Permit me to postulate that the very essence of life itself is in our ability to give peace to ourselves, because “Peace” is manmade. True, the RULE OF LAW preceded human existence, bringing to fore God’s creations for analytical purposes. Take the Earth for instance, according to modern science discoveries, the Earth moves around its orbit, precisely at a particular speed and time in harmonious motion without colliding with other terrestrial bodies like the Mercury, Venus and Mars etc. For the benefit of those who only believe from seeing, let’s take the second example, that is God’s own canopy that covers the earth without pillars that is never requiring renovation due to wear and tear, that is the Sky, firm and far from falling, unlike man’s own canopy that cannot hold without stand and like any other manmade that constantly requires maintenance, this harmony in coexistences alone is a clear presence of the RULE OF LAW in God’s creation, because God only decree “BE” in His creation and alas! It is. Unbelievable, indeed we are truly created from a decreed word, afterward; decree means official order or divine will, centrifuge rule of law. Lastly, you the reader Endeavour’s to checkout your person, harmonious systemic functionality, don’t you think it is also a clear evidence of RULE OF LAW? Consider your system fallout, say an organ not doing its constitutional function, am sure you must have heard of kidney or liver failure, think of a situation that you are not able to pass stole or urine etc. see the crises that issued thereafter.
Consequently, the very unique difference between the creation of Mankind and any other living being is in mankind’s absolute “FREE WILL”, that is to say, mankind’s ability to take distinct decisions without interference from his Creator. But even at this, God in His infinite mercies clearly sent His chosen ones amongst mankind as guides with divine lucid massages, which they preached, as well as documented into Holy Books, embedded with constitution, knowing too well that mankind is a very forgetful being, thus, books would always stand-in as mankind referral base. Accordingly, God uniquely empowered mankind with knowledge, deep sense of belonging and wisdom as a departure from other creatures, hence, mankind capacity to decipher between the very tin lines of nature and his dominion over all.
The deviation of mankind from God’s own constitution or “LAW”, owing to self determination, to the extent that redefined his priorities from the bequeathed Laws, which led mankind to opt for his own manmade constitutions, this singular action of distortion, ushered in the epoch of what seems like mankind traditional worries and tribulation. But you see, mankind is just acting out of the “FREE WILL” given to him by God, No wonder the fallout, as lamented by the Messiah “You have left the command of God and hold onto your own made” and for which mankind would stand in judgment comes hereafter. Again, in exercising his “FREE WILL”, mankind instituted the propagation of rights to freedom the world over with utter disregard to the grand consequence.
Certainly, mankind in his quest for absolute freedom gave rise to democracy, which is supposedly, an all inclusive and participatory self governance, that enfranchises all, although under a certain maturity age to decide on leadership. And coming from the backdrop of established RULE OF LAW in human creation left mankind with no choice, even as he refuses to uphold God’s own Constitution on the entirety of it, his realization that dwellings on earth cannot be safe without the RULE OF LAW, prompted mankind in his usual trait of ingenuity to formulated and endorsed self made constitution as supreme over him to help in the adjudication of his affairs, thus, in it, he stipulates clearly various legal means and ways to self rule, national harmony and international coexistence. An aberration from the original constitution, still difficult for mankind to adhere to what he devises yet flouts because of self centeredness.
The consequences of constitutional aberration are enormous and very costly; certainly, this is the main crux of this write-up. If we defile God’s bequeathed constitution for our own and then contravene it at will, of course we automatically become lawless which evidently exposes us to violence, crimes, and dehumanize vices as seen prevalent in our country and most part of the world today.
The total loyalty and committed respect for the constitution, to a large extent is what customarily, qualifies a nationality to be a patriotic citizen of that nation, and so anything short of this doctrine of national love can be seen as disloyalty and possible felony. It doesn’t matter what level you operate from, the dire consequences of bending the RULE OF LAW, incubates and ferment crises. When an act is deemed inimical to the corporate coexistence of any nation, by no means should such act be condoned, or the perpetrator of such act celebrated. Because, once an act is identified to be an illegality, it therefore, follows that it can never be legality. Again wrongs never make right.
Tapering down to Nigeria current security woes, an eon launch on the rebirth of democracy in 1999, although to be fair, the process that ushered in this current democracy was itself very tasking, however, the southwest militancy is the precursor to terrorism in Nigeria today. The faction of Odua People’s Congress (OPC), led by the infamous Ganiyu Adams, terrorized the Hausas and Igbos in Lagos and was celebrated in the Villa, by the then sitting President, who sent presidential flight to convey the cheap criminal to the villa, a precedent that champions the course. And so others from various regions saw it as benefitting venture especially with the current President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, equally taking queue by celebrating the Niger Delta Militants in the villa, with full recognition accorded them as he acknowledged them by military ranks, calling them “Generals”, absurd you may say, but it’s real! For, anything goes in Nigeria because of greed and sycophancy.
This was further garnished by demeaning the Nigerian armed forces capacity to provide security at the nation territorial borders, by no other person again but Mr. President himself, in whose hands the security of the nation and its territorial borders lies, when, not only did he celebrated terrorism but contracted the nations waterline borders to a kingpin terrorist, although in Mr. President words “GENERAL”.
We must understand and appreciate the word terrorism and terrorist. The act of inflicting undue hardship and violence on humanity due to perceived grievances with leadership, or the system, is translated as terrorizing humanity and the perpetrators of such acts are called terrorist. Go by any coloration, whether OPC, Militancy, Gorilla, and Boko Haram, they are all terrorists because of their common denominator.
Since, they are all politically motivated, thus, the dictionary meaning of Terrorism –Political violence: violence or threat of violence, especially bombing, kidnapping, and assassination, carried out for political purposes. The première was applauded by government, which opens the parade.
Why then the craze about Boko Haram? Since, unleashing havoc on citizens can be such a lucrative venture. Maybe, what Mr. President need to do this time, is to create Anti- Terrorism Ministry and hire Boko Haram linchpin as the Minister, and then allocate half of the one trillion security vote to the ministry.
I am sure perchance this could also be a way of settling the Boko Haram. Which will in the end render the police and SSS irrelevant as it were with the military pushing them also to the background, and then the citizen would now know that Nigeria internal security and its waterline territorial borders are in the hands of terrorist for safe keeping. As we await perhaps the upsurge of another sets of aggressive groups in some forms and shades, seemingly been a lucrative business. In fairness to Mr. President, he must have acted based on the saying “give a thief your property to hold and he cannot steal it”. But at least he could steal from it in some guise.
Be that as it may, Nations are not run like one own business, you cannot wakeup from hangover and unduly decide on peoples future without due consultation with the people and appropriate constituent assembles. Especially an era of democracy, particularly when dealing with premeditated acts of subjugation, culpable of decapitating the cranium of the little fabric that holds us together as a nation. The continue application of “all is well attitude”, by the leadership, a recent cultivated style of fallacious posture of living in limbo, parting problems uncared-for, cannot work, because these problems would continue to accumulate, and when it explodes, definitely it would have a major devastating effect, since at the time of potency no prompt desirable solution or attention was administered. It is very possibly to avert the occurrence of many of these menaces if our leadership is sincere.
The act of continued delirious singing of together we stand, without committed adherence to national interest is totally unacceptable. It follows therefore, that no single individual or groups of undesirable elements should be allowed to hold our nation to Siege Perilous.
The march to do or die political leadership in Nigeria hitherto gave raise to these orchestrated hooliganism called political thuggery, which occasioned the incubation of this very disturbing societal menaces that bedevil today’s polity. The most troubled today, are the followership as the leadership is yet to come to terms with the wanton killings that are progressively taking the center page of our daily lives. It is worthy of note that crises not effectively tended is like cancer, gradually but surely consuming, hence national security should not be taken for granted as it is today, our people’s lives and welfare in the hands of government would continue to remain cardinal point, as well supreme, and so government cannot afford to be deviant of God’s own law and human own constitution, indeed that is tantamount to catastrophe, and this is what we are experiencing today; but very soon, indeed just very soon, if urgent attended action is not taken, the rich and people with exotic cars could be the next target, caught and dismember, and so government must take the maximum desired grip to annihilate these elements rather than patronizing them, while employing the government to focus on superior intelligence gathering rather than be on the pages of newspapers chattering, ”we are on top of the situation” and yet citizens sleeps with one eye open, a situation that has aggravated high blood pressure on active citizens today, indeed very worrisome. This should serve as a wakeup call to the government.
Sani Aliyu
Country Director (RDV), Nigeria.
