Uromi 16: Nigeria is failing; our government is responsible
By Ahmed Oluwasanjo
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16!
It is sad that counting 1-16 takes more effort and time than killing 16 human beings in Nigeria. This was how it felt when the news of 16 people doused with petrol and set ablaze in Uromi, Edo State, broke.
The message from Uromi is clear: Nigeria is failing. It is rapidly becoming a place where the weak live at the mercy of the powerful.
One does not need to take a long walk back to the Hobbesian state of nature to witness its horrors—how brutish, nasty, and short life was. Just look at Nigeria.
Unfortunately, while we might excuse the reckless bloodshed and brutal oppression that characterised the state of nature on the absence of an organised government then, we cannot offer the same explanation for the daily unfolding of these same issues in Nigeria, a country with government structures at various levels gulping billions of naira daily.
From Abia to Jos, Benue to Zamfara, the senseless killings and kidnapping for ransom by bandits and interminttent bloody reprisal attacks clearly point us to the fact that Nigeria is failing and our government is responsible for it.
We will be foolish to see Uromi disaster in isolation. It is not. Rather it is the flipside of the sustained carnage and mayhem unleashed on communities by marauding bandits.
As our government — the only institution with the power and responsibility to protect life and property — continues to fail in its core duties, people resort to taking their safety into their own hands, crudely targetting and hacking down whatever and whoever shares cultural affinity with criminals tormenting them.
The dane guns, though reportedly licensed, and other hunting equipment seen in the bus the Uromi 16 were travelling in easily checks the box for a prejudiced mob. Reporting them to police for proper investigation was not an option, knowing even the police as an institution cannot be trusted.
This is where it becomes a scary issue we must collectively hold our government’s leg to the fire to tackle. Just imagine yourself in the same bus with the Uromi victims for a second. Maybe, if we take a long look in the mirror, we’ll realize anyone of us could fall victim of this endless cycle of wanton bloodshed.
As such, it is foolish to allow it snowball into the ethno-religious, South vs. North rhetoric that muddles the waters, allowing criminals and our irresponsible government escape justice and accountability respectively.
Those who attribute Uromi incident to the deep rooted hateful ethnic profiling of northerners in the South have a point. So are those who calling out northerners condemning Uromi’s disaster but had kept quiet when Deborah Samuel was lynched by her classmates in Sokoto over blasphemy allegation. Two truth can co-exit. We can take side with humanity, condemn the barbaric killing of Uromi 16 and Deborah without justifying one evil and ignoring the other. What is wrong is wrong.
This is why some of us will insisted we return to the scene of the crime, address the elephant in the room and not trample on our collective humanity in the name of regional loyalty.
The best we get from divisive South vs. North debate is this: No one is right, no one is wrong. No lessons are learned, and no solution is in sight while the issue persists. Instead, let’s focus on holding our irresponsible government accountable to perform its primary duties for which it exists.
In countries where governments take decisive action against crimes and criminals, serving justice, the reckless killings, be it by bandits or a mob, we see in Nigeria would not be recurring tragedies.
Ahmed Oluwasanjo is the Publisher, Peoples Gazette