Opinion: I choose to be unrepentantly indifferent

by Abdullahi Aborode

 

When evil befalls you, the reaction of majority should go a long way in knowing where you stand and what you have stood for or standing for. There was an unpleasant news yesterday evening about the kidnap of the mother of Nigerian finance minister (Dr Ngozi Okonjo Iweala), the news was greeted by dissenting and assenting views, some glad, some sad and some like me indifferent to it.

(This piece is a rejoinder to ‘The kidnap of Okonjo has nothing to do with our clamour for a better Nigeria’. Read HERE)

I chose to be unrepentantly indifferent to this issue because of a couple of reasons;
Almost a trillion naira was budgeted for security for the year 2012 but what do we get in return? Bombs, rape, armed robbery, kidnap and a host of others, our president doesn’t give a damn as long as he is fine, he cares less. We have been blessed with leaders who see their lives as more valuable than ours, their planes crash they travel abroad, their wives are sick, they enroute Germany. So what message are they passing to the helpless Nigerians? “You can die for all I care, if I am fine it is well” so tell me how do you expect Niigerians to show sympathy to these folks? Sympathy made us vote a shoeless man, now they want us to all walk bare footed! Despite the billions budgeted for security we still rely on “God” to provide us security, I know he is the ultimate but he shouldn’t be involved on certain issues that he has handed over to us.

Kidnap is unacceptable in our society, we do not want it, the same way we do not want corruption and looting. But its unfortunate that those who are in strong positions to help eradicate this evil are doing virtually nothing to stem it. Boko Haram bombs our brothers and sisters in the North virtually every day despite budgeting approximately 2 billion naira for security per day, do these folks have sympathy for the Northerners? Do the Northern leaders care about their people? So why should we the oppressed care about our oppressors? Has their well being be of benefit to us? So why should I be concerned about their unfortunate circumstances that they have brought to the nation due to their selfishness?

We have a 1% in government that have kidnapped the joy, harmony, peace and stability of Nigeria, they share laptops and LCDs on their kid’s wedding day when an army of graduates are jobless! There is this famous saying “One day the poor will have nothing left to eat but the rich” will you blame the poor for being carnibals when we get to that stage (though I hope we don’t get to that)?

If Ngozi has been competent and credible enough, if her policies have helped improve the economy and provided jobs for idle folks, though I am not saying there wont be hoodlums, but we will have a lower degree of criminal cases. If our leaders haven’t kidnapped our joy and rights, maybe our sense of humanity and symphathy wouldn’t have depriciated.

I want a Nigeria where I can sleep with both eyes closed, where any sound at the dead of the night will be from my kids arguing over games or books. The current state of insecurity in the nation is alarming, something needs to be done! An average Nigerian cant sleep without fear, some of our loved ones get kidnapped, some can’t afford to pay the ransom and they get killed, do such people owe Ngozi sympathy? There have been reports in the south of Nigeria that some hoodlums call a family and request for N1000 credit, they will then tell the victims “If you don’t send it, we know the school your children attend” tell me do we deserve such in a society that boasts to be giant of Africa?

I condemn any act of criminality outrightly and I don’t endorse the kidnap of the old woman (or any one at all) as she is not the source of our current predicament, but there’s a yoruba adage that says ‘the death that opens ones cap is only sending a warning signal’ the kidnap of the old woman is simply a wake up call, be it politically motivated or not, it is evident that the security of our country is porous and a lot needs to be done! For criminals to be bold enough to kidnap the finance minister’s mother, you know there is fire on the mountain.

On the issue of karma, it’s a sexy forever-young bitch that is needed to screw every ass, fortunately its bisexual, and in this country of ours where the law is rubbished by the day, karma serves as the ultimate miracle, so when it strikes we are quick to rejoice, the same way we rejoice when criminals are sentenced in the court of law. If our leaders don’t have a taste of what we face they won’t feel our pain, save for the once shoeless that has forgotten the pain. I don’t see the kidnap as a revolutionary act or a freedom fighting act, but it will definitely drive it home that the chicken may be coming home so soon to roost. Imagine Boko haram not harming helpless civilians but targeting those in power only, do you think nothing will have been done to curtail them? They would have felt the heat and found not just a solution but a lasting solution to the insecurity menace in the society. Imagine an inefficient minister’s son dying in a hospital because doctors are on strike, imagine if their kids also sit at home when our schools are on strike then tell me if they wouldn’t have ensured stability in all this defective areas.

The long and short of this is; our leaders should endeavour to sanitize the nation before the evil they are creating will end up consuming them. It is impossible to build ones happiness on the unhappiness of others. If our leaders don’t solve our problems, it will come back to haunt them.

“If you are a mean person, you are going to come back as a fly to eat poop” – Kurt Cobain

“Like gravity, karma is so basic we often don’t even notice it” – Sakyong Mipham

————————–

 

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

Comments (2)

  1. I agree with you 100%, but hey, we're not allowed to say.

    @OIbhagui

  2. I honestly don't give a damn… I mean I'm "unrepentantly indifferent" 🙂

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

cool good eh love2 cute confused notgood numb disgusting fail