By Emeka Alex Duru
As a people, we may be deeply religious. But certainly, not godly! We put up outward manifestation of piety but are steeped in wickedness. It may, perhaps, be for us, Nigerians that the story of the Pharisees, is told in the Bible. We may also be those being referred to in the expression that “the heart of man, is desperately wicked”.
At all levels of our interactions, these wicked and duplicitous tendencies resonate. Take a look at the family/village level. This is where you would see a man or woman, who had led a whole life of misery and penury, being accorded extravagant burial at death.
The dead may not have had a hut to lay his head while he was alive. As he trudged on with uncertainties of life, he could be an object of derision among his kinsmen. None would care to look in or bother with how he was struggling with life.
But the moment he is dead, the body that was denied the luxury of the air conditioner in the living room of any of his relations, would be taken to the mortuary. His thatched, mud house would be demolished and a new structure with corrugated iron roof put in place. He would, of course, lie in state on an expensive and expensive bed he never dreamt of while alive.
On the day of the burial, it would be occasion for merry making. In place of derogatory jibes that were thrown at him, while alive, he would be lionized.
Some say it is in line with our culture of according the dead decent rites of passage. But it all borders on deceit. At the end of the day, everyone retires to his home and life continues.
At the macro level, the situation is hardly different. The government at both the state and federal level, is guilty of the same. Ours, is in fact, a society that celebrates its own in death, while ignoring the living.
This is the only way to situate two paradoxical scenarios that played out in the country in the last couple of weeks.
On Monday, January 15, the country was agog as the federal and state governments competed with one another in the annual ritual of remembering the “Fallen Heroes”, especially in laying the wreathe for the “Unknown Soldier”.
The event, which comes up every year, is aimed at honouring members of the armed forces and the para-military who lost their lives in service to fatherland. These include those who may have died in the 1967 – 1970 civil war, January 1966 military coup in the country, various peace-keeping and peace-enforcement operations, First and Second World Wars, and other engagements that called for paying the axiomatic supreme sacrifice.
Based on the cause for which these compatriots may have died, honouring them with commensurate ceremonies, may not be out of place. This is why such activities as March passes by service personnel, speeches by the President and governors, and the traditional laying of wreathe at the cenotaph of the Unknown Soldier, feature in the event of the day.
But sadly, this is where it ends, in most cases. While speeches are read eulogizing the patriotic display by the fallen heroes, those they left behind, are abandoned by the very society they served till death. It is thus, not uncommon to see families of deceased service men putting up with life of destitution. Some are known to have been evicted from their quarters in the barracks in the most ridiculous manners.
Civilian members of the society are not immune of this culture of neglect. In this year’s edition of remembering the dead, while March passes were organised in Abuja and the state capitals, families of over 70 victims of Fulani Herdsmen menace, mourned their dead in Benue.
The victims were the latest in the orgy of violence that had been visited on communities in Enugu, Ondo, Adamawa, Taraba, Nasarawa, Plateau and Benue, among others, by murderous Fulani marauders on forceful appropriation of lands belonging to farmers in the affected areas.
While the herders took off on their dastardly campaign in Plateau, it was dismissed as an extension of the indigene/settler question in the state. In Adamawa and Taraba, the menace was casually explained as mere farmers-herdsmen clash, even with the attendant loss of life.
It took the audacious invasion of 27 Agatu communities in Nasarawa and accompanying death toll, for the reality of murderous agenda of the group to be appreciated. But this was not after it had extended its campaign of bloodletting to Ukpabi-Nimbo in Enugu.
But in all of the engagements of the group, so far, none, perhaps, had come close to the January 1 massacre in Guma and Logo councils of Benue, on a particular instance.
For a country that prides itself as the giant of the African Continent, losing over 70 citizens in peace time, in one fell swoop, not on account of any known natural emergency but on the antics of a particular gang, tells a lot on the premium we place on life here. It tells a lot on how we see ourselves as a people.
But nothing, perhaps hurts as the allegation by the governor, Samuel Ortom, that even before the January 1 attack, he had alerted the President, Vice President, Senate President, Director-General of the Department of State Security (DSS) and Inspector-General of Police of incendiary comments by unscrupulous individuals in that regard.
Except the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, who has reacted to the allegation, claiming that the governor’s outburst was not a true reflection of the interaction between them, others fingered in the conspiracy of silence, have maintained sealed lips.
The only option therefore, is to assume that they were warned of the mayhem by the Fulani marauders beforehand but they looked the other way. Is it because by chance of coincidence, they are also of the Fulani stock?
Whatever that may be the reason, their silence is not in this case, golden. It is unhelpful and questionable. It amounts to leadership failure, whether it is admitted or not.
It then raises questions on the relevance of paying tribute to the Known Soldier every year. Where do we place these Unknown Nigerians that were wasted by the ravenous herdsmen? What was really their offence, except finding themselves in a geographical entity called Nigeria? Who mourns them? More questions surge.
