Nigeria’s Deadly Highways

It is shocking that life doesn’t mean anything in Nigeria. People are killed randomly and kidnapped, nothing is done about it. Nigeria has now become the state Thomas Hobbes described in the Leviathan. I am very sad that the continued insecurity has not been nipped in the bud.

The President has given several directives and I am sure the security authorities are tired of hearing those marching orders. Every part of Nigeria has become unsafe and you will literally have your heart in your mouth when you travel. The Prelate of the Methodist church had to pay N100 million to effect his release from kidnappers and no government official has uttered a word.

The shocking part is that the Kaduna-Abuja highway has become an highway to hell, as people are kidnapped and killed and nothing has been done to stop them. One wonders, if the highway that leads to Abuja is under siege, isn’t Abuja under siege? Only recently more kidnappings happened on the Abuja-Kaduna highway and nothing was done about it.

The politicians are only concerned about the dollarization of our electoral process for their selfish gains. It is sad that nobody ever think of the long suffering Nigerian people who suffer the weaponization of poverty every day. One of the victims of the Kaduna train attacks, after 62 days in captivity revealed that she was a classmate of the Vice-President and I got thinking: Can the leadership truly say they are proud of the Nigeria we have today? The leadership have completely abandoned the people to seek their selfish gains and now everyone lives in jeopardy.

In all of the maelstrom and conflict happening, the president also recently confirmed that he will like to influence the decision of who succeeds him. I dare ask, will his successor solve all the problems that couldn’t be solved under this administration? Will the successor bring hope and courage back to Nigerians? Will the successor revitalize the moribund sectors in Nigeria? It is obvious that the politicians constantly live in a bubble and they don’t even understand the pains of Nigerians, they fail to understand that Nigerians are not voting any longer because they don’t believe in elections, they fail to understand that the people don’t see politicians as solutions to their problems.

I think the political class should introspect if they truly have any modicum of love for the people. They must do the needful in fighting poverty and other problems bedeviling Nigerians. The problem of insecurity must be given priority and solutions must be found. I must repeat, a stitch in time saves Nine.

Rufai Oseni, rufaioseni@gmail.com