₦airaland Forum

Forget about houses and cars. They can always be bought or built. Humanity is all that matters. The function of government is to advance society. If society is decaying, degenerating and being systematically destroyed then governments have failed and houses and cars no longer matter. What has been lost to the riots is insignificant, totally miniscule compared to what Nigeria has lost in over 60 years of decay.

I choose to look at the big picture and ignore the emotional blackmail of those who want things to continue as they are. Nigeria, they should realise is not just sustainable. If things don't begin to truly change from now. The next angst will !be much, much worse. No one will talk about vehicles, businesses and properties then.

There are far too many people in Nigeria on the fringes of society who consider themselves desperate enough to do anything. We should all be concerned about that and stop creating bubbles of false security and islands of deceptive peace.

It is time for those who call themselves leaders to head to libraries to study the evolution of nations and the advancement of humanity because the things they thought could never happen in ours could be in the offing.

ehinmowo:
Let the fear of the people be resounding in the heart of the leaders.

That is the way it should be. That is what democracy is all about, not this monarchy we operate. Not the fear of violence though but a healthy respect of the ability of the served to hold the servants to account.

A revolution of sorts indeed.

When the privileged scramble to dissociate from the feudal oligarchs you know the gale of change is blowing.

Who will have imagined a day when the Jagaban will have a massive bullseye following him like a shadow in Lagos of all places....watch this space folks.

Power is truly fleeting.

A thousand buildings CAN NEVER EQUATE TO A SINGLE LIFE LOST.

Buildings and bridges can be rebuilt, businesses can recover, guilt can be forgiven, prejudice can abate, justice can be served.

BUT A SOUL ONCE DAMNED CAN NEVER BE REDEEMED.

Nigeria still has not come to terms with what should be its priorities. Politics, governments, leadership are all for one purpose, PEOPLE.

Starve the people to sap whatever energy they have to resist then feed them crumbs to secure loyalty. Little wonder my fellow citizens will rave, rant and raise hell on behalf of their oppressors. This crises has revealed a lot about Nigeria. A weak, jaundiced state where decency and morality is alien.

Beating a three year old is just wrong. Can't lend advice beyond that. Stop that immediately and we move on. A traumatised kid is a closed shop. At their age learning should be fun.

Where you find a society where no man is his brother's keeper this is symptomatic of the weak, divided state of the nation we have often spoken about driven by the structure we operate that creates a massive gorge between the 'have's' and the 'have nots'.

Nigeria is waking up to the real state of the nation no media spin can hide. There is real poverty, ignorance, anger and resentmemt out there and in the last 5 to 6 years with the subduction and conquest of all institutions of public discourse, replacing them with a culture of fear and civil intimidation, this is the result.

So you all thought Nigeria was alright and dandy....because the powers that be say so. When we spoke they said we were crazy. Now folks are shocked at the level of destruction and losses.

When we begged that Nigerians begin a discourse amongst themselves about how to live, how to exist around shared and mutually agreeable values they said what nonsense are you talking. Today, the Nigerian is shocked that his fellow citizen can do such damage.

We truly donot know each other in Nigeria thoughtless if how to sort ourselvves out. Let us continue in self deception while we steam the pressure cooker. When we talk about restructuring some ignoramus will be talking state creation or fiscal bullcrap... while he doesn't know the man down the street or understands what makes him tick.

okuta007:
my brother police will surely kill innocent people- no be naija police again?

but are they supposed to kill in quelling down riots and mass burglary? what happened to rubber bullets? tear gas? in the US - BLM and Antifa protesters looted stores in broad daylight (am not saying it’s ok to steal) but is the excessive use of lethal force by the Nigerian Police commensurate with the crime committed? absolutely NO!

Those days Nigeria police use bartons and shield (they wear riot gear) to confront protesters - now it’s the lazy and easy way out of gunning down people recklessly - because police sef never chop, dem no get power to push back


what am I even saying - we are talking about the zoo here, shiorrrrr

I don't think they are issued with teargas or other deterrents anymore. It is just AK 47 and 7.62mm ammo. And fellow citizens are clapping not knowing the killing range is more than half a kilometre. Which means serious collateral damage in an urban setting. Just sick.

Meanwhile no one is asking where the folks who are given official SUV's costing billions to the taxpayer to superintend over the people are hiding. I mean both political representatives and so called traditional leaders.

Why are they not out on the streets to calm the situation down amongst their constituents and in their arcs of influence. No one is asking. Citizens are busy eating each other up.

Everything is on the decline in Nigeria.

What we know today as the MOPOL started out as the anti-riot wing of the police (and this can still be seen in the kitting and smoke deployment equipment some of them carry).

And they used to handle and contain public uprising in those days, the 80's with much more skill and competence but I guess many years of military misrule and sheer civilian incomoetence has led our security institutions down the path of least resistance which is mindless violence.

Something has to give. The personel of various security establishments across board must be reborn starting with proper recruitment, then qualitative and sustained training, if not they will just destroy all of society.

GIdiata:
I have Been a strong and devoted advocate of the Protest.

but on this, GOD BLESS THE MOPOL WHO DID A GOOD JOB

these Hoodlums where the ones that allowed themselves to be used as weapons to disrupt the whole Protest.


THEY CALL THEMSELVES THUGS BUT THEY ARE NOTHING BUT, BUNCH OF FOOLISH WEAKLINGS.

THEIR MATES ARE RAIDING WAREHOUSES AND PALACE WHERE OUR COVID-19 PALLIATIVES WERE STOCKED THEY ARE RAIDING AND LOOTING INNOCENT PEOPLE.

YOU ACCUSE TINUBU AMD CO. FOR CAUSING THE TROUBLE. HAVE U FINISHED DEALING WITH THE TINUBU AND CO? YOU ARE DESTROYING AND LOOTING INNOCENT PEOPLE'S PROPERTIES.

U CATCH ANYONE LOOTING STORES, BANKS, BREAKING INTO PRISONS TO FREE INMATES.

PLEASE GUN THEM DOWN
A HEADSHOT WOULD BE PREFERABLE.

You are too dull to be a productive citizen. Instead of calling for calm you are asking for an escalation of the violence. Didn't you read that a police informant was lynched. Don't you consider that these policemen are citizens too and live in local communities. Don't you consider that they and their families can become targets for violence off the job or will they be on patrol forever.

There are levels of incidents and peculiar scenarios that call for reason. Looting is not a capital offence and under no circumstance should people be shot for that except if the police protecting such premises come under armed attack. I'm afraid the causative and lessons of the past few weeks are lost on the authorities and folks like you but like we always say, Nigerians don't learn in classrooms with the brain but in hospitals with the pain.

Citizens outnumber the police almost 1000 to 1. That is not a position of strength by any estimate. It calls for cerebral action not stupid brutality. This situation is about to get very dark, ugly and can easily go underground in just the same way the misadventures of the Katsina police a decade ago plunged Nigeria into a crises engulfing the whole north east, costing trillions of naira and thousands of life.

The police never learns.

fuke:
Yoruba lost life and properties.
Double tragedy.

We lost our children and properties
to stupidly fight for better Nigeria.

my question, what are other tribes losing in this war.

Yoruba youths, be well guided.

Not much compared to the carnage in the Niger Delta over the past quarter of a century or the slaughter in the east over the past few years. This is just a couple of weeks and a few extra-judicial killings and you are fainting already...

...we can all see now how badly the country sits and sets itself up to treat its citizens and I hope when injustice is served ANYWHERE in Nigeria over ANY CIVIL COURSE OF ACTION in the future it can attract your sympathy.

For these same despicable military/para military actions, this same goverment (style) was applauded by fellow Nigerians because it served their interests then or simply because they felt it was to far away to concern them.

I will always say this. We need to restructure this country and the primary goal of this journey of restructuring is to get all Nigerians singing from the same hymn sheet of humanity, citizen rights and privileges and also as to what mutually accepted societal values are.

So that for example no single Nigerian will be intimidated, violated or killed for his political views without recourse to a justice system that is unbiased, fair and egalitarian. Be it predominantly south western anti SARS protesters, south eastern civil secessionists or south-southern resource control agitators.

That all will have universal sympathy. Can we do that ?

Any religion without the power of the Holy Spirit at work in those who believe is only on a timer for a fall.

There is no way man can outsmart the devil and remain in righteousness without the Help of God.

The Word is clear about same sex passions, tendencies and unions. But just as in the Garden of Eden someone out there insists it does not matter what God says.

ABULARdotCOM:
Buhari is Tinubu's Waterloo!

Said something like this a while ago.

Just as Obama distanced himself from the scandal ridden Clinton monarchy in the run up to his successful presidential bid, political sagacity dictates when you should decouple from an unpopular regime to chart your own course within the same party. Tinubu's silence and ambivalence on a lot of national issues surrounding misgovernance by this present regime will bite back.

He is not reading the socio-political landscape well at all. His rivals have him where they want, between and betwix, weakened at home and abroad. He has to cut the Buhari regime loose now and start rebuilding his base with strong entreaties and favours to his people in words and deeds. At worst he will lose the national game but retain his base.

The way he is playing it he may lose both home and away.

Shows that the government of Nigeria is weaker today than it has ever been before. This is what happens when you cannot carry all your citizens along and focus all their energies towards universally acceptable ideals, values, programmes and pursuits. The Nigeria State has never been this divided and weakened, its institutions almost totally collapsed. Misgovernamnce in all its glory.

5,000 bags of Covid 19 relief materials stashed away?. Gosh.
This is one daring raid that all humanity WILL sanction. The scenario is totally 'revolutionist' in drama. An absolutely poignant reminder of the French and Russian revolutions complete with articles of confiscated royal regalia to match.

Ten kilometres. Must have covered half the breadth of Lagos. How is that possible ?

seunmsg:
Well said. The protest to end sars and police brutality is legitimate. No right thinking person will speak against the protest. However, now that government has agreed to the demands of the protesters, it’s time to halt the protest and allow government implement all the demands.

Continuing with the protest in the manner we have seen in the last few days would only lead to more violence, looting, extortion etc. This is the time for the protest to become strategic. Engagement and monitoring should be the next stage. The street protest has achieved its aim already, it’s time to call it off.

Again, the protest should never ever toy with the idea of a regime change; it will end in disaster if they go that route. Any attempt to forcefully overthrow a democratically elected government will ruin all the gains of the protest. I urge all those pushing the evil agenda of regime change to take a look at the outcome of similar adventure in Libya and Syria. We won’t allow Nigeria to go in that direction.

'Halt protests and allow...'

Just like the man in question. ARE THE PROTESTS STOPPING THE AUTHORITIES FROM ACTING AND IMPLEMENTING DEMANDS or are the protesters occupying government offices too. If during the Covid total lockdown government was up and running I cannot see how these sporadic actions affect whatever business they have to do.

The angst is just a desire to return to business as usual. No ideas, no solutions to any national challenges. Leadership bereft of vision. Just same ol same ol. Halt the protests today and they will all sigh in relief and return to kickstart their failed system. After all it has been serving them well for 60 odd years.

Terribly corrupt, the PDP's Goodluck Jonathan's regime.

You just wished Nigerians were as alive as they are today and a lot more focused on the root causes of corruption....
...which is the failure of the system of checks and balance that should have made scandals like this impossible.

yoruba1914:
for how long?
use what you have when the oviation is loudest.
You want a restructure nigeria?get ur pvc
You want good govt
Get your pvc.
There are limits to protest unless u have a hidden agenda like sowore and segalink

There is something you fail to grasp. And it is clear you still have your head firmly in a 'us and them' mentality.
This protest in my view is not against any individual, political party or the goverment as a matter of fact. Thus protest is against and on behalf of Nigeria. Against the Nigeria of today and on behalf of the Nigeria of the future, the Nigeria the youths want to see and be a part of.

So everyone is involved including you who itches to have the protests over quickly so that the status quo remains nicely untouched and sparingly unaffected.

In my opinion the protests are as much against the police that oppress and the citizens who bribe, order, demand for this oppression because the police does not advertise itself as a hit squad, an extortionist mafiosi organisation or an investment house. It is the police in cahoots with fellow citizens that have brought institutions to their knees.

So, if the protest is against all of Nigeria it means it is not about names of people, places or things but the protest is about thoughts, ways and means aka what makes for what we call 'the structure'. Nigerians are simply tired about how the country is run BY ALL and wants a change in the system we operate for the better.

So keep your shirt on. They are not after your pet politicians so there is no need to get all jumpy and ask for a swift end. It should last until every Nigerian is on the same opage in first recognising there is a problem, discussing the problems and seeking jointn solutions. The protests should continue until those Nigerians who like the country the way it is are squeezed out.

If the government of the day, the political party of the day or the Chief Executives of the day at any level are sweating it means they know what's up and they are on the wrong side of fidelity, probity and history. It is nothing more than a guilt trip.

So relax. There is no ovation to be expected. This is not entertainment, sports or performing arts. This is serious. Restructuring is, if you must know not a destination but a process. It doesn't have term limits. Like your body sheds skin day after day Nigerians should get used to the fact that reforms have to be a continuous process and thus protests on a wide scale have come to stay as part of the subcultural appendage of democracy.

lincsnuel:
True.

We are the problem.

Indeed. They say police and judiciary is corrupt. But I have never seen an advert in the papers or on the net where they advertise or solicit the freedom for suspects and criminals for a fee.

It is the people, fellow citizens and today fellow protesters in cahoots with the authorities that undermine institutions by bribery and corruption to miscarry justice.

Why can't society raise hell at every case of institutional failure at every level. Why can't society from villages to town levels barricade police stations and courts to address each and every case of miscarraige of justice as is done in sane societies.

Is it not a case of widely discordant societal values and lazy, iresponsible citizenship that will cause us all to walk away from what is right and leave society to decay.

Nigsrdumb:
There's no way you can be screaming endsars and be doing jungle justice.

This is babaric, i ask again, what is the difference between Nigerians and the Nigerian government.

Very apt, cerebral and lost on most Nigerians whom cannot join the dots between their actions and their experiences.

They claim the failed system is the reason for their primitive subculture of self help and lock themselves into a vicious cycle of anti social behavior been victims and perpetuators simultaneously....

...a people that find it hard to address challenges of decent living but always seeking the easy route out which is to discard and destroy... so they discard the law, destroy evidence and dibilitate institutions. No winners. Just a progressively decaying society.

Nigerians can see clearly now the forces at work. The forces of the 'status quo ante'. The forces that will give only a quarter and grind to a halt like I said many days ago.

What are these people PROTECTING.
What is leadership hiding, protecting THAT THEY CANNOT, CANNOT, CANNOT ASK, ASK, ASK WHAT THE PEOPLE (THEIR BOSSES) WANT AND GIVE IT TO THEM.

If a leader or leadership is patriotic enough it will know that the country belongs to every and will do all it takes to ensure EVEY SINGLE CITIZEN is satisfied to the best of its ability in the spirit of egalitarianism. That is what democracy is all about. Governments are not elected for interest groups or to satisfy the yearnings of just fractions of society, but for all.

When you say you cannot go further, it means you are protecting something, someone or some people at the expense of ALL.

If Nigerians today say. We want every cent of the budget spent on education, the whole budget. The worst you should do is to negotiate with them the reality of spending on health, security, etc. But if they say no. Then you must. That is the purity of democracy. History will then be kind to you that you acted in the interest of the people not matter what outcome. But if you do the opposite and protect a few, a fraction, there is absolutely no way to avoid disaster.

kingemaker:
"I kept quiet for a while because in 2015 i warned this nation, vehemently, consistently, because i saw the dangers ahead and you can tell. The most gruesome season in the history of the nation is the last 5 years where lives have no value, wanton killings here and there."
What does this mean??

It means what it means.
Same reason I myself have very little to say about this.
When you speak so long and hard about certain things through all contradictions and opposition.
When the very things you say begin to emerge you can only gaze in utter horror and amazement...totally dumb struck....

...about how a nation can walk wide eyed into the path of a hurtling locomotive. I remember all he said loud and clear in 2015 and how I emphasised that without restructuring Nigeria simply could not survive.

Today is there ANY DOUBT IN ANYONE'S MIND ANYWHERE IN NIGERIA THAT THE WAY NIGERIA IS SET AND RUN IT HAS ANY FUTURE WHATSOEVER.

Just project this clear and present danger, the overwhelming decline of this nation another ten years and imagine how uninhabitable Nigeria will become in every index of life and living.

Can we see that it is beyond leadership and politics. Can we see that we are all responsible for the utter destruction of this country since independence and that it is only us that can recover it from this 'crash mode' by first coming to terms with our collective failures, telling ourselves the bitter truth that we just cannot get along with one another and that we need to sit down and negotiate the way we ought to exist as a collective peoples around values we all can agree to...

LegalWolf:
“No Nigerian is ready for the job...” like really? How many top brass officers do you personally know? Not to talk of knowing their professional capabilities. I know emotions are high, but let’s be guided and stop making unguarded statements.

Thank you

He is right. At this point no Nigerian is qualified. Whatever light that person has, has not shone through the darkness around him. Let him use his immense qualifications and competencies to drive the much needed reforms at home first.

It doesn't make an iota of sense to venture abroad when the organisation you represent is facing its biggest credibility challenge since its creation. What is the person going to say there that will not be mocked.

And what will be the effect on our police as an organisation if 'rewarded' without making reforms. You can be sure that it will create a sense that they are being persecuted at home.

Should not even dream about it. ... And China had better watch what horse they are betting on. The backlash will be serious if they are found to be backing unpopular policies, institutions and goverments that subvert the peoples will.

I see Chelsea bringing back Carlo to the Bridge if this charade continues. You don't invest 200 million quid, receive mediocrity in the mailbox and stay mute.

Last season: 'we couldn't buy'.
This season: 'we couldn't stop buying.'
Chelsea suffering from footballing constipation....

Reference:
Oh, 2-2. Was busy watching Osimen continue his barren run in Serie A with some very tame efforts on goal. Pre season blues at work?

Finally broken his duck. Must be relieved. Good goal, good play. Hope it opens up for him from here.

Oh, 2-2. Was busy watching Osimen continue his barren run in Serie A with some very tame efforts on goal. Pre season blues at work?

And that is what will happen to the so called SWAT in five, ten, twenty years. So we can see that solutions do not lie in the creation of institutions but in the running of them.

If the objectives of running institutions cannot be held in an even keel over extended periods of time and over several governments then it immediately indicates structural problems.

For the only thing that can hold them together despite changes in political manifestos, goverment policies and leadership is a unified/universal set of values all of society agrees to. And the process of making continuous, albeit minute changes so that indtitutions meet the evolving desires of the people is what we call restructuring.

The product (hate to use this word because restructuring really has no end game) is what is called 'the state of the nation' or in lay man's terms, how is Nigeria faring. No leader since independence has bothered about the 'state of the nation'. That is why for example, as in this case, a security organisation can stray so far from its original course, mandate and core principles and leadership after leadership has failed to notice until it has exploded.

The process of restructuring if part of our national subculture will have seen and fixed it way back.

Said it. Once religion gets into this thing then the government will have to step in to avoid the usual. Religious leaders from both sides should cease comments and stay out of this. Those egging them on are just plain senseless. Nothing positive can emerge from a movement that is not universally accepted.

Hmmm....pastor, it is NOT WISE to get involved by making public statements.

You know of a certainty where it will go if you persist.