What pain! What unimaginable shock! Contemplating the magnitude of unvarnished gut wrenching
\nsorrow, sudden and seemingly apocalyptic, that would have befallen the family of Dr Chike and Dora
\nAkunyili on hearing about the gruesome murder of Dr John Chike Akunyili can be better left to the
\nimagination.<\/p>\n
Already bereft and forever left with a hollow vacant space in their hearts from the demise of their
\nebullient, steady, accomplished mother \u2013 the Akunyili children were not spared the brutal reality that
\ndisparate families across Nigeria have to come to terms with on a daily basis.<\/p>\n
It is the Hobbesian spectre of life as \u201cnasty, brutish and short\u201d made manifest on our shores. It is the
\nreality of living in a failing country in the murderous grip of unknown gunmen.<\/p>\n
For better or worse, we live in a country conquered by kleptocrats, ethnic\/religious bigots, terrorists of
\ndifferent shades, and their champions who have disdainfully shorn their velvet gloves and must willfully
\nshape all of our lives irrespective of divergent views.<\/p>\n
We live in a country, devoid of politicians and statesmen who genuinely elicit "adorare" from their
\npeople and followership. All conquering "politrickcians" and elitist "lootists" have despoiled a place
\nwhere the likes of Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Aminu Kano, et al, used to call their own.<\/p>\n
We are now, most of us at least, in the roles of unwilling spectators, watching the unfolding tragic
\ndrama of a nation inundated by deadly plagues inspired by a blight of misleaders and crooks in official
\nspaces.<\/p>\n
The omissions and commissions of voracious kleptocratic Nigerian misleaders and their pestilential band
\nhave come home to roost, unleashing hydra-headed monstrous shadows of extreme poverty and
\nvirulent insecurity to daily stalk the land.<\/p>\n
Terrorists of all hues, seemingly invisible to security apparatchik hold sovereign territory on Nigerian soil
\nand appear inviolate.<\/p>\n
To pigeonhole, distinguishing these violence practitioners according to anyone\u2019s yardstick, as if the
\ndevilish and wanton spilling of the blood of innocents can be compartmentalized in greater or lesser
\nportions as some of their overt and covert champions in public spaces will want us to believe, is to say
\nthey do not all "terrorize".<\/p>\n
Daily murderous binges of "gunmen\u201d across the country have in real terms only elicited, rather
\nuncannily, almost copy and paste responses from the Presidency, detached from reality and lacking
\nconsequential actionable force.<\/p>\n
Indeed, Nigerians, who are all very much aware, besieged by daily poverty and mortal dread for life and
\nlimb, have only noticed that stereotypical threat's of fire and brimstone emanating from Aso Rock only
\nseems to spur the invisible unknown gunmen on to more fiendish acts.<\/p>\n
These statements, invariably following the same patterns of \u201cshock and avowals of retribution\u201d issued in
\nthe wake of acts of terrorism have now assumed the characteristic of "surplusage" \u2013 of irrelevance.<\/p>\n
What is clear, is that, from North to South, East to West, unknown gunmen, increasingly emboldened,
\nare expanding their fiefs and leaving a trail of sorrow, tears and blood in their wake.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the year, in April 2021, the Governor of Niger State, Abubakar Bello said; " I am confirming that
\nthere are Boko Haram elements here in Niger State. Here in Kaure, in Shiroro Local Government Area.<\/p>\n
I am confirming that they have hoisted their flags there. The villagers wives have been seized from them
\nand forcefully attached to Boko Haram members. I just heard that they have placed their flags at Kaure
\nmeaning they have taken over the territory."<\/p>\n
Fast forward to October 2021 and the headline is : " Boko Haram cripples governance in Niger
\ncommunities, fixes marital age for girls".<\/p>\n
In a development already confirmed by the Chairman of Shiroro Local Government Area, a resident of
\nthe area and Co-Convener of Concerned Shiroro Youths, Bello Ibrahim, told a reporter; " now, they are
\nnot only in Kawure, they have also extended their tentacles to Communities like Kuregbe, Awulo and
\nhost of other Communities.<\/p>\n
In Awulo and Kuregbe Communities, they assembled the locals, both Muslims and Christians, and gave
\nthem marching order that any girl that is 12 should be married off. There is no any form of law in the
\narea aside Boko Haram\u2019s\u201d.<\/p>\n
Hitherto, much to their enduring sorrow, the good people of Niger State, like the rest of the North-
\nCentral, have felt the heavy hand of terrorists of the bandits and herdsmen variety.<\/p>\n
That Boko Haram terrorists have now infiltrated the North-Central is in keeping with the emboldened
\nproliferation of their kind which had hitherto seen them transcend from their original base in the North-
\nEast into the North-West.<\/p>\n
Like the whole of the Northern part of Nigeria, the Southern part of the country is helplessly ensnared in
\nthe grip of unknown gunmen. The herdsmen\/bandit variants continues to terrorize all of Southern
\nNigeria in daily unabated killings and kidnappings for ransom.<\/p>\n
Added into the mix of this hotbed of insecurity is the dastardly upsurge in ritualistic fueled kidnappings
\nand killings that is reprehensibly mind-boggling. Pervasive daring armed robberies and violent crimes
\nlike rape are raging monstrosities in our neighborhoods that continue to leave bloody and scarred
\nfootprints.<\/p>\n
Unremitting demonic inspired cult clashes and street violence is now a recurring decimal especially in
\nthe South-South but not limited to, as the South-West and South-East has its own fair share of this ever-
\nspreading barbarity.<\/p>\n
The South-East, it would seem, is now in a unique territory all of its own. Practicing unknown gunmen in
\nthis area seem bent on a scorched earth policy uniquely combining and fitting all of the evil tendencies
\nnoticeable across Nigeria into one place in what is surely a combustible mix.<\/p>\n
Eastern Nigeria, exposes in stark relief, the \u201cfailings\u201d of the Nigerian enterprise to any discerning eye.
\nThe startling optics of cities in the South-East, a significant component part of Nigeria, turned in it\u2019s
\nentirety not once but severally, into ghost towns, heeding the dictates of a secessionist group, not
\nwithstanding the coercive powers of State to do otherwise \u2013 is as troubling as it is revealing, of how
\nclearly the Nigerian entity stands on the precipice.<\/p>\n
In the Northern part of the country, there are areas where terrorists are sovereign, promulgating laws
\nand collecting taxes and fees. These terrorists (bandits and herdsmen inclusive), who seemingly cannot
\nbe demystified and rooted out from their lairs and bastions, continue to thrive and perpetuate their
\nreign of blood empires.<\/p>\n
These abiding truths, however besmudged or deliberately downplayed, hallmarks a failing State and that
\nreality cannot be doctored or remedied through threat's of forceful coercion or doublespeak but must
\nbe seen and handled for what they are \u2013 as a menacing present and clear danger to Nigeria\u2019s corporate
\nexistence.<\/p>\n
And so, as Nigerians perish by the score on a daily basis from the hands of unknown gunmen, can
\nhopeless and helpless citizens contemplate a better tomorrow!<\/p>\n
Dr John Chike Akunyili\u2019s children, now among the legion of bereaved Nigerians touched by the outrages
\nof unknown gunmen, wrote a tribute to a man they said, was like millions of his compatriots \u2013 an
\nordinary man. Here are their words.<\/p>\n
"In his final days, his heart was heavy about the state of things in Nigeria. He lamented about the
\nstruggles of people unable to pay for treatment anymore and about the unfortunate state of unrest
\nwhere human life has lost its value.<\/p>\n
His hope echoed that of his beloved wife and our mother, that Nigeria might lean on the forces of unity
\nand shun disunity. That we might do the right thing, trusting that our potential lies in the goodness of
\nthe people and the greatness of the nation.<\/p>\n
What happens if we move closer to these ideals?\u201d<\/p>\n
Victor Ikhatalor
\nHuman Rights Defender and Good Governance Advocate
\nTwitter: @MyTribeNigeria
\nEmail: kingjvic7@gmail.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What pain! What unimaginable shock! Contemplating the magnitude of unvarnished gut wrenching sorrow, sudden and seemingly apocalyptic, that would have befallen the family of Dr Chike and Dora Akunyili on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":86462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n