Opinion: Mr. President, we demand answers on terrorism

by Akan Imo

PIC-5-OLUBADAN

We voted him in as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, we voted him in to be in charge of every situation, we voted him in to give us answers, to give us result, to do impossible things.

Firstly, I must use this opportunity to commiserate with the victims of the Nyanya Bomb Blast. This incident does not only affect them, it affects us all, we have been truamatized as a nation, this is a collective pain for all of us. My prayers are with them all.

Our tears have mixed with our blood and they are crying out. Our nation has been hit with pain, sorrow and darkness. We are going through our darkest days, fear has replaced joy on our faces, our usual busy and boisterous market women have now become crippled with gut-wrenching fear.

Yet, our leadership sees no harm being done. We have been left to fend for ourselves, to protect ourselves. The events that have characterized these few days have shown us in clear pictures that we have a President who would rather gallivate around the country, gathering votes and campaign money than sit in our own version of the ‘Oval Office’ and work out a solution.

I get really angry when people tell me that Mr. President is human and so can’t do much; I got into a discussion with some people about the security crisis in the country, and I was appalled to hear Nigerians give silly excuse for Mr. President.

We have to realize that we didn’t vote Goodluck Jonathan as President to be clueless, we didn’t vote him in to tell us he doesn’t have answers, we didn’t vote him in to visit sites of bomb blasts and give sorrowful speeches, NO… We voted him in as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, we voted him in to be in charge of every situation, we voted him in to give us answers, to give us result, to do impossible things.

President Goodluck Jonathan has Ministers in his cabinet, he has Aides, he has the Military under his control, he has mind-blowing financial power, a mighty media empire, hundreds of agencies that answer to him, the allegiance and will of more than 150 million people and the full might of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, yet you tell me we should cut him some slack. Never. By virtue of the position he occupies and the power he yields, he is no longer a mere mortal, Mr. President is a Superman, he must not be clueless, he must not be ignorant.

Nigerians, its time to stop making and accepting stupid and silly excuses, its time to demand answers from the Number One Citizen of our country. My fellow Nigerians, its time to insist on getting the right answers, its time we push for positive actions. We are tired of our president’s poorly read speeches. Sir, we don’t want to continually live in fear, we need you to do the impossible, we need you to perform miracles.

You can’t shed an American blood and go scot-free, even terrorists know this, they know they will have to face the might of the United States. Why should a Nigerian blood be worth pennies..? If POTUS doesn’t give excuses, POTRON shouldn’t.

Sir, we need answers, why did 71 people die in Abuja last week…? Here, I must angrily ask how the number ’71’ was realized, does that number include all the scattered bodies, limbs, brains…were the poeple who got the number able to count everyone who were at the park before the blast..? You see, gross ineptitude flows from the top and has eaten deep into everyone. We are now masters of mediocrity, making excuses for even the gravest and deadliest acts.

Sir, do you realize that fighting terrorism isn’t a battle of guns and ammunitions, it is not bullet for bullet and bomb for bomb; rather it is a battle of ideas and ideologies, its a war of theories, concepts and isms….yet I can’t see strategic and calculated tactics that employ force, diplomacy, public sensitization, re-orientation & enlightment.

Sir, these people are feeding ideologies to young men, convincing them to kill hundreds of people and themselves inclusive…that’s a strategy, and its working for them, as they are recruiting more and more daily into their ranks. But on our own part, what do we do to the young men, we forced them to waste at home for six months because you wanted to flex muscles with ASUU, its not even as if when they graduate, they will get jobs, no, they will have to beg for jobs again. Some of these young men had to die like chicken because they came for job interviews…and I wonder, sir, is this the ideology we are putting in the youths as a response to terrorism..?

We are now getting used to hearing about deaths and bloodshed in this country, we are now becoming comfortable with shocking news stories. We are now making excuses for the otherwise unacceptable maladroitness of our leaders.

President Goodluck Jonathan, we need answers, we need solutions. This is not the time to campaign for votes, have you forgotten about the idea of campaigning by good governance..?

Sir, it is time to be a Superman, don’t tell us terrorism is a temporary thing, we are not interested in hearing such. Don’t tell us how you are working on it, we are not interested in that either.

Boko Haram is working, Jonathan is campaigning.

————————

 

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

Leave a reply

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

cool good eh love2 cute confused notgood numb disgusting fail