Image: Habila Mazawaje

The viral song “Egungun be careful na express you dey go”  evokes laughter many years after its release by maverick Fuji music artiste, Abass Akande Obesere. Its follow up lyrics, “…motor go jam you” is a warning cloaked in humour amid the energetic dancing that accompanies the song. To the more discerning audience, the advice embedded in the musical expression is not lost. In fact, it could pass for a proverb: one that can be employed by a parent to admonish a recalcitrant child or a teacher to a student towing the wrong path.

But like a juvenile delinquent is wont to do, the inclination to wade into troubled waters proves to be too alluring to ignore. Hence, the inevitable event that they derail into the expressway.

Nigeria has made that unfortunate invasion into the expressway that has resulted in a “hit and run” at this point. T

From Kasarmi Village in Kaduna State to the Abagana IDP Camp in Markurdi to Abaliki in Ebonyi to the Imo State House of Assembly to Iyana Iba and Ikorodu in Lagos, the insecurity in the land has reached a crescendo. We are at that point where it is impossible to ignore the reality that stares us in the face every day,

Bandits hold sway in present-day Nigeria. They rule. They determine how we live our lives and the fruition of our dreams depend.

The depressing part? Our government is clueless; either bereft of ideas on what to do or lacking the zeal to put measures in place to stem the tide of violence and insecurity that pervades the land.

I suspect it’s the former.

Beyond “condemning” the killing or kidnap of yet another set of citizens, the government of the day is at a loss on what to do to salvage the situation.

As I get into the business of each day, my mind is unable to shake off the precarious state Nigeria has found herself in.

Alarm bells ring in my head and I keep wondering—why are we going on as if all is well?

Why hasn’t the government declared a state of emergency on security?

Why haven’t we put a halt on activities to demand a more secure state?

We are in the middle of a raging fire; it’s an inferno; a conflagration. Daily, it advances, threatening to consume what’s left of our nation and we are here, complacent.

We presume someone somewhere will wave a magic wand and our myriad of issues will disappear, so we go ahead with our plans…chasing a living. Exploring means to make more money to stay afloat despite the glaring mountainous matters that have remained stoic before us.

And again, one can’t help but wonder if these mundane or grandiose plans of ours are supposed to berth in a space where violence is rife.

Even if you plan to leave Nigeria permanently, for now, you are here, and that dream may never become reality if you are the victim of killer herdsmen, Boko Haram or other sundry posses whose sole purpose in life is to unleash terror on others and leave tears and pain in their wake.

Our best-laid plans will come to nought if Nigeria ceases to exist!

Have you thought about it?

And what if you leave? What if you are one of the “lucky few” to extricate themselves from the grip of the quicksand we are stuck in? What happens to the family and friends you are sure to leave behind?

It’s why we must demand answers.

When we watch people like Senator Smart Adeyemi decrying the sorry state of our nation, it shouldn’t serve as another opportunity to be entertained by the theatrics and melodrama that make the rounds on social media. It is a wake up call…an alarm that signifies that all is not well, and everyone who has a voice or platform should be employing it to attempt to change things.

What Senator Adeyemi did is the least we should all be doing at this time, that is if you are not in the position to fix the security apparatus of Nigeria.

And if you are…if you are a service chief or cabinet member of this administration, now is the time to either write your name in gold by doing what you have been appointed to do or resigning if you are incapable of meeting your KPI or risk going down in history as a villain.

Either way, things cannot remain the same.