The Honourable Minister of Information and Culture, Mr. Lai Mohammed, during a courtesy visit by the traditional ruler of Iyin Ekiti, the Oluyin of Iyin Ekiti, Oba Adeola Adeniyi Ajakaiye, to his office in Abuja last week, quite adroitly played the role of the palace entertainer when he averred that despite the security challenges facing Nigeria, the fact that it was in safe hands could not be controverted.
Obviously, the traditional ruler was in the minister’s office to solicit the government’s support for some traditional monuments, but the minister quite surprisingly exploited the forum for a public relations stunt. He hankered after some goodwill and understanding for the Federal Government while giving his endorsement of the potential tourist attractions in Oba Ajakaiye’s domain. Apparently, Mr. Mohammed couldn’t help using the forum to control the damage already inflicted on the reputation of the current administration by its consistently bad policies. He appealed to the various actors in leadership positions to douse the tension in the polity by dissuading the people from scepticism about the security situation in the country.
So then, Mr. Mohammed’s probable intention was to serve the people a decoy by shifting their attention away from reality. Touting the ideal in order to diminish the despair in the polity is a familiar tactic. Unfortunately, the minister’s visitor is a colleague of another traditional ruler in the same Ekiti State who had just been released from kidnappers’ den after paying a hefty ransom. Mr. Mohammed’s postulation was therefore a deliberate tactic meant to subject the country to selective amnesia. Certainly, this is not what the country needs now. The truth is that the country needs a lot of rehabilitation after the great damage by its political elite who have compromised various national institutions.
It is indeed ridiculous to say that Nigeria is in safe hands despite the debilitating security challenges that it confronts daily. How can there be safety in a climate of pervasive insecurity? Across the country, Boko Haram terrorists, bandits, nomadic herdsmen and the ubiquitous “unknown gunmen” are having a field day and people are dying in droves. Is the minister blissfully unaware of this? Security of life and property is the raison d’etre of the state. That being the case, a government that cannot guarantee the security of life and property has no valid claim to legitimacy.
Nigeria is no more in safe hands than farmers are in safety on their farms. Is the minister not aware that farmers can no longer go to their farms? The only people who are safe in the country are those in the cemeteries. Unfortunately, people are now cutting off their heads for diabolic monetary schemes. Pray, what kind of safety was the minister talking about last week? How does he expect Nigerians to believe him with the glaring facts to the contrary? The Hobbesian state of nature where life was nasty, brutish and short is no longer an abstract imagination. It is alive and well in Nigeria today on account of state failure. It is better to tell the truth than to dress the country’s state in finery of falsehood.
The Nigerian state owes it a duty to secure the lives and property of the citizenry and it would be a great disservice for this government to live in denial, especially at its sixth anniversary. It is more important to affirm the grim realities than to deny them in the cheap bid to grant recognition and approval to tourist attractions. Nigerians cannot pretend to be unaware of the grisly and bloody environment surrounding them. The Buhari administration must accept the obvious reality instead of pretending to be blind.
