Sweet Revenge
By EKAIWE IGINUS OSEMWEKHA

ABOUT a month ago all the news media carried a report of a Calabar man who beheaded his wife for infidelity. There was public condemnation for this disgraceful act by people in the metropolis.


A respondence retail trader at New Benin Market Mrs. Adeyemi said, “why can’t this man simply divorce the woman instead of a total annihilation. He does not seem to be mentally healthy” presumably he needs a psychiatric attention.


To some people revenge is sweet, it has often been said that because it is only natural for us to feel indignation when we have been offended or harmed in same way. Our in born sense of right and wrong demand that an injustice be corrected.


Offense is of various degrees ranging from being slapped, pushed or slighted to being verbally abused, physically assaulted, robbed and so on. How do you feel when you experience a personal affront of one kind or another? The reaction of many people today seem to be, I will make them pay for what they did.


By far the most common form of revenge involves those who are closest to us. Friends, associates and family members. Hurts, feelings over an unkind or thoughtless action can often bring retaliatory response, if a friend addresses you in a harsh tone of voice, do you retaliate? If a family member upsets you in some way, do you plot to get even? How easy it is to act when the offender is someone close to us.


Frankly speaking, how can a person be joyful if hatred and destructive feelings are bottled up inside of him? One commentator observed: if you think revenge is sweet, look into the faces of those who have lived on it for years.’ Consider what has been happening in so many parts of the world where ethnic and religious tensions run high. Often one killing begets another, which only serves to reinforce an endless cycle of hatred and death, for example, when a bomb killed 18 youths in a terrorists attack, a grieving woman shouted. “We should give it back to them a thousand times”. In that way brutality only increases and more and more people are drawn into conflict.


Barely had the ink dried on the headlines of the bombings at the us Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and barely had the tears dried from the families mourning their injured and dead, the United States sent in its aircrafts to bomb those who it alleged had bombed its diplomatic posts.


America cruise missiles landed on a pharmaceutical plant in the Sudanese capital Khartoum and several sisters in Afghanistan in what President Bill Clinton said was America’s response to the wave of terrorism unleashed on its people and other innocent people in East Africa.


Osama Bin Ladin was the prime suspect in the East Africa bombing. He was believed to have masterminded the Nairobi and Darees-Salaam bombings. A total of 75 missiles rained on Khartoum and remote parts of Afghanistan injuring many local people in the process.


The bombs outraged the Islamic world with angry Muslims vowing to retaliate. And angry sudan President Omar el-Bahir said he reserves the right to respond to the American attack? They said the pharmaceutical plant manufactured medicines. But Americans alleged that it was a center for chemical warfare.


The United States administration has accused the Sudanese regime of aiding and abetting terrorism a charge that was refuted by Khatoum. Washington has claimed it has evidence of Khartoum conspiring with terrorist activities, Khartoum had given refuge to the world most notorious terrorist caries the Jackal, who was suppose to be serving a prison sentence in Europe. This was the bases of American claims that Khartoum was encouraging terrorism.


Afghanistan comes into the equation because it allowed Osama to operate from its territory openly training terrorists.


The U.S argues that Osama Bin laden should not have been given permission to set up his terrorist base in Afghanistan. Osama the millionaire businessman was based in Sudan where he was said to be involved in several businesses. He is worth U.S. $300 million.


In the war in Afghanistan which is still lingering till date. Osama is said to have escaped unhurt from the bombings. Some claimed Osama bases were far away from where the US had hit with Osama still alive, the US appears to have got an slap on the face as the Islamic World would still argue that the world superior air strikes had failed to get the man they so much wanted.


Osama Bin Laden’s base has merely been ruffled by the missile attacks. He will use the power of his money to perpetrate attacks on his U.S. enemies so, the battle is between Osama bin Laden’s terrorist and the U.S.A. where then does it bring Kenyan and Tanzania.


Why were some 270 Kenya and Tanzanians killed and more than 5,000 injured in the twin bombings? East Africans have been the innocent victims of huge war of Vendetta being played across the globe. Osama bin Ladin should have weighed the pros and cons of the twin bombings in East Africa. If ever he was the mastermind behind the outrage.


He failed to realise that among the victims will also be East African Muslims. And his organisation was set up for the Jihad against the Americans. Kenya, for instance lost more than U.S. $500 million worth of property in the Nairobi bombing. Tanzania lost millions in the bombing in Dares-Salaam.


The loss of lives and limbs in East Africa and in the Sudan was unnecessary. Osama bin Laden is making horrific use of his wealth. His past tie of using the force of terrorism should have been nipped in the bud not by the U.S. but by Afghanistan.


Sometime ago, the Nigerian Joint Task Force is said to have destroyed so many villages in the Niger Delta in response to the killing of a military officer by militants. This was a mistake. I think the Federal Government will achieve more positive result if they involve some of the militants in addressing the issue of amnesty.

http://www.nigerianobservernews.com/01102009/features/features4.html