No adult person anywhere needs to be educated that peace is a fundamental good for any society, to talk less of a country. Without peace, there is and will be no health, unity, security, happiness, education, progress or development. The lack of peace is the greatest sign of bad governance anywhere. This is why these terms are the very ones found on the coat of arms or the national anthems of many countries, communities, institutional bodies and their individual governments. These are not only aspirations towards which all responsible governments work, but indeed responsibilities which they must do their utmost to ensure that they prevail in such bodies or countries. A country where many of these matters are lacking is surely a failed nation. All the people in politics and government in Nigeria must persuade themselves to find out where Nigeria stands in the light of all these responsibilities of government.
However, irrespective of what our politicians would like to persuade themselves to believe, we have a country (as Nigeria currently is), where no reasonable education is taking place. Yet some specific political leaders take pride in it and even boast that they are happy with the ignorance that they are specifically breeding in some parts of the country in addition. Our federal universities are on strike for three months going, and just now extended it by three more months, and the president of the country is reportedly said to have said that he does not know that such is the case! Yet he had two whole ministers of education one of whom has no shame to be one of those who (even though a public office holder) is reported to have deposited the humongous one hundred million naira to show interest for party primary election as candidate for the same presidency! Yet his principal does not know that the universities under them are closed for over three months by then. Perhaps he too “did not know” either or being personally at war with the youths and their teachers, it does not matter not to be bothered about them!!
Both the president and the governors (present and former) with their other political office holders seek medical care for even the slightest ailment (and even medical check-ups) abroad while the health services are in shambles. And it bothers them not. Most families have great difficulties to eat one square meal in a day while an avalanche of politicians are paying one hundred million naira in our arrogant misruling party just for the expression of interest in taking part in the primaries of their party to select their presidential candidate for an election. We, of course, know that even though this is the culture of callous corruption that is reigning in the country, there must be one or two genuine people still among these fraudsters who are trapped in their midst and so have to do this also in an honest effort to see if they will get the good chance to help in our rescue as a nation, from these people. However, we must find out what we must do to help such few people to be heard and their endeavours succeed. These honest Nigerian politicians now, would seem by far more numerous in the other political parties than the confederation of the present ruling party where all these similarly maximally corrupted Nigerians have by their well self-advertised invitation been gathering in the last seven years!
In the situation where arrogant corruption, profligate undermining of the people, persistent ignorance, criminal arrogance or shameless lying by government ministers, and the multiplication of political rioters who destroy individual’s and other people’s group properties in supposed support of these political destroyers of our national peace, unity, etc, reigns, what are we to do? Shall we join them in counter rioting, brigandage and vandalism? Of course not! That is not the way of civilization! For those who lead these people to believe that this is the way we should be going, and/or the people who encourage and/or treat them with kid gloves, the entire situation calls for very fundamental rethinking of what we are doing. People in government who condone and even protect such people from the long arm of the law must know what awaits them at the end of time, irrespective of what they think of it, other than the full eternal result attached to them; even as ordinary common sense tells us. No church or mosque, shrine or temple is needed to have that natural knowledge. Everybody knows by mere common sense that religion and spirituality are very personal issues. Nobody may try to impose his religion on another. All the holy books of all religions say so (the Torah, the Bible, the pre-Hijrah sections of the Koran, etc). Any religious laws must be kept only for those who belong to that religion and their members; and administered only on their members. For anybody to define blasphemy within his religion and outside the civil laws of the multi-religious country and then go and enforce it on another person outside that religion, and the government does nothing about it to the fullest compensation of the offended and punishment of the offender, is for such a government to declare itself dead and irrelevant for the common good! We see these happening all over the North-West and North-East of Nigeria (Sokoto, Kano, Kaduna, Maiduguri, etc) and neither the traditional rulers nor the governments (state of federal) says anything sensible for the common good in that regard!
As we live in Nigeria today, with all due respects to all that may be concerned, we must observe the obvious, that we are living with a failed federal government (and several state governments also!) I suppose that if I did not have the privileged education and humanly balanced up-bringing that I have had, especially if I had come the way in these regards that these our politicians came, I might have done the same as they are doing! I may even have done worse! However, that should not make us to fail to call a spade by its name – spade! This federal government that we have, that does not know that our health systems are not working, that universities have been closed for over three months and the youths roaming about the whole places; with the violence to these youths, their teachers and the country that this government behaviour is – with all their very dangerous consequences! The same government does nothing about religious and tribal rioters and vandals AGAINST THE COMMON GOOD, apparently on their failed behalf. This government therefore MUST BE HELPED to learn these very bad things that it is doing. They must be helped to take responsible actions for the damages caused by all these their apparent damage supporters. All the religious groups, ethnic nationalities, and else, whose lives and properties have been taken or damaged, must take the time to assemble the complete data on these and present them to the federal government and some state governments as well. It is the proper responsibility of those governments to prevent all these murderous and riotous ways; and to guarantee peace, unity, mutual respect and equity for the people. These documentations should be made properly, publicly, and consistently to the federal government as well as some of the state governments concerned and all the citizenry too. Those are the records of the failed governance that these people who govern must be made to know that they owe to God and to all humanity the liability for their restitution.
Whether they are persuaded to recognize those and so be helped to repent of these unhealthy (or perhaps evil) ways or not, would not matter. However, they should be brought to the notice of one and all now and again, with the dates of their occurrence given, for their proper attribution to those in charge at those times. Some people may not know it. But actually, bringing such to the specific consciousness of those responsible for preventing these calamities, but did not, are great acts of spiritual CHARITY to those whose negligence they are. This is, so that they may be reminded and so repent thereof – for the glory of God that awaits them for doing so! That is what charity to fellow men and the love of God surely urges us to do! May God Himself bless both the doers of these reminders as well as the responsible rulers who repent of these evil doings on those accounts! Amen.
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