Babangida from retiring to a swank hilltop mansion.
If Nigerian leaders were concerned about the future, their actions would show it. They would spend more of their waking hours thinking up solutions to the nation’s myriad crises, rather than concocting schemes to steal public funds. They would downsize their greed and upgrade their vision. They would invest in schools, libraries, healthcare, and seek to improve their people’s social indices.
Does Jonathan have it in him to seize the opportunity and become the first Nigerian president to take the future seriously? Does he have the wisdom to realize how immoral it is to ask Nigerians to endure a certain rise in petroleum products when Nigerians will be paying for his and his family’s fuel needs for the duration of his presidency? Does he have the capacity to see how downright indefensible it is to ask Nigerians (including those on minimum wage) to spend approximately one billion naira on feeding him, his vice president and their respective families?
Mr. Jonathan’s best shot at convincing Nigerians to endorse his removal of fuel subsidy lies in his leading a crusade to drastically reduce the perks of his office and those of the small band of “privileged” Nigerians. If he’s dead set on saving some goodies for the future – a laudable idea – let him start by saving from his own bloated budget.
Follow me on twitter @ OkeyNdibe
i love your piece
i love your piece
Who iis this Deri of a
Who iis this Deri of a person? My guess is he is either Reuben Abatti or one of thhe govt paid jobbers. The guy is really an IDIOT. He has sold his soul to d devil. His thinking goes contrary to wt obtains on every normal discuss. I wish I can trace d idiot, for sure he'll be deaad when am done wt him! How can sm1 chose to lose all sense of rational thinking and make posts such as d ones he does on evr issue on SR. No 2 ways abt it, d guy is a govt agent. I think d best is just to leave him to wallow in thhhe inglorrious path he has chosen, that's wt money and money can do....
After all, we hv seen Chukwumerijiie tow similar propagandist path in the past during Abacha's era, he has his conscience to judge him. No evil goes unpunished. He will sure reap d fruits of hiss handiwork.
What options are available to govt. in dealing with boko haram?
Ifeanyi I agree with you. Nevertheless, it seems the responsible person/persons in govt. who has/have the authority to take decisive action to stem the menace of boko haram is sleeping or is fearful to do so, even with all the state might to his/her/their disposal.
On Okey Ndibe's comments
I have always respected Okey's columns and will continue to enjoy his versatile postings. In the piece above, he was cleverly sinusoidal in his criticism of Nigeria and GEJ.
Same cannot be said of Nigeria! And we criticize the government? I hold the view that Nigerians are very unique people, very selfish, no matter where they reside. All the people who has posted one comment or the other here will behave exactly the same way if given GEJ's position. I only pray that God will give the country a new orientation, an orientation that will give us a new focus, new idealogy, new conciousness, etc. I have never felt so sad in my life when I got a call from Nigeria on Xmas day! that people have been massacred while oberving quiet moment with God! May God help those who perpetrated the act, and give Nigeria the fortitude to bear the loss of these ones!
okey's comment
OBJ as military leader told us to endure an austere times in the seventies, we did without hesitation.Shagari did the same in 1982, IBB did the same with SAP in 86, OBJ ON A SECOND JOURNEY increased the price of pms and ago, 6times b4 the end of his administration. In all,the people did not get any appreciable benefit.A.G.O HAS BEEN DEREGULATED still nothing to write home about in terms of their so called palliatives sorry [ESTACY].they think they can drown us with happiness when we hear about thier fake promises from adam to jesus.STUPID, we are going to overthrow this convocation of civilian thieves contraped for the people of this nation by the military. soon.
Deri Shut up with your lies
Deri,
you must be a demented fool. I am from Kwara state and I can tell you that no such thing occurred in Ilorin during Palm Sunday 1986. Do not come here and spew lies just to support your pay masters. I was in the palm Sunday procession on that particular Palm Sunday and we marched all through the town without any incident. Your pay masters are the same people behind the bombings just to justify the trillion Naira budget on security.
Certainly you are one of the problems of Nigeria and for sure you will go down with the rest of the looters.
Mark my word, very soon your real identity will be made public online!
Is nigeria a country?z
After reading the article and reading the comments,its obvious that everything in this country is colored by religion or ethnic loyalties. Instead of discussing the issues the writer brought up,we have descended as usual to our normal low of defending our ethnic and party beliefs. Wen that bomb went off at st thresas church it had no blue print to identify those who support GEJ and those who dont. It did not ask the victims their state of origin,status or party loyalties. If we cannot at a forum like this rise above our idiosyncrasies ,what right do we have to expect the charlattans in boko haram to think above violence? This "country" is a joke. Period. The earlier we ask the question if we want to live together the better for everybody. Nothing lasts forever,soviet union didnt.
Who says Boko Haram is not winning the Islamisation fight?
I ask once again: Who says Boko Haram is not winning its fight to Islamise Nigeria and have Sharia as Nigeria's state law? When the churches in Nigeria are avoided by Christians, is it not the same as saying that Islam has taken a stronghold in Nigeria? Just two days ago, the Sultan of Sokoto told Muslims to unite, afterall Muslims, he said, are in majority in Nigeria. One does not know how the sultan got his statistics. Nigeria govt ought to read what the Sultan meant by this "Muslims are in majority statement" coming just the period the Muslims are fast driving Xtians into their houses with bombs. In better climes, the sultan could have been brought for questioning. This is just war declared against Xtians from the highest quarters.
Owambe Emperor
The man and his deputy were reportedly partying at the time the bombs went off, wreaking havoc. As the world recoiled in horror, Mr. Jonathan and his coterie continued to gyrate!
After the gyration dem go condemn the bombings and wait for God-knows-who to catch the bombers.
Then go back to their gyration.
Re: @ Anonymous-Nigerian opposition feasting...
What do you mean by "you are JEG fan"? Are you not a Nigerian? Is Jonathan not your president? If you have any other president or if you exist in a separate Nigeria pls tell us so we can relate to that. I dont understand why partisanship in an election that was decided 6months ago will still be of signifiance today so much so that at each turn what we hear is how we shouldn't hav voted for Jonathan. Most persons opposed to subsidy removal today do that SOLELY because the proposal is coming from Jonathan. Is that how to build a nation? Must we play politics every seconds of our lives? Where is the space for governance & development? If Nig develops in 3yrs such that we have steady power,more jobs,etc,is it not you and I and our children that will enjoy it? Does it matter under whose tenure these things were achieved? Elections have been won & lost,Jonathan is in charge for the next 4yrs,so why cant we all be fans of Jonathan at least till 2015,then return to the trenches of partisanship
IFEANYI DEMOCRACY AND DERI ARE DREAMERS
If u guys claim that the problem of Nigeria did not start from your President Jonathan, I agree. But as he claims to be a new generation president, he should act like one. New generation leaders think differently; they are selfless, fearless, incorruptible, and most of all intelligent. Your Jonathan has shown none of these qualities and therefore is not fit to be President in this modern world. Nigeria is a complex society that requires a quick thinking and intelligent person to be able to lead. He just sits down and takes any idea that is thrown to him by those clowns around him called advisers. Jonathan has earmarked 1billion naira for feeding between him and his vice from tax payers' money, but you people do not see anything wrong in blaming him for the insecurity in Nigeria. I can't recount of one achievement of Jonathan in the past two years he's been at the helms of affairs. Shame on u blind supporters. Ogogoro heads.
These people have overstepped
These people have overstepped their bounds by continuosly killing christians. When their fellow moslems were financing them to kill themselves, i pitied those dead. But it has now taken a different ball game, i am ready for the death of people who are did this. If these muslims want war, let it be.
@ Azibaola Ukueje
Mister you have a faulty taught process, and you are a brainless idiot. Did you at all read the article in dept.? All you picked from the article is the removal of fuel subsidy. You are also praising Mr. Deri for speaking the truth. Every posting done by Mr. Deri on this blog has been fabricated. Ask Mr. Deri next time that he post a comment on this blog, to please provide us a link to verify his information. All the informations that he post on this blog are all half truths. If you doubt it, check out any of his comments and find out the hogwash he has been feeding on the gullible ones like you, mind you am from SS like Deri.
What Do You Guys want your president to do exactly?
Locate some members of the so called Boko Haram, arrest and detain them. Obtain useful information regarding their finances, operations, weapons supplies, and most importantly; their grieveance.
Next, make stringent laws to deal with the situation. Recruit and train more paramilitary personnel to keep abreast of Boko Haram's activities, and brief the nation about what he is doing
Nigerian Opposition Feasting......
It is evident from reading your piece that you are JEG's fan. Jonathan as the head of Nigerian government owed the nation a visible way out of this Boko Haram dastard acts of violence. The fact that terrorism prevailed before Jonathan's presidency is besides the point. What matters is what he is doing. With all the resources in his power he should have been able to arrest some of the perpetrators, interrogate them, and obtain useful information to expose their financiers, and sources of arms supplies. Then pass stringent laws to deal with terrorism.
As it were, all we have from the president is incoherent speeches that profer no way out of our dilemma. There is nothing wrong with the entity called Nigeria. There are more nations on earth with a much diverse ethnic and religious structure than us. Why is separation always the first proferred option every time we have a problem?
Links
if they want sha-ria give it to them. whats wrong in it? while they are living as americans and british they want others to live as one nigerianas
Links
Again, boko-haram should not be blame, they are just carrying out an order. there are those responsible behind the scene while bokoharam is physically responsible. mr. president this issue is easy to solve, maybe, if you don't know, here is the solution i got for you. DO NOT LISTEN TO THE BRITISH OR AMERICANS THEY LIKE US TO LIVE AS NIGERIANS BUT ARE NOT PART OF THE COUNTRY, IF THEY WERE NIGERIANS THEY WOULD NOT BE SAYING THEY LIKE NIGERIA. DO LISTEN TO YOUR FELLOW AFRICANS,I MEAN THE PEOPLE THEY CALL NIGERIANS AND YOU WILL GET THE SOLUTION. THE SOLUTION IS DIVISION.
Links
The british kingdom is responsible for everything that happens in nigeria. you ought to say the truth. the reason nigeria still exist is not because of the hausa/fulani or yoruba or igbo. the main reason nigeria still exist is because the british kingdom want her to stay. what i do not know is the reason they want nigeria. the other day one of them said he likes nigeria. i can't just understand why? i do not know if these people are happy seeing africans killing their self
Ignorance On Display by The North
@ Zanderlex: Jonathan didnt unsurp the turn of the north in any peaceful arrangement of rotational presidency. He simply upheld his rights as a citizen and which progressively enlightened minds should aplaud. Jonathan didnt become president because he was rigged in. This stance is insulting to all who voted for him especially after having won in places strongly opposed to his party. Your insinuation on Boko Haram’s rampage seems myopic as it existed before Jonathan became president and is every persons problem, not Jonathans. If your position is right however then we are heading for disintegration because history has over time proven that no one man has monopoly of violence. The Americans will tell you better from their bodybag count. I hope the south doesnt retaliate but its just a matter of time if these attacks on southern interests dont stop. The North has more to lose? By the way, the North ruled Nigeria for long and what value did they add? Pain?
Time to retaliate !
Time to retaliate !
Give Me Turai...Jaja Dumbo Is Murdering Us !
Needless to be Catholics, or even Christians to realise that we're living in a spiral of death due to one man's incompetence. If it were Patience carrying that toddler with his brains flowing out, would Dumbo tell her the pain and burden will soon "fizzle" out? Only a drunken, mindless aborigine can think of such rubbish after world leaders had condemned the carnage. Even the Pope rushed back to issue a statement calling it "Absurd" that it happened, albeit preventable. And here, we have a lunatic listing worthless history of past absurdities, as if that's enough reason for Nigerians to continue dying like flies. Like I've often posted here, every drop of innocent blood lost under the drunken gaze of a tactless aborigine is on Dumbo's empty head, he is ultimately responsible for security of lives and property and his woeful failure is reason enough to impeach him! Nigeria was undoubtedly safer under Turai's Cabal than these creek crooks!
@marshal : Great Comment !!!
Nigerian Opposition Feasting on National tragedy!
It is only in Nigeria that the opposition groups and parties tries to make political gains from a national tragedy,from the death of fellow Nigerias. This goes to show how the DESPERATION of the average Nigerian politician for power. From CPC to ACN to the spokesperson for Buhari,the hunt for cheap political points is clear. This is most unfortunate. Many online anti-Jonathan foot solders are not left out. They are all feasting on a national tragedy,each person trying to out do the other in choice of gutter phrases to describe the president. In all these criticisms none has proffered solutions to the problem. If any of these SHAMELESS critics were to be head of state,is it not the same armed forces deployed presently in Jos,Maiduguri,Yobe,etc that they will deploy? Will they IMPORT security personnel from abroad? Was America able to stop bomb blast in Iraq and Afghanistan? Anyway, NEMESIS will catch up with all those scoring politicale points with death of innocent Nigerians.
I did not reach the same
I did not reach the same conclusion by reading okey's article. I found the tone of your critic as condescending,arrogant and rude. I feel for the families of the dead.
@ Deri - Keep The Flag of Truth Flying
@ Deri. Please keep the truth at the doorstep of those who know it but still show disregard for it. A mature mind always looks inward for solution and not first outward for who to blame at every sighting of a challenge. Nigeria is as good as we are as a people and if bad, then as bad as we are as a people. Jonathan is not the reason for the state of the nation but the sponsors of many of those who call you names on this forum. I guess most those who criticise Jonathan do so because he is not of same extract as them meaning he would have been good if from where they originate. Fortunately, Jonathan seems undeterred by all the spanners thrown in the wheel as he is determined to straighten a few structural defects before leaving office. Long Live Jona, short live subsidy.
Nigeria
For me, Nigeria died in 1967. These killings are just the manifestations of the peoples' refusal to accept the obvious. The brutal and cowardly carnage will continue
for as long as 'Nigerians' continue to be in denial.
Shameful and Unhelpful Article.
Politicizing and using these unfortunate events to argue against the removal of the subsidy is distasteful and undermines the perceived intelligence of this writer who obviously lacks knowledge of his nation especially on sectarian issues. The depth of folly displayed by a man intent on shaping opinions is disturbing. A planned failure by design, what in his theoretical-dream does he expect of Jonathan on Nigeria in his short stay in office? Ask troops to kill everyone in the North like his predecessors did in Odi and Kayama or during the Biafra War? Even Mohamed Ali, not a “graduate” like Okey, knows “You can’t hit what you can’t see”. I guess you live in America and see the Americans clapping at the body bags from Afghanistan, the reason they haven’t stopped the war in Afghanistan. Get real Okey. If Jonathan and Co were busy Gyrating like you irresponsibly suggested, these calamities would have been worse. Decent minds don’t play politics with people’s lives. Dont.
RE : THE DEATH OF NIGERIA :- BRING IT ON
167 MILLION PEOPLE IN AN AFRICAN NATION ARE GROSSLY DISPROPORTIONAL WHEN COMPARED WITH OTHER COMPETING AFRICAN COUNTRIES LIKE GHANA;- 25 MILLION PEOPLE(U.N.2011); SOUTH AFRICA- 50.5 MILLION PEOPLE(U.N.2011).
270 DISTINCTIVE ETHNIC NATIONALITIES IN A FLEDGELING AFRICAN NATION AS NIGERIA IS CULTURALLY COUTER-PRODUCTIVE AS THE COHESIVENESS AND THE INTEGRATION OF ALL THE MULTIPLE AND THE DIVERSE TRIBAL ESTRAPOLATIONS,(AS ALWAYS) HAVE BEEN THAT OF CHAOS, WITH DEEP-ROOTED HATRED AND A ZERO-PATRIOTIC CONSCIENCES.
NIGERIA IS CONFUSED AND CONFUSING. HER "DEATH" WILL MARK A RE-BIRTH WHERE BENEVOLENT LIGHT COULD BE SEEN AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL. DEVOLVING NATIONS THEREFROM, MAY NOT ALL SWIM PERFECTLY, BUT, WE CANNOT ALL SINK AT THE SAME TIME, AS IT APPEARS AT THE MOMENT.
dangerous
Letter to Mr. President
Mr President, I would like to know what are those new tactics u re going to adopt to tackle terrorism in this country, and I hope it won't be that we bear the burden and act like its not existing, hoping if we ignore their existence then they will fizzle away. I can understand ur aloof standpoint as none of ur children nor those of ur croonies died or will ever die from such terrorism, so y shld u care?. In other serious societies, such statement as that which u made yesterday will lead to ur immediate resignation or impeachment but then, Nigeria is not a serious society and that's y not one of ur security chiefs or advisers have thought it wise to resign, cos their being in office is not about the service they can render but about the largesse of office they can lay hands on. What a crime shame.
Jonathan Sees the Rot
No matter what we say about Jonathan, he knows one thing. He can manage the rottenness in the country until 2015 and then hand over to the next looter. Then he will join IBB, OBJ,and Buhari on the high stage of the 'former head of state' to continue collecting retirement benefits. Nigeria has been like this since eternity. God help us.

