Nigeria: From Civilization To Barbarism, By Bayo Oluwasanmi
To be human is to be civilized. Those who behave inhumanly are called uncivilized or barbarians. From Sanni Abacha to Ibrahim Babangida to Muhammadu Buhari, the way Nigeria was ruled and being ruled it is evident that our civilization has been uprooted.
Their style of governance lacks cultivation of good habits, fine taste, and rationality. The northerners have rejected reason, dialogue, and communication, the bond that holds humanity together. Communication, discussion, and reason join people in a natural fellowship that lead to understanding between different people. They have stubbornly refused proffered solutions that would lead to a true federalism. The bond that should have held Nigeria together as one diverse country has been thrown into the lagoon.
Like I argued in one of my columns that whenever a northerner/Fulani is president, Nigeria is always plunged into dictatorship and anarchy. Remember the days of Abacha and Babangida? Take a look at the political and socioeconomic landscape of today’s Nigeria under a northerner. What did you see? A country turned into a slaughter field. A country turned into a safe haven for terrorists, bandits, kidnappers, and armed robbers. It is being kind to say that the regimes of Sanni Abacha, Ibrahim Babangida, and Muhammadu Buhari brought unprecedented ancient evils upon Nigeria.
Oppression and anarchy form permanent features of their tyrannical regimes. Think of the violence, and killings in Yoruba land perpetrated by Fulanis. They go about plundering Yoruba land, killing, rapping, and kidnapping our people. They destroyed our lives and livelihoods. History tells us Fulanis are foreigners in Nigeria. They have no place of origin. They have no homeland of their own. They roam about from Senegal to Sudan, from Sudan to the Sahel, from Yemen to Yenogoa, from Conakry to Cameroon, from Cameroon to Calabar, from Lavun to Lagos. The acts of terrorism, lawlessness, violence, injustice, ethnic cleansing under Buhari have plunged Nigeria into the age of barbarism.
As John Adams warned us: “Those already civilized may once again become ferocious, barbarous, and brutal.” Indeed, civilized Nigerians have become “ferocious, barbarous, and brutal.” Which is why many unthinkable evils take place in Nigeria today. We have no peace. No one and no place is safe. The judiciary is on permanent vacation. Justice is not affordable, not accessible, and of course not obtainable by the poor. The country is disorganized, chaotic, unpredictable, full of different predators of different shapes and sizes!
Our free press has become a fraught press. Because of insecurity in the land, we have become prisoners in our own homes. We can’t go anywhere without being rapped, kidnapped, robbed or killed. We have become refugees in own country. Our morals, values, decency, and humanity are under attack. Brutality, cruelty, sadism, are the trademarks of the ruling class. How long shall we continue to tolerate savagery and barbarism? How long shall we subject and submit ourselves to animal cruelty? How long shall we continue to live with these ancient evils? We are at the abyss. What next? Where next?
bjoluwasanmi@gmail.com
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SaharaReporters, New York
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