The Chicken Has Come Home To Roost, By Lai Mohammed

When Nigerians spoke up about insecurity in the North, they
were labelled as detractors, when the opposition party and
concerned leaders spoke up, they characterized them as power
hungry, Islamists fundamentalists and exponents of janjaweed
ideology.When the international media did, they were termed
APC opposition collaborators, apologists or even pawns. When
Hilary Clinton did, she was ridiculed as incompetent, and in
fact the cause of the problem and the reason why the girls
were abducted, when the American Government did they were
called busy bodies who have their own unresolved problems,
when former PDP governors and other politicians did, they
were immediately described as disgruntled.
Whatever the case maybe, those who complain, object, criticize,
observe or even perceive that PDP or Jonathan administration
should have, could have, or could be doing more, or should be, or
could be doing more are wrong. They are ‘sick”, they are
senseless conspirators and saboteurs, and they are described
in many unprintable words that should never be used in the
kind of discourse that is the subject of the matter. The kind
of language that must never be bequeathed to any coming
generation, language that is uniformly condemned and
rejected all over the world, yet used freely and repeatedly by
key operatives of Nigerian government, and Nigeria’s ruling
party, PDP.
But now, a past president, leader of PDP, and former chair of
PDP BOT, and more importantly, a benefactor of the current
President, one to whom the President has in the past owed his
allegiance, and repeatedly credited as the instrument of God
in his meteoric rise in politics and leadership, and one who is
the catalyst of his name and luck, Goodluck , has spoken. He
said the President did not believe the Chibok girls were missing
initially. According to him, Jonathan considered it a political
gimmick, and chose not to err on the side of caution when the
lives of some of the most vulnerable Nigerians were at stake.
The former president from his military and presidential
experience expressed the thought that this unfortunate
approach adopted by the President wasted the most vital
window of opportunity in rescuing the girls, and taking them
out of harm’s way, the vital initial twelve hours. In the words
of former President Obasanjo, President Jonathan finally,
slowly and reluctantly answered the call to act only when the
international community put pressure on him and the matter
overshadowed the World Economic Forum being hosted in the
nation’s capital.
The former president described the current president as slow,
and failing to meet Nigerians expectations! This is historic and
unprecedented! There is no record of a former democratically
elected president describing a successor in this manner. The
only time such indictment of the position by a predecessor
occurs, is in the context of a forceful takeover, and mostly, in
an attempt to justify the forceful takeover.
Over the weekend, on account of the wondrous technology of
communication, broadcast and cable television, we were treated
to the “American Wonder” of the value of citizens, and to what
lengths nations should go to secure them. The news as
monitored demonstrated the real role of the President of a
nation with the deployment of the best of America’s special
forces to secure a non-contentious release of a soldier who
though in captivity for 5 years, remained unforgotten by his
country. America, of the “AmericaWillKnow# fame, swapped
five dangerous terrorists just to secure the life of one non-
commissioned officer a Sergeant. The president got personally
involved and spoke directly to the King of Qatar who took
custody of five dangerous prisoners from Guantanamo Bay,
who America gave for just one of its own.
What was most touching and telling was that Mr. Obama
personally took charge of securing the release of “just” one low
level American soldier. One whose existence in many ways
didn’t mean much to him, one whose capture and detention did
not stop him from winning elections. He called the parents,
brought them to the White House and shared his podium and
moment of glory with them. They hugged, backslapped, and
walked away together holding each other fondly, endearingly
and so ordinarily, perhaps to eat brunch together in the White
House. Days before this happened, no security report of danger to his
life could stop President Barrack Obama from flying across the
world to celebrate Memorial Day in the heart of the war, and
where he was most likely to be in harms way. He chose the
epicenter over the attention-center. He chose Bagram,
Afghanistan, over the White House in Washington DC. Nothing
could stop him.
Contrast this with what is happening at home. When recently
we had Children’s day, our own President Jonathan didn’t go
to visit the children who are in despair, children who have been
unable to attend school on account of the Boko Haram
insurgency, children whose lives have been changed forever by
fear, tragedy and loss, children who have lost parents or
siblings, some of whom want to be like him in the future. Our
only connection with them is the technological wonder of cable
TV, with CNN meeting with them, touring their school, meeting
their teachers, listening to them and transmitting their pain,
their hopes, their aspirations to the world. CNN could go, but
our own President could not.
How can a people be so trampled upon, so disdained, so unloved,
so abused, so oppressed, so deceived, so cheated, so raped, so
robbed by an elected leader and his small cabal, and yet live in
peace. Not just Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, the reality is that
our whole nation is a Trauma Center. Citizens across the
country have all been traumatized beyond belief by a small
group who by our error of judgment and history are ruling
today.
We are a people traumatized more by our leaders than our
attackers. Our attackers have banked on the failure of our
leaders to traumatize us even more. We are a people in despair,
in pain and sorrow, not just for the lost souls or missing girls,
but for the soul of our nation and the missing leadership.
Traumatized by terrorists, traumatized by an incompetent
government, traumatized by poor infrastructure, traumatized
by darkness, traumatized by impunity, traumatized by our
helplessness when those who steal go unpunished, traumatized
when children are missing and the president is dancing,
traumatized when he, and the leadership of his party deny the
obvious, when they belittle the lives of our children by
disputing their abduction, when they insult the pain of parents,
the fear and grief of communities, traumatized when we
realize we can’t depend on our government to protect us, or
come to our aid. Traumatized when the government spokes
person labels we victims of this government as opposition
controlled states, traumatized when to them, those who are
concerned enough about the safety and destiny of our girls,
are reduced to mere “campaigners” who are 90% opposition.
Traumatized to discover that our president only sees electoral
capital, not human capital, not Nigerian capital, not citizens of
Nigeria, traumatized at the reality of our exclusion by the
president and PDP.
At a point, trauma leads to delusion and irrationalbehaviour.
How much more trauma can we take? How much more can we
bear? As a nation, we are unraveling, things are falling apart,
the center is not holding, anarchy is upon the land, but the
reason is simple. There is a failure at the center. There is rot,
incompetence, callousness, clannishness, ineptitude, a scale of
corruption and stealing,a level of impunity that is emanating
from the center. The stench is so bad, you can smell it far
north, far east, far south, and far west. That is why things
are falling apart, that is why the center isn’t holding, that is
why anarchy is upon the land, that, I submit is the reason for,
and our greatest trauma.
Nigerians, your silence is at its loudest decibles. Things get
worse because you fail to speak. You have a voice! Itsyour vote!
The time is now! You must arise, you must save, you must
rescue, you must redeem, you must rehabilitate, you must
rejuvenate, you must restore your lives, your families, your
people, your land, your country. There was a country, there
must be a country again. It is urgent, it is upon us, it will break
if we don’t make it, we have no choice, we have a choice to
make. It is time to reject this mediocrity. Why? Our compassion
should be a virtue, not a curse. How can this president, the
first lady, and all who speak with, and for them be our stars?
Why should our individuals in the professions, sports and all
bring us fame and our leaders bring us shame? Something is
wrong! If PhD is the qualification how did this dubious one
from Otuoke emerge? If being shoeless is the qualification
there are far brighter shoeless patriots. How did cluelessness
and insensitivity emerge? How did non-existent moral fabric
become the blanket in Aso Rock?
We can’t go on like this. We just cannot.

Mr. Mohammed, a lawyer and businessman is the spokesman for
the All Peoples Congress party. He sent in this piece from
lagos.