Chibok: A Century of Seared Conscience

 

Have watched with a blend of shock, pain, dumbfoundment and anger the recent happenings in Nigeria. No doubt the BBOG hashtag has caused to be beamed on us the searchlight of the international press, and with it an exposé of the cesspit of ineptitudes, outright deceit and failure that we’ve called governance. Chibok, a hitherto small community unbeknownst, suddenly leapfrogs into international reckoning and referencing albeit for the very wrong reasons.  

Did we have to wait for moments like these to remind us that we have been believing and per possible living a lie? Perhaps the moment happened on us ex tempore and we can on the premise of this glib permit our responsiveness or the lack thereof. But we cannot work on this logic as a valid excuse for our unpreparedness if we could host major international events like the recent WEFA and many others before it even at very short notices. To our collective shame, for the better part of our over half a century history of independent nationhood, we cannot deny knowledge of this evil. We created, nurtured, sustained and institutionalized disorder and impunity in all facets of our national life, creating the perfect recipe for the Chibok of today. 

We are all pained (by this is meant all right-thinking Nigerians and friends of Nigeria).  First, those innocent schoolgirls who in no way whatsoever contributed to the real or imagined grievance(s) of BH - the infamously revered Boko Haram here implied - have been made ransom in a war everyone of us still finds difficult to fathom. Second, that a Government and a people - all of us - have allowed the BH problem fester even when we had everything at our disposal to have stopped it right when it was just a band of 'disgruntled element' as we are wont to say.

We are shocked. Not so much that a deranged sect leader armed with extremely perverted religious tenets (and yes, some weapons) can force an entire nation of 170 million disunited people into cowering. Its only normal for a anyone to lead to victory a small band of united people or even animals working on a single purpose whereas, on the flip side, it is next to impossible for any lead to victory a mass of people working at cross purposes. Our shock is much more for reason that the retard can go on to force minors into converting to his strange beliefs in 21^st C Nigeria and the whole lot of us 'sane' people watch helpless. This to say the least is the absurdity responsible for our shock.

We continue to wonder that while the international community is offering help (the propriety or otherwise of the this help his not here debated) and assistance re the BBOG saga, our leaders as well as a good number of us are still lost in 'blame land'.  I mean lost, thinking cap and all.

In trying to make sense of all of these events, one can't help but recognize a pattern so familiar and so distasteful. While for altruistic reasons, the public spirited have been campaigning and others at great peril to their lives and sources of livelihood, have dared to place blame on the hitherto feared ‘powers that be'. Kudos to these Nigerians and may their efforts, sweat (and blood) water the seed of the renascent Nigeria.

But painful and true as it is turning out to be, we must accept as fact that some have latched on the BBOG campaign for all but altruistic reasons. It is to this segment of the BBOG ‘campaigners’ that the angst of this post is focused. The exploiters of the misfortunes of the girls. The exploiters of the misfortunes of Chibok. The exploiters of the misfortunes of Nigeria.

Yes. The horde of the scavengers that couldn’t muster even a thought to condemn BH before now, but suddenly found all the zest to join the BBOG protest rallies, your anguish shall be a hundred times more than the pain of the parents of the Chibok girls and the trauma of the abducted combined.

Woe betides the crowd and those numbered amongst them that have suddenly become social activist nay slactivist, who have only recently found their voices, using Chibok to gain (social) media clout, all in their ill-conceived bid to catch the eyes of foreign donours. Infamy is at your door and it is come to stay with you forever!

Our politicians aren’t left out. Trust them never to miss the bandwagon. They've suddenly turned it into an opportunity to catch some shine from the moment and to get other 'political opportunities' to see them. So painful that some within this category are known in the very recent past to have given tacit encouragement to BH but today pose on social media with picture-posts brandishing BBOG hashtags. Very despicable and incredulous what our politicians can do. Well, to this lot we say our amnesia is cured, we remember them very well and will not forget to let them know that calamity is at their doorstep, soon to catch up with them, with a visitation worse than the thief in night that stole the Chibok girls.

And our VIPs and the VVIPs cum international-social-crusader wannabe. Is it normal that you consistently decline media parley with Nigerian journalists and sometimes outrightly embarrass local reporters that sought a minute or two of media engagement with you? We see you scramble for interviews with representatives of various international media outlets, all on account of Chibok. Well, you just bought for yourself a new garb. You are decked in shame.

Enough of the vituperations, for in the midst of this ugly situation, good however beckons on us. For us the morning is come and the searchlight is fine-focused on our faces.  The intensity of the light will hit harder as we seek the rescue of the girls. Guaranteed! But we pray, like the furious rays of a bright Abuja morning meets the photophobic eyes of a late waker, let it wake us to the truth that BH is a common enemy.  Let it wake us up to the painful reality that though we are a hundred years old, yet we are a hundred years behind nations that have less than a hundredth of our endowments.

Its morning Nigeria. Wake up.