4th May, 2011
One of the highpoints of the presidential campaign was the plea for peaceful conduct during and after the election by President Goodluck Jonathan. Indeed, President Jonathan insisted that no man’s blood was worth his ambition of being the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria or that of any of the other aspirants. It is, however, sad to note that events after the presidential election made a mess of all the pleas for peace as the post-election crisis that rocked the northern part of the country left in its wake sorrow, tears and blood. The most affected were youth corps members who paid the supreme price in return for service to their father land.
It will be recalled that, in the course of the presidential campaigns, some of the candidates subtly called on their supporters to defend their votes at all costs. It is this kind of inciting calls that is probably responsible for the post-election mayhem. So, could it be that the blood of those innocent Nigerians was spilled as an attempt to ensure that the votes count? For whichever cause, the blood of those young Nigerians was too much a price to pay for the country’s political stability.
Attempts by the Federal Government to make light the enormity of the mayhem is equally nauseating. Imagine the president while addressing the nation on the issue insinuating that the heinous acts was less significant in view of the overall success of the election. Rather than calling for the immediate evacuation of the remaining corps members stranded in the northern part of the country, the Federal Government encouraged the corps members to stay on and serve their father land! And to inflict pain on our collective sensibilities we began to hear talks about compensation! So those that lost their children to the post-election crisis should be ready for thanksgiving? After all, the government is ready to pay compensations! Abomination!! How much money, gifts consolation can make up for the loss of a soul or can assuage the grief of those who lost their children? Such absurdity!
The fact that over the years, of all the religious, ethnic and politically induced violence, resulting in loss of hundreds of lives and properties in Nigeria, only the Zango Kataf riot was ever investigated and people prosecuted in the real sense of it. The fact that the perpetrators of many of these heinous crimes have never been brought to book runs counter to the principle of deterrence in law. You can name it: from the Jos crisis (which has come to be part of our national life) to the Boko Haram instigated crisis and a host of others too numerous to mention, the culprits have always been allowed to go scot-ree. And, of course, those that suffered serious losses in those crises were often abandoned to bear their pains, agonies and sorrows all alone. Soon, we will begin to hear sermons on patriotism and all that. Tell me how patriotism can thrive where there is injustice. Do we value lives in this country? We have moved on behaving as if those chaps did not die. Who cares? USA government, after years of conscientious planning and waiting made Bin Ladin pay for the blood of its citizens killed in the most dastardly manner. When will Nigeria make those that kill its citizens pay for it?
Another subject of concern is the seeming unwillingness of those whose cause the hooligans were purportedly defending to immediately call to the rampaging youths to order. This leaves a sour taste even in the mouths of those that hitherto felt some compassion towards one of the leading presidential candidates. Certainly, his intervention rather than dissociating himself from the rioters could have reduced the level of unrest. The decision of the Lagos State Government and some other states to evacuate NYSC members back to their homes in the south was most proactive and rational in the circumstances.
Though still a young mother, the little I have experienced of child-bearing has made it possible for me to feel a twinge of the pain that the hapless parents of those innocent corps members that were cut down in their prime. After all those tedious years of bringing them up, to have them cut down, when you have just started seeing a silver of light in the tunnel, and for no justifiable reason.
To ensure that those chaps do not die in vain, the Federal Government should immortalise them by naming major government establishments after them as they are truly the heroes of democracy in the country. Equally, Jonathan and other elected candidates, throughout the country, should make good governance their watch word as they got their mandate at the expense of the blood of these young Nigerians.
•Abimbola Umeh is of the Features Unit, Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja.