Re- Auwal Musa Rafsanjani's Easter Reflection and his urgent call for National Renewal
Cornelius Hamelberg
There are poets
and there are poets
T.S. Eliot ( poet)
He wrote some poetry about Easter
such as East Coker
the very first line of The Waste Land
declares “April is the cruellest month”
(according to him)
In this Easter Season, from St. Peter’s Square, first and foremost it was Pope Francis’ Final Easter Message that galvanised the world’s attention. On the home turf in Nigeria both the faithful and the not so faithful listened to Easter Messages from their various religious leaders and a particularly fiery firebrand message from the Bishop of Sokoto, Matthew Hassan Kukah, that odd cocktail admixture of religion and politics, brimstone hellfire and petrol, hopefully causing the inevitable spontaneous combustion that arises from the fusion of hellfire and politics. Here it is in all its glory : Bishop Kukah's Easter Message in which, not mincing his words, preaching truth to power he beseeches and admonishes his president : “Mr President, Nigeria is reaching a breaking point. The nation is gradually becoming a huge national morgue. With a greater sense of urgency, hasten to bring us down from this cross of evil.”
It was Theodor Adorno who said that “To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric.” Fact is, this is barbaric and it certainly is not poetry, indeed the current temperature of the situation is not poetic, and the unpoetic proverbial truth is that desperate times call for desperate measures. The situation in South Korea was not half as serious when their President, subsequently ousted by impeachment, wanted to declare a state of emergency and to introduce martial law, something that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his top security advisers must have also been contemplating as a solution when vast swathes of the country fall prey to banditry, but all things considered, Mr President it appears is still hesitant to sign an executive order declaring a state of emergency and martial law in the most lawless or ungovernable areas; he’s probably still hesitant when he contemplates what could also be the potential consequences of admitting not only that things have actually got out of control but also the pressure on him that he must do something drastic, in tune with desperate times call for desperate measures - failing which, if he’s not careful, God forbid, he could most probably completely lose control of the whole country and all that that would entail. Furthermore ,the possibilities of an ungovernable Nigeria as a ploy by the opposition to take over the reins of government after the next elections - the way that essentially, Goodluck Jonathan lost that election due to the insecurity caused by bogeyman Boko Haram and the Chibok Girls kidnapping …
“It's getting dark too dark to see
Feels like I'm knockin' on Heaven's door”
Complementary to Professor Jibrin Ibrahim’s series of lamentations culminating in his distress signals that with the near-total collapse of the apparatus responsible for maintaining law and order, the Naija Nation is on the brink of descending into total, absolute, and complete anarchy - in fact it looks like we are already there as confirmed by Comrade Auwal Musa Rafsanjani even as he condemns “the president’s silence and physical absence”
Comrade Auwal Musa Rafsanjani’s very moving moral sermon , alarming as it is, to whom is it addressed - for the good of the country? If only, instead of falling on deaf ears it would ultimately have the desired effect on Mr President, even if ostensibly it’s addressed to Nigerian citizens and that’s the all-embracing “ We” that occurs in his reflection x number of times as he calls for “ collective action against the killings of innocent Nigerians.” I checked and EASTER REFLECTION AMID CRISIS: CISLAC CONDEMNS DEEPENING INSECURITY, LEADERSHIP APATHY, AND CALLS FOR URGENT NATIONAL RENEWAL and along with Messrs Jibrin Ibrahim et al. has been published and widely circulated by many of Nigeria’s media outlets.
Nigeria is a big country - vast - and the President is ultimately responsible for the security of everybody in the country , responsible for both the federal and the regional law enforcement, but since the lawlessness is regional , what is the role and responsibility of the state governors ? Ignoramus would like to know.
“a failure of the state to protect its people.” also refers to the state governments. Is it because at every state level, law enforcement is underfinanced/underfunded and therefore less effective?
When nine days ago we read that “This week, the Borno State governor, Babagana Zulum, raised an alarm that the state seems to be losing ground to terrorists” - surely, it stands to reason that martial law is the only way ahead for Borno - and ditto other areas in acute need of the military ?