In the last eight years, 23,000 Nigerians have been reported missing¹. Every day the reality of being a Nigerian weigh heavy on us, the poor. Our citizenship is a living nightmare².
Unsurprisingly, we’re back here to the basics. Asking a fundamental question that isn’t supposed to be rhetorical. They tend to place value on things that can be rebuilt like properties and businesses, but not lives that can’t be restored.
Recent happenings in the last few years particularly in the last few months help resurface this bitter truth we’ve avoided for long. The country is designed to kill you. People Gazette³ reported over 30,400 lives lost to SARS in 16 years. Since its inception in 2009, Bokoharam’s campaign of violence has cost at least 27,000 lives and displaced some two million people⁴. The latter is a terrorist group.
On PG reports on SARS, a recently ‘ disbanded’ arm of the Nigeria police force, I’d love to go with Olorogun’s words. He described the police force as a ‘state-sanctioned death squad. ‘
You could disappear without warning in the Nigeria system. You can be kidnapped without any foresight, and the chance of you being found is so slim like a needle’s hole. Let me go with one example. Dandiyata, a political analyst/ critic of the government, was kidnapped on August 29, 2019, at Kaduna ..till today, we still ask ‘where is Dandiyata ?’
After 1 year, no official statement from the security operatives on findings regarding the same from the government. 685 kidnappings occurred nationwide in the first quarter of the year 2019, an average of seven per day. Kidnappers demand between $1,000 to $150,000 as ransom, depending on the victims’ financial resources.
You can be neutralized for saying the truth, for standing by it and your murder case will remain unsolved! You could get shot at by the security forces without questions be asked or justice being served. Imagine citizens getting used to the police .. killing unarmed civilians?
See Bola ige.
Successive governments since Obasanjo made lacklustre attempts to track down his killers, but eighteen years after, his killers are still working the streets free in great disservice to the memory of the illustrious son of Esa Oke and legal luminary cum politician
Yes !!! The terrible roads too!
The terrible roads are known for the darkness they bring…facilitating accidents. Thousands have died through this means. Every four hours, no fewer than two lives are lost on Nigerian roads. And every year, about 20,000 of the 11.654 million vehicles in the country are involved in accidents.
The workforce mostly the factories, industries, all around are exposing Nigerians to an inhumane environment ..void of human thoughtfulness.
2.78 million workers have died from occupational accidents and work-related diseases annually (globally), while an additional 374 million have suffered from non-fatal occupational accidents globally each year.
With violations of human rights, no health care package, underpaying as against contract agreement, no leave, ..little or no safety measures.. in all, a toxic environment! Thousands of youths have lost various body parts in those severe working conditions. They’re made to work like animals.
After all, they believed they’re doing them a favour by employing them in the first place. Whichever way you look at it, an average Nigerian is just a few illnesses away from bankruptcy. Oh, the system? Yes, the system will kill you with each day with unfavourable policies finding its way to finger your mental state as well as shatter your reality.
Nigeria’s food inflation has more than doubled since August 2015.
Food inflation in Nigeria rose in August 2020 to 16.0 per cent, compared with 15.48 per cent in July. Comparing the composite index for the food inflation rate in August 2020 versus same period in 2015, the difference is a whopping 108% increase in the inflation rate, in just 5 years. Within this period, Nigeria’s exchange rate has been devalued by 49%. 68% of Nigerian households now take loans to buy food.
Terrorism, banditry?
In 2019,1460 deaths were recorded within the last seven months in the country. Lives have been lost so much to terrorism—thousands to Boko haram massacres in Nigeria. A massacre can occur without someone being held accountable for it! Imagine cases like Odi massacre in 1992? Agatu massacre in 2016? Now, Lekki massacre happened a few weeks ago, where an undisclosed number of protesters were allegedly killed for exercising their right.
Who ordered it?
When you look at the Zaria massacre in 2015, you’d ask again…what value does the life of an average Nigerian represent and carries! Our Negligence? Painful to know that there’s a department responsible for ensuring Justice ascertaining safety, but what do they do? They look elsewhere.
None of us will be free until the old ways of doing things are gone forever.
As we look forward to the new year, we need to demand accountability from the government. Nigerians have suffered so much. They deserve a better shot at life. They really deserve to ‘live’ not ‘ leave’.
Again, What’s the value of the Nigerian life?
2. https://twitter.com/OdeleyeWole/status/1323405453150310401?s=19
3. People Gazette https://peoplesgazette.com/over-30400-nigerians-killed-in-sars-custody-in-16-years-report/?utm_source=ReviveOldPost&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ReviveOldPost
4. Bokoharam –https://www.rfi.fr/en/africa/20190727-10-years-more-27000-deaths-later-nigeiras-boko-haram-insurgency-continues
5. Olorogun- https://twitter.com/OkKevwe/status/1320722634313768961?s=19
7. https://www.voanews.com/africa/kidnappings-raise-fears-among-nigerians
8. Assassination – https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Assassinated_Nigerian_politicians
9. Bola ige – https://m.guardian.ng/opinion/bola-ige-lives-on/
10. Terrible roads https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/09/highways-of-death-28195-killed-in-road-accidents-in-68-months/
11. Industry working environment https://twitter.com/Truthfully83/status/1293474007711232001?s=19
12. Occupational hazards – https://allafrica.com/stories/201905010018.html
13. illness – bankruptcy, death – https://healthwise.punchng.com/how-high-healthcare-cost-pushes-nigerians-further-into-poverty-untimely-death/
15. Food inflation- https://nairametrics.com/2020/09/16/despite-billions-on-agriculture-food-inflation-up-by-108-since-2015/
17. Food inflation- https://www.premiumtimesng.com/agriculture/agric-news/414774-food-inflation-in-nigeria-hits-16-in-august.html
18. Food insecurity- https://www.thecable.ng/nigerians-now-taking-loans-to-buy-food-as-68-of-households-suffer-food-insecurity
19 Banditry – https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/349385-over-1400-killed-by-bandits-in-seven-months-nigerian-govt.html
20.Odi massacre https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odi_massacre
21. Agatu massacre https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agatu_massacres
22 Lekki massacre- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lekki_massacre
23. Zaria massacre – https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/04/nigeria-military-cover-up-of-mass-slaughter-at-zaria-exposed/
– https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Zaria_massacre
