Killing flies with a sledge hammer
By Ugochukwu Ezenkwel
A few weeks ago the whole country was engulfed with youth restiveness.
They began peacefully but when the authorities came on board with their treacherous ploys, the youths went on rampage as if it was their last opportunity to ventilate their anger against powers that be and against wickedness in high places.
They looted, they burned, they killed and they lost all sense of decorum and direction.
They sought palliative warehouses where items that could alleviate their hunger were stashed and hoarded for God knows why.
No part of the country was spared this near Armageddon. From state to state the narrative remained the same-hoodlums has hijacked the peaceful protests and turned things upside down.
In Rivers State the narrative took a twist. The story changed. All the angry youths in Rivers State had become Biafrans and IPOB members! They were the ones who killed soldiers and policemen, they were the ones who looted and burnt places. They were the ones who spearheaded an ethnic war, which the authorities in their magnanimity had to quench with an indefinite 24-hour curfew.
Suddenly soldiers and policemen were unleashed on hapless and helpless citizens. Oyigbo LGA became a red zone, a no go area. Whole families fled and the whole place became deserted. Trigger happy soldiers and police men had a field day shooting, maiming innocent citizens, arresting young men of 18 years and above and keeping them in despicable torture centres spread across the zone.
Several metres away around the yam zone, people moved freely without molestation, with enough police protection, their young men of 18 years and above, happily running around, their okada riders having a swell time ferrying the fleeing slaves across the redline to safety.
All these in one country, in one state, in an Animal Farm set up where some animals are more equal than others. This is the paradox of our time. It is a land where flies are killed with sledge hammer, and where time-tested criminals and bandits do not attract the same swift and fierce attention to stop their evils deeds.
Is this not the same leadership inconsistencies and crises mismanagement that has left this country largely unprogressive. The time ticks, wounds that need healing are getting salt as medication, and lessons that need to be learnt are thrown to the dogs.
Everything is taken for granted, authority insensitivity, high handedness, impunity and crass irresponsibility are all we get instead of well tailored, genuine and human faced solutions.
Recklessness stares us in the face everyday and everywhere in this country.
Time ticks and we must retrace our steps because God cannot be mocked.
Ezenkwel, a Public Affairs Analyst, is based in Portharcourt, Rivers State.
