They freed their jailed inmates in Kuje prison and rubbed their hands with glee. And then they shot at the president's advance convoy and they hopped about in ecstasy.
I am afraid! Very afraid!
If you are not, you should be. You have every reason to be.
Bandits and terrorists are taking over. They have become so emboldened and giddy by their recent 'spectacular successes.' They bombed Owo and were happy with their result. They hit Shiroro hard in Niger state and rejoiced in their perfidy. They freed their jailed inmates in Kuje prison and rubbed their hands with glee. And then they shot at the president's advance convoy and they hopped about in ecstasy. A few days ago in Abuja, they kidnapped and murdered six Nigerian soldiers in an ambush and they were beside themselves in self adulation and congratulations. All of these, they have accomplished in just about three months.
In all of these terror attacks, dozens of our citizens were lost in gruesome manners and yet many more remain prisoners to the marauders.
You see why you should be afraid, very afraid?
After all, in 2021, it only took the Taliban a few days to overrun Afghanistan immediately the Americans abandoned the country.
AND THE BROTHERS OF THE TALIBANS ARE NOW VERY ACTIVE IN NIGERIA.
Mind you, they have the same objective as the Taliban. They are not carrying out their attacks on our country for fun. Every attack has an objective, a goal. They want Nigeria.
And the way our president, Muhammadu Buhari is running the country, he might just hand Nigeria over to them.
BE AFRAID! BE VERY, VERY AFRAID!
They do not even bother to hide their faces while being interviewed by the BBC. Why should they? After all, they are not afraid of the government. It appears that it is the government that is afraid of them. Have they not threatened to kidnap our president and El-Rufai, the loquacious governor of Kaduna state?
'Joseph Goebbels,' sorry, Lai Mohammed, our own version of Hitler's minister of war propaganda is very angry with the BBC. He says that they are glorifying terrorists by interviewing them. But Sheikh Gumi has been coming and going from his forest visitations to the bandits, posing and taking pictures with well-armed and smiling terrorists all this while. No single word of condemnation from Uncle Lai Mohammed. You see what bias and double standards can do?
The truth is that Nigeria is falling! The great country of brave men and women of our military who went into Liberia and Sierra Leone and forced and facilitated peace upon those countries cannot now help herself in her moments of turmoil, fear, and disaster.
Foreign invaders and their local collaborators have taken over our land and are now calling the shots. Our once feared and mighty military is on the retreat. Citizens have become cannon fodder for the pleasure of bandits, terrorists, herdsmen and other despicable foes.
THERE IS FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN!
We told them that it was just a matter of time before the takeover of our country's symbol of unity, Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory. We told them that once the hounds of hell entered Niger state, then it was only a matter of when before Abuja would fall under their fiendish boots. We told them that the man in Aso Rock lacked capacity, empathy, commitment, sense of duty and it would appear, patriotism needed to protect our territory and peoples. But 'Laurel and Hardy' presidential spokesmen would not let us be for daring to question the competence of the boss, the man in Aso Rock. They called us wailers and sore losers.
NOW THERE IS FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN!
And everyone is running because of the fire on the mountain.
That inimitable singer Asa, recently sang her amazing song 'There is fire on the mountain,' right there at Abuja during the unveiling of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company limited. They must have regretted inviting her to provide musical entertainment for the ceremony.
For her song was most appropriate for the unfortunate time we find ourselves in:
"Oh, there is fire on the mountaintop
And no one is a-runnin’
I wake up in the mornin’
Tell you what I see on my TV screen
I see the blood of an innocent child
And everybody’s watchin’
… One day the river will overflow
And there’ll be nowhere for us to go
And we will run, run
Wishing we had put out the fire, oh.
The president was there at the Aso Rock Villa during Asa's rendition, together with the creme de la creme of today's Nigeria, some of whom have played no small part in bringing our great country to her knees.
What was he thinking - our president?
About what Asa was saying? Or about where else he has to travel to? It's what he does - traveling at some of the darkest moments in our country's recent history.
I can comfortably vouchsafe that our president was certainly not thinking of the damage the terrorists are doing to us. If he was, he would do something about it.
But I guarantee that we cannot accept, will not accept that these bandits and terrorists are bigger and mightier than 220 million of us. We refuse to accept that a band of a few thousand fiendish malcontents are bigger than Nigeria. They are most certainly not. We will not bow down to them, neither will we kneel before them. Nigeria and Nigerians will not be conquered by a group of renegades and mercenaries.
BUT THERE IS FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN
The reason why we are losing this battle against the marauders is because some people deep within the labyrinth of government and the military are sleeping with the enemy.
They have crippled and undermined the ability of our security forces including the DSS to neutralise these destructive non- state actors.
We do not fully know all the details of the agenda they are pursuing, but what is clear is that some enemies of Nigeria are involved in the running of our government today. I did not say so. Theophilus Y. Danjuma, former army chief said so and asked Nigerians to defend themselves lest they be murdered in their beds. Some military chiefs, both serving and retired concur. Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue agrees, and former naval commander Solomon Adewunmi who spoke on Channels Television about the same issue admits it.
YET THE FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN BURNS BRIGHT
We have lived this nightmare for all 12 years and more. The toll on our citizens have been traumatic, much more so the victims and their families and communities.
The peak of our national humiliation was the open and brazen public flogging of our fellow kidnapped Nigerians at the hands of the terrorists in their hideouts. And there was nothing, and there still is nothing we can do.
How low can a country fall! How much lower can Nigeria fall!
We have been humiliated for far too long across different administrations. That of President Muhammadu Buhari is the icing on the cake. His, is the ultimate apogee, the peak of calamitous failings that endanger all of us.
His spokesman, Hardy, sorry, Garba Shehu says he has done his best in tackling the insecurity plaguing our land.
THAT MEANS THAT THE FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN WILL CONTINUE TO BURN
But no! If the President Muhammadu Buhari cannot, with our help, put it off, then we the people will have to look for a way to do just that.
Tell Asa that the fire brigade is on the way. We all, young and old who still believe in Nigeria will become fire fighters on the day of rage and wrath to rid our country of the despicable and reprobate terrorists, bandits, and unknown gunmen. And when that day comes, she will sing us a new song - about how we put out the fire on the mountain top without the help of our president.