This opinion piece by Abimbola Adelakun reminds me of an earlier one titled KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT: SURVIVING NIGERIA'S NORTH written by budding author Ms Jennifer Emelife. She chronicled her experiences growing up and schooling in Sokoto, specifically Usmanu Danfodiyo University. Just reading of her experiences was very unnerving. The things that she and her fellow Christian students had to put up with just to avoid "trouble." And her father for years kept up appearances with his Muslim friends by not engaging in certain "sensitive" topics. What a life! Ms Emelife said it as it is but didn't strain to be as judgemental as I did in my rejoinder.
This wrapup by the inimitable Abimbola Adelakun has taken the discussion to a whole new level altogether. The tragedy is that nobody seems to be paying any attention to the real issues at stake as she eloquently pointed out. On the part of the government, the same lack of moral clarity manifested serially in the Fulani herdsmen outrage, which she had earlier addressed, is also at play here. The police, after all these long years, does not seem to be in any hurry to learn what is it's constitutional role in society. It choses to pander to the whims of Any-Government-In-Power and the political and monied class who can pay for protection deserved or not. We have all decried this tendency manifested in another form during the Oga-at-the-top episode that went viral. Unfortunately it remains with us
Finally, one must mention the complicity of the not-so-elite middle class who refuse to step out of their comfort zone to challenge this march into anarchy. The nation is collapsing on their heads while they are busy clutching the fast diminishing comforts that separate them from the masses. For how long?
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