OPERATION EGWU EKE II AND OUR “SEE FINISH” PHENOMENON

Time was when people shuddered upon hearing someone fell from a tree. The immediate kindred would not go to farm that day. Those already at work would suspend all they were doing and hurry home. People will rush to bring the medicine man to come heal the injured and divine what caused such a calamity. The victim would be tended to while sacrifices and prayers are offered to avert such evil occurrence from the people. Daily, before people of the umunna went for their activities, they would come check on their injured brother. As they came home on market days, people would buy ife afia for him to help suit his pains. This for someone who had dislocated or broken his bones from a fall.

If such a person died, we would not go to work in the days following such death, on the day of burial and certain key customary days following the final rites. His family was not left on their own. When robbers attacked, neighbours rallied round the affected family.

People cared. Greatly.

Then time began to pass and our people began to see more and more misfortune. We began to worse causes of death than falls, snake bite, tetnanus infection, cholera and iba. We saw how kolota could kill multiples of healthy people commuting from the village to the township at the twinkle of an eye. Even then, when we saw a vehicle involved in an accident, all other commuters would park to help the victims. Our journeys would be suspended without anyone raising a protest no matter how urgent our missions were.

In the big cities, we still cared for our neighbours and brothers but our level of commitment to ailing relatives and acquaintances began to wane. Our journey to nationhood has been very tortuous. Our people have moved from petty-robbers to kidnappers and now terrorists. Terrorism was novel to us between 2009 and 2014. Then, when we heard news of a shootout between security agencies and robbers, kidnappers or Boko Haram, we listened with bated breaths. We were not happy to hear the casualty figures, even if it was the bad guys that got gunned down. No, we didn’t want them dead. They were one of use. They were Nigerians. Our brothers.

Our first major bomb blast experience in Abuja on October 1st left unbelievable emotional scars. How could Nigerians decide to kill their own people in such numbers? Many lived were cut short. Many more limbs were shattered. Thousand were thrown into mourning. These are not what we as people could do. We had strong family values. Even the president at the time didn’t believe it. But thank God they weren’t suicide bombers. Mbanu! Our people cannot be suicide bombers. Those were what we watched on international television from the Middle East and Somalia. We even marveled as we watched such news. We don’t have that kind of mind. Abuja blasts were car bombs…mostly detonated to embarrass government than to kill innocents celebrating Nigeria’s independence. We moved on. Until Abubakar Shekau showed up in the scene.

Whenever a Boko Haram combatant detonated his improvised explosive device, he kills himself and many others. We could not understand. It was like a bad dream that we sincerely prayed to wake up from, the next morning. Such news were loudly reported in and outside Nigeria for weeks until another unfortunate incident takes over the airwaves. We mourned, collectively. We demanded action from the government and the security agencies.

But events kept unfolding in our eyes. When the suicide bombers morphed from young men to young women, our eyed popped into our palms. Who would have thought that a woman with the milk of love and kindness could wear and IED? I didn’t believe it, but these female suicide bombers beat every security strategy and even killed more people than their male counterparts. It made heart-wrenching news. Then entered the children. Yes, children were used as suicide bombers in our society and they killed themselves and others. By this time, Nigerians cared less and the initial shock of the possibility of a kind man helping a child cross a busy road and getting killed in the middle of the road as the child detonated the IED he/she wore didn’t last. Even the media blanked terrorism.

Boko Haram activities no longer makes local news. We now get to read about the world’s deadliest terror group from foreign news agencies. Nigerian media now supplies little or no information as Shekau and gang kidnap and kill people daily. When they kidnapped over 300 girls from Chibok, moved them through highly militarized zones and housed them where no man saw them for 2-4 years. We all shouted. Some in agony. Others in denial. But we shouted for years. About half of the girls are still in captivity but we shout no more. We have got used to it.

By this time, we had moved on from sensitivity. We had become numb. Our people have seen it all. Yes. We don see am finish and we can no longer be alarmed by happenings in Nigeria. We have grown too numb and too cold to be shocked, surprised or disappointment when things that were usually unexpected happen. No be today wey nyash dey back for Nigeria.

When it was reported that hundreds of Shia Muslims were massacred in Kaduna for not respecting the Chief of Army Staff’s convoy while on a spiritual procession, we raised a faint shout that lasted only 48 hours. The spiritual leader of Islamic Movement of Nigeria has been in illegal custody ever since. We got tired of shouting for El-Zackzacky within a week. We moved on from him.

This time when we hear news of fire, road accident or bomb blast, we would only ask, “how many people died?” and continued with what we were doing. We have been involved so many road accidents and air mishaps that when we hear of a road accident, we will not be perturbed. We will only thank God that it didn’t kill many people. “My dear, thank God only 7 persons died. 5 survived.” We even publicly rejoice that we were not among the people that perished, even as our neighbours grieve.

Agatu, Nimbo, and other unfortunate communities cried as they were visited with the fury of angry herdsmen that we were told are not Nigerians. We only “stood with” Agatu and Nimbo on the day following each arson and massacre. Then their plight was forgotten immediately as our attention span grew shorter and shorter.

On the anti-corruption angle, we have heard accusations of people stealing mind-numbing amounts of money. Figures that makes James Ibori’s jail term look like an injustice to the former governor, yet such people are never convicted. The worst part of this is that as soon as an allegation is made public, our youths go up in arms against the investigating authorities: “Is he the only corrupt person in Nigeria? How much did he even steal? Are you saying that there is no corrupt person in the ruling party? What about Northerners? Have you tried Babacchir Lawal?” they would retort. We have seen so much robbery that when a suspect is arraigned, we only ask “how much did he steal?” to compare with unspecified benchmarks.

It seems that as Nigerian economy went deep into recession, our collective humanity went into recession too.

The Nigerian Army have released their pythons on a dancing exercise in the South East for one month. Even before the Egwu Eke II formally began, allegations (with video evidences) of human rights violations hit the social media. As we watched man’s inhumanity against fellow men, one could not but wonder where our humanity had gone. Actions that even the army hierarchy have apologized for and promised to investigate and apply sanctions on are roundly justified by Nigerian civilians.

The army whip their fellow citizens and make them lay nose deep in mud water; we justify it – shebi the idiots want to die for Nnamdi Kanu? Captives are lined up and made to fight one another like slaves of centuries past; we justify – is it not better than being killed? Nnamdi Kanu;s home is invaded; we justify – Kanu has violated all conditions of his bail. Abia State Governor cry for ceasefire and the military rubbish him; we justify – why did he not take decisive actions to rein the mad man in before now? Random people criticize the unprovoked occupation of Igbo Land (beginning with Abia Sate); we shout them down – you have found your voice now, but you lost it when Kanu was beating the drums of war. Then we see pictures of Nigerian youths allegedly killed for being in possession of IPOB regalia; blame the dead for flying IPOB colours while pythons danced.

Can someone tell me what can happen in Nigeria today that would truly shock Nigerians to the marrows? We are now immune to human feelings. Nigeria turns you into a walking shock absorber. A new drama, disaster or danger happens every day and soon, you become numb to it all. That’s the “see finish” phenomenon. We are in the see finish generation. Nothing shocks us, not anymore.

My name is Donmeca, and I don’t claim to have commonsense.
Thanks for reading.

You may share

Donmeca:
OPERATION EGWU EKE II AND OUR “SEE FINISH” PHENOMENON

Time was when people shuddered upon hearing someone fell from a tree. The immediate kindred would not go to farm that day. Those already at work would suspend all they were doing and hurry home. People will rush to bring the medicine man to come heal the injured and divine what caused such a calamity. The victim would be tended to while sacrifices and prayers are offered to avert such evil occurrence from the people. Daily, before people of the umunna went for their activities, they would come check on their injured brother. As they came home on market days, people would buy ife afia for him to help suit his pains. This for someone who had dislocated or broken his bones from a fall.

If such a person died, we would not go to work in the days following such death, on the day of burial and certain key customary days following the final rites. His family was not left on their own. When robbers attacked, neighbours rallied round the affected family.

People cared. Greatly.

Then time began to pass and our people began to see more and more misfortune. We began to worse causes of death than falls, snake bite, tetnanus infection, cholera and iba. We saw how kolota could kill multiples of healthy people commuting from the village to the township at the twinkle of an eye. Even then, when we saw a vehicle involved in an accident, all other commuters would park to help the victims. Our journeys would be suspended without anyone raising a protest no matter how urgent our missions were.

In the big cities, we still cared for our neighbours and brothers but our level of commitment to ailing relatives and acquaintances began to wane. Our journey to nationhood has been very tortuous. Our people have moved from petty-robbers to kidnappers and now terrorists. Terrorism was novel to us between 2009 and 2014. Then, when we heard news of a shootout between security agencies and robbers, kidnappers or Boko Haram, we listened with bated breaths. We were not happy to hear the casualty figures, even if it was the bad guys that got gunned down. No, we didn’t want them dead. They were one of use. They were Nigerians. Our brothers.

Our first major bomb blast experience in Abuja on October 1st left unbelievable emotional scars. How could Nigerians decide to kill their own people in such numbers? Many lived were cut short. Many more limbs were shattered. Thousand were thrown into mourning. These are not what we as people could do. We had strong family values. Even the president at the time didn’t believe it. But thank God they weren’t suicide bombers. Mbanu! Our people cannot be suicide bombers. Those were what we watched on international television from the Middle East and Somalia. We even marveled as we watched such news. We don’t have that kind of mind. Abuja blasts were car bombs…mostly detonated to embarrass government than to kill innocents celebrating Nigeria’s independence. We moved on. Until Abubakar Shekau showed up in the scene.

Whenever a Boko Haram combatant detonated his improvised explosive device, he kills himself and many others. We could not understand. It was like a bad dream that we sincerely prayed to wake up from, the next morning. Such news were loudly reported in and outside Nigeria for weeks until another unfortunate incident takes over the airwaves. We mourned, collectively. We demanded action from the government and the security agencies.

But events kept unfolding in our eyes. When the suicide bombers morphed from young men to young women, our eyed popped into our palms. Who would have thought that a woman with the milk of love and kindness could wear and IED? I didn’t believe it, but these female suicide bombers beat every security strategy and even killed more people than their male counterparts. It made heart-wrenching news. Then entered the children. Yes, children were used as suicide bombers in our society and they killed themselves and others. By this time, Nigerians cared less and the initial shock of the possibility of a kind man helping a child cross a busy road and getting killed in the middle of the road as the child detonated the IED he/she wore didn’t last. Even the media blanked terrorism.

Boko Haram activities no longer makes local news. We now get to read about the world’s deadliest terror group from foreign news agencies. Nigerian media now supplies little or no information as Shekau and gang kidnap and kill people daily. When they kidnapped over 300 girls from Chibok, moved them through highly militarized zones and housed them where no man saw them for 2-4 years. We all shouted. Some in agony. Others in denial. But we shouted for years. About half of the girls are still in captivity but we shout no more. We have got used to it.

By this time, we had moved on from sensitivity. We had become numb. Our people have seen it all. Yes. We don see am finish and we can no longer be alarmed by happenings in Nigeria. We have grown too numb and too cold to be shocked, surprised or disappointment when things that were usually unexpected happen. No be today wey nyash dey back for Nigeria.

When it was reported that hundreds of Shia Muslims were massacred in Kaduna for not respecting the Chief of Army Staff’s convoy while on a spiritual procession, we raised a faint shout that lasted only 48 hours. The spiritual leader of Islamic Movement of Nigeria has been in illegal custody ever since. We got tired of shouting for El-Zackzacky within a week. We moved on from him.

This time when we hear news of fire, road accident or bomb blast, we would only ask, “how many people died?” and continued with what we were doing. We have been involved so many road accidents and air mishaps that when we hear of a road accident, we will not be perturbed. We will only thank God that it didn’t kill many people. “My dear, thank God only 7 persons died. 5 survived.” We even publicly rejoice that we were not among the people that perished, even as our neighbours grieve.

Agatu, Nimbo, and other unfortunate communities cried as they were visited with the fury of angry herdsmen that we were told are not Nigerians. We only “stood with” Agatu and Nimbo on the day following each arson and massacre. Then their plight was forgotten immediately as our attention span grew shorter and shorter.

On the anti-corruption angle, we have heard accusations of people stealing mind-numbing amounts of money. Figures that makes James Ibori’s jail term look like an injustice to the former governor, yet such people are never convicted. The worst part of this is that as soon as an allegation is made public, our youths go up in arms against the investigating authorities: “Is he the only corrupt person in Nigeria? How much did he even steal? Are you saying that there is no corrupt person in the ruling party? What about Northerners? Have you tried Babacchir Lawal?” they would retort. We have seen so much robbery that when a suspect is arraigned, we only ask “how much did he steal?” to compare with unspecified benchmarks.

It seems that as Nigerian economy went deep into recession, our collective humanity went into recession too.

The Nigerian Army have released their pythons on a dancing exercise in the South East for one month. Even before the Egwu Eke II formally began, allegations (with video evidences) of human rights violations hit the social media. As we watched man’s inhumanity against fellow men, one could not but wonder where our humanity had gone. Actions that even the army hierarchy have apologized for and promised to investigate and apply sanctions on are roundly justified by Nigerian civilians.

The army whip their fellow citizens and make them lay nose deep in mud water; we justify it – shebi the idiots want to die for Nnamdi Kanu? Captives are lined up and made to fight one another like slaves of centuries past; we justify – is it not better than being killed? Nnamdi Kanu;s home is invaded; we justify – Kanu has violated all conditions of his bail. Abia State Governor cry for ceasefire and the military rubbish him; we justify – why did he not take decisive actions to rein the mad man in before now? Random people criticize the unprovoked occupation of Igbo Land (beginning with Abia Sate); we shout them down – you have found your voice now, but you lost it when Kanu was beating the drums of war. Then we see pictures of Nigerian youths allegedly killed for being in possession of IPOB regalia; blame the dead for flying IPOB colours while pythons danced.

Can someone tell me what can happen in Nigeria today that would truly shock Nigerians to the marrows? We are now immune to human feelings. Nigeria turns you into a walking shock absorber. A new drama, disaster or danger happens every day and soon, you become numb to it all. That’s the “see finish” phenomenon. We are in the see finish generation. Nothing shocks us, not anymore.

My name is Donmeca, and I don’t claim to have commonsense.
Thanks for reading.

You may share

Thanks! What a beautiful write up and as much as you u made so much sense you were kind of been biased.

You made so much point, interesting write up.

I don't blame our government unlike before cos i now see it as a collective effort.