It has become so difficult to sleep in Nigeria. A country that was once an oasis of peace has morphed into a hotbed of sleeplessness.
If you stay in Abuja, especially on the outskirts: Apo, Bwari, Lokogoma, Kubwa and Lugbe, basically satellite towns, you must now be getting used to what has long been a tradition in other parts of the country.
You must have stayed up a few nights already this year, straining for strange sounds, your heart pounding wildly as you prepare for the coming of the true owners of Abuja, its latest landlords.
When in 2022 terrorists tore down the medium security correctional facility in Kuje and sprung some of Nigeria’s most dangerous criminals, didn’t the government spit fire, vowing that, “Never again.”
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The “never” has slackened into every now and then. If gold rusts, what will iron do? If the seat of the Nigerian government is being overrun by kidnappers, what is the fate of other parts of the country? The fate is not far-fetched. It is a notorious fact that terrorists control entire villages in some Nigerian states.
Depending on where you sit in the Nigerian food chain, there is a good chance that you no longer eat what you crave or spend your money on what you want. Austerity has become your new anxiety.
As inflation has stripped your plates of all protein, your pockets of cash and your bank account of all savings, Nigeria has also unfortunately stripped your eyes of all sleep.
A new year has set off a string of slaughter and abductions. There is every chance that you have been affected one way or the other by the unbridled profiteering of Nigeria’s new multi-million naira business.
Nigeria’s nebulous constitution is at least clear enough that the security and welfare of the people will be the primary aim of the government. But what is happening here?
There may be little sense in asking the government to do its job because hardness of hearing is rife in Nigeria’s halls of power. But for whatever it is worth, I am asking the government to secure lives and property in Nigeria; to secure the lives of three-year-olds and five-year-olds and prevent their slaughter as happened in Plateau State.
It is callous and calamitous to add insecurity to the poverty already grinding down Nigerians.
Disaster looms when complicity and collusion are suspected between those in power in Abuja and those who rule the roost in Nigeria’s thick forests.
If you suspect that those that have murdered sleep in Nigeria are spread across the country, including in Abuja, you may just be right. And until sleep returns, you will do well to keep your eyes open for Nigeria’s new rulers whose ruthlessness is a rod for Nigerian backs.
Kene Obiezu, [email protected]
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