At the ongoing national conference, the issue of insecurity was up for debate as Ogoni rights activist, Ledum Mitee pointed accusing fingers at Nigeria’s leaders for being behind the emergence of Boko Haram.
Tracing the cause of Boko Haram and other forms of arms struggle across the country, Mitee who is at the conference as a federal government delegate recalled how how promising Nigerians who were willing to acquire education were awarded scholarships, adding that there were jobs for graduates, contrary to the mass of unemployed graduates currently permeating the streets. The youths had to embrace other forms of survival out of frustration over the inability to get decent sources of livelihood.
He said this and several others gave birth to arms struggle and Boko Haram in the country.
“Beneath the clashes of arms we see across the country, there was a voice crying for justice. If we must move this country forward, we must address the issue of injustice. It is also possible that youths burning churches in the north have exhausted their patience,” he said.
Other delegates also recalled with nostalgia how the dreaded Boko Haram insurgent group was created by activities of the government at all levels.
Speaking on the issue, Professor Femi Mimiko, a delegate from Ondo state reminded delegates how Nigeria got to this current level, blaming the problems of the country on the structure of the government.
Professor Mimiko, a respected professor of political science and current vice chancellor of Adekunle Ajasin University, Akure, however took a lonely path when he advocated that the constitution should be amended to accommodate the carrying of arms by citizens, saying this is one of the ways to ensure that everyone is safe.
Source: Daily Sun Newspaper
Professor Mimiko is really disappointed at the display of destructions ravaging the country and has decided taking a lonely path. Two wrongs, it is said, do not make a right. Even America that has legalized the use of small arms for self defence is not finding it a tea-and-sugar affair. Certain policies which in themselves are targeted at feigning solutions add insult to injury. Look at what pensioners go through in Nigeria. Imagine the situation of life certain workers crawl through without salaries for months, with no one to turn to. Majority of them have families who look up to them for a bail out, yet, payment of salaries becomes a mirage. They groan and trudge on the journey to survival. Even if they boil within, they must find what to eat; some, honestly so. But what about those who can’t bear up? To cut the long journey short, government should do something to address the pension scheme problems. A reform of the status quo should be made such that pensioners can have access to the entire bulk of their retirement benefits. People who have worked to the age/time of retirement are no longer children. Some who retire and still have children in schools have no money left from stipends paid to them by their pension administrators. The monthly peanuts paid to surviving retirees mean NOTHING for family upkeep. Majority of retirees can set up personal businesses and help in engaging idle hands at various levels in our social strata. Some retirees wish to move to their home bases to do business but what they are paid from their entitlements does not improve their lives. Give somebody what belongs to him without his having to be roped around; he can do something to improve not only his own children but those of others. Many would have opted out of urban centres but are turned paupers after retirement. It is very, very disheartening when one hears what is happening to pension money while the real owners go cap-in-hand for survival. A lot of things will change for better if pensioners are paid their entitlements fully and timely. Nigeria is not ripe enough for legalization of fire arms. Some of us are praying and hoping that Nigeria should not thread the path of Rwanda! The widening dichotomy between the haves and have-nots should be bridged. Imagine workers working for months without salary, not on strike! How do such family members survive? May GOD see us through.