When Insecurity Hits The Villa

You can’t sanction Donald Trump anymore than you could sanction the United States of America. Trump does whatever he thinks is in the best interest of the American people. He was voted to tackle American problems. Recently, America placed Nigeria on the list of countries whose citizens would no longer qualify to migrate to the United States. It was later revealed that the Americans gave us six months to meet the conditions for migration. Nigeria failed to act till the gavel dropped. It is hard to be in the league of failed states.

When America sanctions you, you become a pariah to the rest of the league of ‘democratic’ nations. So, we should not be surprised that the European Union is considering the introduction of stringent visa conditions on Nigerians. Our American disqualification invites the rest of the normal world to hem us in. The last time we earned this pariah status was under Sani Abacha.

Pity us Nigerians. Living in the open in Yankari is better than living in Nigeria. Yankari lions only kill when they are hungry or threatened. Life in Nigeria is almost worth nothing.

One would have thought that working in the Presidential Villa confers some level of privilege. In the Abacha days, a presidential villa press pass provided immunity against thuggery.

Last week, Dagan Laetitia Naankang was murdered in cold blood in her own house. At 47, she was an assistant director of administration in the State House, Abuja. Her murder came just days after it surfaced that two powerful individuals in the State House were in a battle for turf supremacy. Quite unsurprising for the rest of us who are nobodies. In-fighting has become the game in the villa. Even the president’s wife is not exempted.

The shameful dimension to the dastard murder of Ms. Dagan is the report that she had at some time before her death reported a group of scammers living within her area of domiciliation to the police. Apparently, the police gave her to the gang that returned to exert their unjust pound of flesh.

In a lawless nation, violence is the legitimate way of solving disagreements. No Nigerian would be shocked to hear this story. In the past, soldiers fighting Boko Haram have been ambushed in ways that suggested the presence of rats within the military.

Exposing whistle blowers accounts for the high level of insecurity and why the insurgents are intractable. Nigerians distrust their law officers. Most contacts with our security agents naturally leaves a sour taste in the mouth of survivors.

With the right connections, the easiest way to get a debtor to pay up is not to report to a debt-collection agency, but to a military post. People in uniform could exert more than just recompense for any infraction. They do so with brute force and they are smart enough not to out rightly kill their victims – just beat them within inches of their life.

Paul Okutimo, a retired colonel and head of the defunct Niger-Delta task force once boasted that he knows over 300 torture tactics. Frank Omenka chose exile in Brazil to answering for his crimes before the courts. Police notoriety with the use of torture led the late musician, Orlando Owoh to wax a record exposing the infamous Alagbon detention centre as a torture chamber complete with names of culprits. Owoh died twelve years ago, but the torturers in Alagbon, even if they have retired probably left their trainees behind.

From the infamous ‘Crime Fighters’ of the Tafa Balogun era to today’s leaders of the police high command, trial by media is a feature of the shambolic trial process. The police arrest people, usually at will, torture them into confessing to crimes that they obviously did not commit only to lose the substantive case in court or rot in awaiting trial cells. Such victims are scarred forever.

Innocent children forcefully embedded in cells with hardened criminals and victims of police brutality often graduate into merciless hardened criminals. A police jail is a republic within a republic where the DPO is General Overseer. When citizens become victims of those paid to protect them, they lose confidence in the system. This lack of confidence breeds’ inertia, states in which people just don’t care.

Our nation is gradually ceded to criminals, our judicial system to criminality. Yet, it would appear that those who earned the right to escape are now being boxed in. This is dangerously traumatic. America and the EU and others now targeting Nigerians should reverse their punishment. They should ban trip-crazy Nigerian officials from traveling, including medical tourism abroad. Leaders of failed societies should not be allowed to mingle with those whose actions have led to building a just and livable society nor should those who deny their citizens good health services enjoy the same in foreign lands even if they could afford it.

If for instance General Buhari were banned from traveling, he would sit back in Nigeria; feel the heat and be forced to seek solutions to the problems forcing Nigerians to seek greener pastors. He’ll stop feigning ignorance and making excuses where he should act. Lawmakers would stop requesting for a commission to integrate murderers while creating laws to jail critics.