Must Read: THE FUTURE IS BANDITRY By Ikenna Oodo

 THE FUTURE IS BANDITRY.
© Ikenna Oodo

No nation ever gets out of the woods the way we are going about it. It is either we retrace our steps very quickly or be prepared to see the worst come to worst. In the midst

of the unfolding wreckages in the country, the gross condonation and association with bandits, the criminal disposition of our leaders, and how they are always at the end of their wits for roguery and crookedness, I recalled the words of Balzac, the great Russian novelist who said “if your children are not better than you, you have fathered them in vain”

How do we raise patriotic citizens with the true spirit of nationalism in Nigeria? How do we raise concerned and well behaved children in this perilous time? How do you convince your younger ones that education is the key to success when we are surrounded by poor graduates and rich criminals? When will our leaders stop running a country of over 200 million heterogeneous people like their private fiefdom? How long shall we continue to endure and live like sub humans and conquered people in our fatherland? How long shall our leaders continue to run Nigeria like a criminally mismanaged enterprise? 

Are the madness and the criminal instincts we see in our political leaders especially the likes of Sheikh Gumi not an offshoot of the insecurities in the country? How do we prevent a multiplication of this madness?

What worries me the most is not just that our leaders have proved to be a colossal failure, because while today looks so bad, they have not been able after decades of democracy to raise our hope for a better future, but have practically made it impossible for us to survive through honest means. Instead of raising our hopes, they are jamboreeing in corrosive proclivities for bad governance, with blame-games taking over sound thinking and responsive government. 

Corruption is our culture in Nigeria. As a matter of fact, anyone who fails to be corrupt is treated with the language he or she will understand. Inshort, the more corrupt you are, the brighter your future and the greater your chances in this country. The truth is that a just man cannot thrive in this country because the degree of success is measured on how well one flourishes on the ruins of another. 

Where are the Nuhu Ribadus? Where are the ABC Nwosus? Where are the Orubebes? Where are the noble men and women of goodwill who believe in the words of Martin Luther King Jnr. that the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige, and even his life for the welfare of others.

Many years ago, Awolowo averred; “the pursuit of wealth is not a bad thing in itself because without the food, and comforts which wealth provides, life will be penurious and drab. But, always remember that any wealth accumulated on a selfish basis, at the expense of the state in defiance of social justice helps to create a disorganized society in which everybody will eat everybody, and no one person can be safe”

We have a crop of people in government whose sole interest is to protect the interest of its thieving members. I have said it a thousand and one times; Sheikh Gumi is a terrorist and he is so much at home with the whereabouts of bandits and their operational know-how. But it seems he is a sacred cow; and can never be accosted because he is executing the directives of government, whom from all indications is aiding terrorism and banditry in the country. 

Sheikh Gumi ferried away 500 million naira, and unwholesome amounts in other separate occasions in a cavalcade of security escorts fully armed to the teeth, to bandits hideout in a forest where they met, discussed and afterwards, dabbled into a convulsion of festival for a deal well-done.

What stops the government from interrogating Gumi since he knows that much about bandits and their hideouts? What stops Gumi from leading or giving useful information to government about bandits hideouts if he is not a terrorist hobnobbing with the government? What stops the armed forces from leading operation to bandits hideout since Gumi has on all the occasions gone to deliver and negotiate ransoms with them? What stops the government from tracking the bandits with the lines they have being calling with to negotiate ransom if truly they don’t have a hand in it? 

What system of government are we really practicing in this country? Who is fooling who? I think it was Abraham Lincoln who said “you can fool all the people some of the times, some of the people all of the times, but you cannot fool all the people all of the times”

Comr. Ikenna oodo

How do you begin to explain the fact that bandits are paid heavily with tax payers’ money for wrecking havocs in the country while civil servants, the geese that lay the golden eggs in the country are owed backlogs of pittance of minimum wages? How do you begin to convince the youths not to take to anarchy and criminalities when bandits are paid with pensioners’ money to acquire deadlier weapons and unleash more terror on the masses while their fathers and mothers are denied the proceeds of their sweats and left to groan in acute wretchedness? How will you convince me to be responsible and stay away from banditry when bandits and terrorists are paid in hard currencies for being irresponsible?

As far as this trend is concerned, the government has made it very clear to all of us that nothing pays much dividends in Nigeria than banditry and terrorism. And for this reason, the future is banditry because banditry is the new oil well.