SINCERITY AND INSINCERITY IN THE SECURITY AND INSECURITY OF NIGERIA
By Taye Olaniyi
For anyone to lay claim that Nigerians in Nigeria are living happily in peace and tranquility remains an excersise in self-deceit.
Whereas average Nigerians daily pray that they live to see yet another day, there is always that great concern that they may not even live to see the end of the day talk less of living to see another day.
We now all daily live under the atmosphere of dense insecurity to lives and property to such an extent that no matter how highly protected one’s high positions seem to be, banditry, kidnappings and religious infernos are now a leveler to us all.
Kings and princes, war veterans, highly trained security operatives, including respected religious personages are incessantly being cowed and pestled by now the powerful men of the realms from both inside our communities as informants and those in dense forest reserves..
In Nigeria of today, the downtrodden that might not have an assurance of a meal par day when kidnapped at home, on the streets on inside their farms are so brutishly treated when in the den of kidnappers and bandits.
The demands for ransome are not only physically killing but equally psychologically mortuarising.
To worsen the situation as they are, religious fundamentalism and now its divisive nature by leaders and followers of one religious faith or the other culminate also in ethno-tribal differences and blatant stigmatisation here and there.
To a very great extent, religious dispositions which ordinarily should serve as an emblem of morality and avenues for godliness are in Nigeria a project for the dismemberment of different peoples far from the realisation of one God and same humanity.
To be sincere, we need to individually examine our hearts, minds, thoughts, words and conducts as to what sincerity truly means.
“Sincerity is the quality of being honest, genuine, and truthful without any fake or hidden feelings. It means you truly mean what you say and do”
Sincerity is a virtue that is difficult to attribute to average Nigerians, especially those entrusted with power in politics, governance, religious leadership and also among the various categories of operatives in security forces in Nigeria.
Many highly trained and committed military personnel along with other paramilitary operatives often fall into spurious enticements and later into the hands of bandits and terrorists if ambushed at home and also during military operations.
Such unfortunate encounters do arise because of informants and moles once trusted with information on operations and military advancements.
Is Nigerian government also serious and sincere to tackle insecurity in Nigeria ?
Kwara State that once prided itself during our student days as ” A State of Harmony” is now so disharmonious and balkanised into emirate and “Others may – go – die” towns and villages in Southern Senitorial District of now a bleeding State.
What a blood stained era, tenure in the lives of those concerned as to the sincerity and /or insincerity efforts at tackling insecurities everywhere against mere ethno-tribal interests and superiority/ inferiority complexes?
Think about it.
The questions for each and everyone of us to answer from the bottom of our hearts are as follows :
How sincere and patriotic are political leaders in their partisan and governance natures at tackling the incessant insecurities in Nigeria of today?
How sincere are traditional, community and religious leaders at using their wherewithal in their sociocultural and religious environments to battle the evil mindedness of their ethno-tribal and religious fundamentalists that are making Nigeria seemingly ungovernable?
To what extent are the Miyetti Allah and other ethno-tribal groups of Arewa extractions being sincere to the downtrodden farmers, cattle rearers and herders to accommodate modern methods of animal husbandry and cattle ranching against incessant herders/ farmers clashes all over Nigeria today?
To what extent should Nigerians remain confident in the sincerity of the high command of the military, the police force and other paramilitary agencies in making Nigeria first in all ramifications against attributes of introducing superiority and / or inferiority complexes to the geo-political areas of their operatives and very senior personnels in terms of promotions and the so called juicy appointments?
Finally to what extent are you, I and all of us Nigerians truly sincere as to how we directly or indirectly make Nigeria insecure through our being dangerous informants, involved in the sales and supply of hard drugs, and other weapons of destruction?
How do we pride in galvanising and using the social media platforms to raise positive habits of patriotism and national consciousness against producing AI contents of false alarms, of hatred including incessant condemnations of those giving their lives to save us from dangers and insecurities?
I wish that we all try to examine and apply this admonition of a mystic sage,” Today is yesterday’s tomorrow are you moving forward in thoughts and conducts?”
Let it also be repeated here loud and clear as we once had during the Buhari/ Idiagbon Military era that: ” The present generation of Nigerians including the upcoming ones have no other place to call their home, Nigeria belongs to all and we must all remain here to salvage it together “.
God bless Nigeria.
*The Writer, Taye Olaniyi, is a Lagos-based Journalist and Public Relations Practitioner*
(vitalnewsngr.com)
