Karma or coincidence?
This is Rabe Abubakar in 2015, speaking as Army Spokesman, confidently talking about Nigeria “winning the war against terrorism.”
Fast forward… the same terrorism he declared was being defeated is what ultimately caught up with him.
Life really has a way of rewriting old statements.
I swear to almighty there is no sane country in the world where terrorists will kidnap over 80 school children as little as 2years old and keep them for one whole month, set another school ablaze and yet on Monday, other schools open like everything is fine and the people wear monkey suits and go to work like everything is fine.
"Former Director of Defence Information" was kidnapped by terrorists and later killed by terrorists.
These are the top officials who have firsthand Information and security reports about insurgents but chose to play politics with the insecurity in collaboration with politicians.
I just hope this passes a message to other top military officials who are in an unholy alliance with the politicians to make money from the insecurity that they "WILL" also become a victim one day.
Evlenirsen pişman olursun. Evlenmezsen de pişman olursun. Çocuk yapsan da yapmasan da pişman olursun. Kierkegaard bunu 200 yıl önce şöyle söylemiştir:
"Neyi seçersen seç pişman olursun. Çünkü sorun tercihlerinde değil yaşanmamış bir hayatı romantize etmendir. İnsan her daim gidilmemiş bir yolu cazibeli ve gizemli bulur. Bu yüzden mesele en doğru seçimi yapman değil. Hangi pişmanlıkla yaşayacağını seçip karar vermendir."
Sen neye karar verdin?
American: So there are terrorists causing problems in your country, right?
Nigerian: Yes.
American: That's terrible. Is the government at least doing something about it?
Nigerian: Well, our president addressed the issue.
American: Oh. What did he say?
Nigerian: He spoke about the law of lawf in the holy book
American: ...The law of love?
Nigerian: I guess
American: Okay. Did you send the military after them?
Nigerian: Hmm... at times.
American: What do you mean "at times"?
Nigerian: Sometimes we've heard the military went after them. In some cases, the terrorists ended up killing military personnel.
American: Wait. They killed your soldiers?
Nigerian: Yes.
American: Okay, so then your government retaliated and finished them off, right?
Nigerian: Mm... nah.
American: What do you mean "nah"?
Nigerian: Well, our president also gave an example from the Bible about the prodigal son on how we should accept them with love.
American: Hold on. The prodigal son?
Nigerian: Yes.
American: I'm confused. So you're telling me terrorists killed military personnel, and the response was a Bible lesson?
Nigerian: Something like that.
American: So you guys aren't doing anything?
Nigerian: No, no. We're doing something.
American: Okay. What are you doing?
Nigerian: We're rehabilitating the ones we catch.
American: You're... rehabilitating them?
Nigerian: Yes.
American: Not prosecuting them?
Nigerian: Not according to our president, no.
American: WTF WTF WTF
Nigerian: I never even tell you anything, you don dey cry
Having state police in Nigeria is fine. In fact it should have happened a long time ago. But thinking that this will solve the current spate of kidnappings and violence is to not understand the nature of the problem. Have the state police, but know that you cannot solve a political problem with more bureaucracy.
Those in power know exactly where every single militia leader is. They know who funds them. They know how they get their weapons. They know who is involved in moving gold, lithium, tin etc. and where exactly the illegal mining is happening (that is when they are not actively participating in and benefiting from it). They know where these illegally mined solid minerals end up.
When governors want to find some random person who puts up a Facebook post about them, they are very efficient in locating and arresting them, even if they live in some shanty with no postal address. They know how to move their thugs to every single ward when it is time to rig elections - they have perfect logistics for this. So this is not a problem of manpower or intelligence. It is the result of people addicted to the easy gains of criminal economies. We still remember the bandit in Katsina telling Nigerians on camera that many of the weapons they use were supplied to them by politicians and that they were subsequently abandoned in the forest after the elections.
Apart from Katsina, many other bandits (like Bello Turji for example) have frequently alleged that prominent former governors and local government chairmen in states like Zamfara and Sokoto originally gave them political protection, relied on them for elections, or used them to suppress local rivals, only to completely abandon them to live as outlaws in the forest once political terms ended.
Also, have they not recovered the body of the General who was killed in captivity? Do they not know where the kidnappers are? Because too many politicians are complicit in the violence and mayhem, and because of how closely politics is tied to any action that will end this problem, there is so much reluctance to do what needs to be done to end this menace. And because elections are around the corner, also because those in power need the capacity (for violence and coercion) that many of these non state actors provide, too many of the politicians in power find the actions necessary for ending kidnapping and banditry too politically costly.
Children, women, men, politicians, recently retired generals. No one is safe in Nigeria. Even the army seems powerless against this new menace. And unless something drastic happens, this will get even worse as elections approach.
Something is broken, and there are people actively taking advantage of the inability of the government to govern. Again, this is not a problem that you can solve with bombs. The groups are too many, too dispersed, and have too many non combatants in their camps, that just aerially bombing them all will kill far more innocent civilians than actual militants.
There is no shortcut to ending this. As long as Nigerian politicians and their friends continue stealing money meant for development, as long as they continue abdicating responsibility, non state actors will keep exploiting the loopholes. Already these non state actors are fully embedded in local economies and communities, and only because of the long absence of any sort of meaningful development. If state governors had taken rural development serious, if there were schools and hospitals and roads and functional institutions, if our forests were not permanently abandoned, then the country would stand a chance. If the federal government had shown greater interest in the country's vast, highly porous land boundaries shared with Benin, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon, then maybe.
All of this is greed, corruption and active collusion of politicians coming back to bite everyone in the rear end. Politicians are benefitting from the illegal mining, and from the criminal economies that are thriving in these rural areas. This is not just "insecurity". This is the result of the deliberate actions of those in power, from federal state to local government levels. Nigeria is just a large crime scene.
Good point.
But:
1. What is the incentive for 1st class and Second Class Upper if it doesn't confer any advantage after school? Everyone should just work for 3rd class then.
2. If a recruiter invites everyone, regardless of grade, to come and write their test and interview, recruitment cost will be much higher. Bigger pool of applicants > more resources required for recruitment. The grade cutoff is usually a means to keep applicants number manageable.
That said, I believe there are many low graders that are as smart as top graders, especially outside academics. And they have always proved themselves even under the current screening system. They will always manouvre their way to where the academic toppers get to, through, for example, starting in the few organizations that don't care about grade or having some extraodinary skills.
It is easier to be (rightly) outraged by poorer Nigerians begging for money from terrorists and kidnappers online, than it is to be outraged by nicely dressed middle class Nigerians, professionals, journalists, writers, and others who routinely take money from politicians who have open and verifiable records of being rapists, murderers, and thieves whose corruption directly leads to more deaths than any bandit could manage to kill. At least these poor(er) people online are just beggars. The well dressed ones don’t just take the money of murderous politicians who terrorise millions, they also actively whitewash and sell them as fit for public office.
Like I wrote in an article here a while ago, a Nigerian will tweet about how much of a disgrace and eyesore Nigerians begging at the airport and on the streets is, while on their way to do executive begging in offices and homes. In the end, the only real crime in Nigeria is poverty. Whatever crime you choose to do, just try to have money and success and you will be fine. Because if you are poor even the people you try to be good to will spit on you because you represent everything they hate and fear — that peculiarly dehumanising Nigerian poverty.
You called your uncle to send you something, saying school was choking. He sent you 5k, in 2016, and you were like “just 5k”.
Now that you are working, they sent you message on WhatsApp you off read receipt, Oghenekaro reply that boy.
“That boy calls you uncle, do not starve him”
You can say many things about the politics of Julius Malema, but his consistent rejection of violent xenophobia and Afrophobia in South Africa, even at a time when this violence is popular will always make him stand out, among politicians who overwhelmingly choose populism over real solutions.
South Africa has legitimate problems with migration, being disproportionately burdened with people, mostly other Africans fleeing their dysfunctional and sometimes war torn countries in search of a better life. No one can deny this. South Africa bears a burden of failure in countries like Nigeria, Malawi, Zimbabwe, DRC etc. But South African politicians have also failed their citizens while enriching themselves and their cronies, leading to widespread frustration which citizens then blame on immigrants.
In all, this is a failure of politics and governance across the continent and in South Africa. Unfortunately those bearing the brunt of this are not the corrupt politicians who cause these problems but the victims of the criminals who govern African states. So yes it means a lot that politicians like Malema remain clearheaded about this even when people allow their emotions blind them to rational thinking.
I have a confession to make. I am now a Temu addict. I see that I am spending about N100k a week on things that I didn’t know I needed. Don’t get me wrong, they are useful, but I didn’t know that I needed them.
An example is this thing that you put in your breast pocket to hold your pocket squares when you wear a suit or kaftan. I never knew it existed but it works a treat because it doesn’t let your pocket square fall into your breast pocket.
I have also bought this multi-port adaptor, which is very useful for a MacBook user to connect USBs, HDMIs and VGA projectors.
They only cost a little at a time but it all adds up. That is apart from all the dubious offers and promos that Temu bombards you with.
I need to control myself sha. When I didn’t have all these things, I didn’t die. 😀