Leadership Kwashiorkor: How Did We Get Here?

Suicide bombing, kidnapping bomb explosions and such other vices were alien to Nigeria a few years ago; we only read about them in newspapers and wondered if what we heard were actually true. Sometimes, we thought it was movie stunt when we watched them on televisions little did we know that they would become a common place in our society this soon.

The chaos that characterise our country today is overwhelmingly enormous, we wake up every day report of gruesome killing, kidnapping and explosions. In fact, we are so used to it that it almost means nothing to us anymore, it almost no longer make news to us.

Some three months ago, a set of over 200 girls were abducted from a school in Borno state, and as we speak, their whereabouts is as unclear as the bottom of murky water.

As if that was a mere preamble, ladies have now been used to perpetrate the heinous crime as some women were recently apprehended in tandem with the inhuman activity of the Boko Haram insurgents. More fearful is the 10 year old girl who was strapped with explosive device to go and kill herself and others.

What was she told? How was she canvassed? Was it on monetary terms? Could it be that she was forced to do this? Is her parent aware that their daughter was going to die and yet they were comfortable because of the terms or benefits they stand to get or were they not aware of it at all? What was she promised? May be sweet, who knows. Did it include that she will die in the process? Did she agree? All these questions are still begging for answer.

It obvious that the countries where these kinds of evil were being done before the transference into Nigeria will be clapping unends for us because of the way and manner through which we do our own here.

Children are our future, if we stifle their growth today; we might not have any tomorrow. From the look of things, it seems that is where we are headed. Our today has been full of painfully lingering problems bordering on safety of our lives and property. We cannot guarantee the next minute not to talk of our tomorrow, so our tomorrow is very bleak, very uncertain and bleary. We cannot trust anyone anymore, no one to confide in. How can we know that our children have not been turned against us? How do we know that the groundnut seller in front of our house will not explode the minute we come close. Who are the people we enter the same bus together with?

As if that was not trouble enough or we are not being wiped out fast enough, Ebola virus sauntered into the country with even a deadlier affront menacingly threatening to take as many as fall its victim within a short period of time. Worse still, no cure yet and it is spreading like wild fire.

Do not forget that the perennial problem of traffic gridlock at Apapa persists despite the visits of the Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Raji Fashola to the port three times within one week, recently.

The terminal operators handling charges and demurrages which importers have to pay for even during public holidays and weekends are issues that need urgent perusal from the government. They are parts of the economy killers!

Where do we go from here? The only way to solving these problems is concerted efforts with genuine intention to bring back sanity to our society.

However, we have new Inspector General of Police, we expect a change in the way things should go or be done henceforth. He should have his own strategy to employ especially in combating the malady pervading the economy especially in terms of security and corruption that has taken over the country.