In Nigeria, history demands that on the first day of October the drums be rolled out accompanied by blaring trumpets and clanging cymbals melodiously beating in unison to the parades of the military and the para-military to celebrate the National Day (ND). Even today, one still derives tremendous enjoyment and satisfaction by merely watching the spectacular October show. This year regrettably the October show held just about a fortnight ago, was to say the least after a fashion; it was low key without any of the razzmatazz expected of it. No starry-eyed, neatly dressed school children swinging their arms and stepping out in unison in exquisite formation, neither were there any military and para-military men and women, nor their horseback riding colleagues doing goose – steps with the genial and pliable beasts they usually ride.
The whole affair, as it transpired, occurred in the seclusion of the seat of power -Aso Rock, where a select group of people including diplomats, business moguls and captains of industry, as well as notable political party chieftains were the only invitees. Indeed the occasion was far removed from the view of the people – and that, for an event that should have been meant for them. Now, it cannot be gainsaid that we live in dangerous times, with merchants of violence interminably on the prowl, scattering death and destruction, endangering lives and property, which is good enough reason for an especial care to be taken and may have informed the manner of the commemoration of this year’s National Day. In addition, a combination of monumental graft and incompetence of the immediate past government has thrown the polity into penurious days and it would be well – nigh irresponsible of the present government not to take cognizance of this as a guide in scaling back on financial outlays even on august occasion of the ND.
Still, had the import of the ND been properly interrogated the limiting circumstances it was subjected to, would have received a second thought, a deeper consideration in order to do the needful, which is giving the nation her due. And this includes extolling her virtues by underscoring her very inviolability and invincibility. It is inconceivable that security reasons would cause countries that take themselves seriously to scale back drastically important occasions such as commemorating their National Days. The fact that they go ahead to openly stage the occasions when they are due in full public glare, lending it all the fanfare required is not because they discount the dangers posed by some lone crackpot or a cell of misguided terrorists bent on undertaking their dastardly and heinous acts. No, but in spite of knowing those agent provocateurs are hell bent on wreaking havoc and may even be targeting the public occasions to salve their blood -cuddling preoccupations, the august occasions of their National Days are still allowed to be staged.
The National Days of these countries still hold as they should because adequate security has been guaranteed and its preparedness is heightened at those occasions. Considering the huge yearly budgetary outlay of funds earmarked to maintain Nigeria’s security to ensure lives and property are safe, the appalling state of insecurity can only indicate that the funds were applied to matters other than maintenance of security.
Most probably the funds have gone down the bottomless pockets of the selfsame characters charged with the job. And if anyone wants to know the damaging impact corruption can cause, he needs not look any further than the fact that Nigeria’s Independence Day (ID) had to be drastically scaled down and hidden from public view because her security organs couldn’t be trusted to be up to scratch on that occasion. This implies that the nation is gripped with fear, concerned about her ability to protect herself and her people, thereby raising the question whether the nation is indeed inviolable and invincible.
It is idle to split hairs on who to blame for this sorry eventuality. The Goodluck Jonathan government simply was unable to fathom the massive damage the intractable insurgency was doing to Nigeria’s self image. By doing nothing to bring it to a halt for so many months, it allowed a few fledgling ragtag miscreants to grow and recruit followers from scores of susceptible unemployed young men, and as we now know to our chagrin, women too. Goodluck Jonathan left the stage after having been roundly defeated at the polls, but the insecurity quagmire is even worse than the economic debacle he bequeathed to the Muhammadu Buhari administration to solve. On his part, PMB has properly provided the wherewithal for the fight against the insurgency, in terms of arms and munitions and a whole lot of inroad has been made in the Northeast, where the insurgents have been dislodged from their Sambisa fortress, reducing their effectiveness considerably. But while all attention has been focussed on ridding the Northeast of these anti-social elements, some of them have found their way back into Abuja and the FCT and wreaked mayhem in Kuje and Nyanya with devastating impact on the people of these places.
Nyanya had been targeted before. Kuje has been luckier, when suburbs such as Nyanya, Suleija, Zuba and Madalla were made to face the brunt of the bombers’ mindless onslaught, Kuje has mercifully been spared such harrowing ordeal. As a result there has been a massive influx of people fleeing from places that had been hit by insurgents into Kuje. Similarly, the Federal Capital Territory administration’s indiscriminate demolishing measures in other parts of the territory also contributed to the upsurge of the population of Kuje, turning within a decade a rural and sleepy settlement into a burgeoning but overcrowded city where infrastructure lag far behind population growth. On market days, the city is simply impossible as the lone pot-hole filled thoroughfare that joins it with neighbouring towns become virtually a nightmare to navigate.
Irate and unruly motor cycle riders out to make a kill on those days not only act as though they harbour death wishes, they test the patience of other road users to the limit, by clogging the market entrance as they wait for patrons. In such chaotic situation of people jostling with motor cycles and vehicles for right of way, an untoward event of an explosion such as the one that occurred cannot but cause massive casualties.
The bombings in Kuje and Nyanya are a reminder that the insurgents would not give up easily, it is as if they are saying if they must go down, then they would do so not with a whimper but with a bang! And that has been proved most succinctly–that even when government is doing everything possible to wipe out insurgency at the Northeast through the multinational Joint Task Force (JTF), heightened vigilance should also be intensified elsewhere to stop such terrible incidents witnessed in Kuje and Nyanya
The bombings may be waved away without interest by Nigerians who by now must be so inured by such calamities, after all not too long ago scores of villages and towns were similarly sacked by these same people in the Northeast. Yet, what marks out the latest bombings from the earlier ones is not difficult to fathom:-they are aimed to achieved a propaganda effect, hinting that those who think the insurgency has been dealt a death blow by the campaign in the Northeast should think again; that by the latest twin incidents they have shown that they are capable of striking anywhere, even close to the seat of government, at will. Government would do well to take up the challenge seriously.
