in my 33 years of living i have never heard of the word amnesty being used as daily parlance, more times than i have heard since president jonathan took office. i remain one of those who insist that our country had ceased to exist from the moment where we decided to grant MEND the amnesty many years ago. there was no justification, to my mind, for the wanton destruction of public property that we had spent several years to even manage to build. for 150 million people the public infrastructure is grossly inadequate and the wantom kidnap of foreign oil workers for ransom was clearly a criminal act, irrespective of the motive or 'noble' cause. as a tax payer, (and i have whined about the portion of my meagre earnings i fork over to the government to build roads and things), it hurts me that several persons, uneducated and misinformed...and by many accounts brainwashed, could hold a sovereign state to ransom by throwing tantrums and hiding under the cloak of anonymity. why on earth then have we given up certain of our rights as free borns to a central power (government) to exercise for us where such government does not understand the definition of sovereignty and the need to uphold it against internal and external aggression. every other country in the world dealing with militants, treat them as such...militants. armed criminals carrying on a parralel regime against the soverein objectives of the state, acting incessantly in contravention of set laws in a manner that is indeed punishable. russia and the north caucasus militants; kenya and the al-shabaab; mali, pakistan and algeria all have militants. all treat them as a cancer that will be removed with intense pain...but defeated eventually.
naturally, everyone who loves me asked me not to speak too loudly against it and to adopt the late bola ige's 'siddon look' style. unfortunately, siddon-lookers are not any safer when there is a complete break down of law and order and this is slowly becoming apparent. i also remember when many years ago there were reports that the US had considered nigeria to be well on the path to becoming a failed state by 2020 and how church sermons accross the land condemned it and we all clicked fingers above our heads forbidding it and returning it to sender. alas...
but ignored the whole shenanigans i did, until i was at my barbershop and the bricklayer from next door was waiting (like me) for his turn to get trimmed. and thats when we heard about the planned amnesty program scheduled for the boko haram sect that has waged a war against the very soul of this country. the boko haram sect has single handedly push us beyond limits i didn't know we had as a country. they have unleashed a wave of criminality previosuly unknown to any part of this culturally diverse country. it is clear that we love ourselves dearly even in our darkest moments and regardless of the tribal taunts we throw at each other. when we are home, we push and shove and struggle against each other like any siblings would, but as the world has since learned, noone else has the right to poke any nigerian except another nigerian. we would never ever go boko haram on each other as a people and this level of aggression is alien, unwarranted and condemnable.
as we heard the news, bricklayer sniggered and told us that word on the street is that MEND was the handiwork of then vice-president jonathan with tha aim of making the late president yaradua look bad. that the reason why the bayelsa people felt empowered was because their son was finally at the highest point of the federal level and would not let the country take strictly lawful steps against them. the streets also have it that jonathan was the one who suggested amnesty to an ailing president as a solution to the MEND crisis and was thus made chairman of that amnesty committee. considering how money dissipates in nigeria once approved and released, there is talk that the said amnesty funds were the needed capital for a gargantuan political machinery to entrench a south south leader in aso rock. also, it had the dual effect of being a payday for the random south south guy who now lives larger than tax-paying, hard-working people everywhere in nigeria. this move was clearly not lost on the northern political watchers. the thinking was: 'if we have that much money to give citizens just for making trouble and bombing places, lets go there'. fast forward to the ascension to office of president jonathan...now it is payday for the north.
semi-literate and mundane as this may sound, i cannot pretend that it doesn't make sense for the common man to see this whole drama in that light. what merely started as a fundamentalist group's aggitation to avenge their slain leader has since metamorphosed into a sect that noone is even sure has affiliations to the original boko haram. with all the killings in the north and no clear declaration of their demands, it has become impossible to assume that this remains a vengeance mission, and with the way that northern governors and prominent politicians have suddenly become spokespersons for the boko haram sect, it is more likely than not that this movement has been hijacked for political reasons. hence the amnesty proposal. bricklayers are clearly not shabby thinkers.
and so while i stand firm in my belief that a country that pays off criminal activity with tax payers money has lost its claim to sovereignty on that very premise, i will be the first to support the amensty proposed for boko haram. as they say, what is good for the goose is good for the gander. however i will caution that this money if approved and released for "rehabilitation" will end up in some northern leader's account, trickle down to a few sect members and then the next group will emerge and ask for their share of the national booty using this well tested formular.
however, as i had been told in the past, i shall return to my "siddon look" phase until further notice. see y'all around peeps.
naturally, everyone who loves me asked me not to speak too loudly against it and to adopt the late bola ige's 'siddon look' style. unfortunately, siddon-lookers are not any safer when there is a complete break down of law and order and this is slowly becoming apparent. i also remember when many years ago there were reports that the US had considered nigeria to be well on the path to becoming a failed state by 2020 and how church sermons accross the land condemned it and we all clicked fingers above our heads forbidding it and returning it to sender. alas...
but ignored the whole shenanigans i did, until i was at my barbershop and the bricklayer from next door was waiting (like me) for his turn to get trimmed. and thats when we heard about the planned amnesty program scheduled for the boko haram sect that has waged a war against the very soul of this country. the boko haram sect has single handedly push us beyond limits i didn't know we had as a country. they have unleashed a wave of criminality previosuly unknown to any part of this culturally diverse country. it is clear that we love ourselves dearly even in our darkest moments and regardless of the tribal taunts we throw at each other. when we are home, we push and shove and struggle against each other like any siblings would, but as the world has since learned, noone else has the right to poke any nigerian except another nigerian. we would never ever go boko haram on each other as a people and this level of aggression is alien, unwarranted and condemnable.
as we heard the news, bricklayer sniggered and told us that word on the street is that MEND was the handiwork of then vice-president jonathan with tha aim of making the late president yaradua look bad. that the reason why the bayelsa people felt empowered was because their son was finally at the highest point of the federal level and would not let the country take strictly lawful steps against them. the streets also have it that jonathan was the one who suggested amnesty to an ailing president as a solution to the MEND crisis and was thus made chairman of that amnesty committee. considering how money dissipates in nigeria once approved and released, there is talk that the said amnesty funds were the needed capital for a gargantuan political machinery to entrench a south south leader in aso rock. also, it had the dual effect of being a payday for the random south south guy who now lives larger than tax-paying, hard-working people everywhere in nigeria. this move was clearly not lost on the northern political watchers. the thinking was: 'if we have that much money to give citizens just for making trouble and bombing places, lets go there'. fast forward to the ascension to office of president jonathan...now it is payday for the north.
semi-literate and mundane as this may sound, i cannot pretend that it doesn't make sense for the common man to see this whole drama in that light. what merely started as a fundamentalist group's aggitation to avenge their slain leader has since metamorphosed into a sect that noone is even sure has affiliations to the original boko haram. with all the killings in the north and no clear declaration of their demands, it has become impossible to assume that this remains a vengeance mission, and with the way that northern governors and prominent politicians have suddenly become spokespersons for the boko haram sect, it is more likely than not that this movement has been hijacked for political reasons. hence the amnesty proposal. bricklayers are clearly not shabby thinkers.
and so while i stand firm in my belief that a country that pays off criminal activity with tax payers money has lost its claim to sovereignty on that very premise, i will be the first to support the amensty proposed for boko haram. as they say, what is good for the goose is good for the gander. however i will caution that this money if approved and released for "rehabilitation" will end up in some northern leader's account, trickle down to a few sect members and then the next group will emerge and ask for their share of the national booty using this well tested formular.
however, as i had been told in the past, i shall return to my "siddon look" phase until further notice. see y'all around peeps.
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