The Nigeria of our dreams and the positive hopes that the common and average man on the street may have for the Nigerian state keeps getting dashed by the very people whom the general public has unanimously voted to represent their interest.
The mere fact that the basic and common amenities that should be readily available to the average man such as food, clothing, good water and shelter have remained totally inaccessible due to the broad daylight thievery and extortion by the Nigerian government and corrupt government law enforcement officers, respectively.
That a man works 24 hours round the clock and has nothing to show for it, is not just frustrating, disturbing and discouraging but more so a situation which causes one to rage.
Should we talk about when the Asiwaju of Bourdillon, Bola Ahmed Tinubu was being inaugurated and immediately removed subsidy on PMS (Premium motor spirit) conventionally known as fuel which brought untold and severe hardship as prices in goods and commodities skyrocketed or should we talk about the hunger that has pitched a tent in the abode of many homes in the Nigerian state due to the prices in commodities?
Should we talk about the money expended on irrelevant government buildings and infrastructure whilst the average man wallows in poverty and hunger because the government needs to build a heaven-like accommodation for its Vice President?
Should we talk about the dirty Nigerian police force who oppresses citizens and extorts the little money the citizens make in broad daylight or we talk about the happy trigger of a police officer where they arbitrarily shoot citizens to death?
Should we talk about the insecurity bedeviling the country that the common man goes to sleep with one eye open and one eye closed or we talk of the epileptic electric power supply that causes many citizens in rural areas to sleep outside their verandas for ventilation?
Should we talk about the high prices and inflation on education where the children of the poor, hopeless and hapless have to drop out of school for failure to meet with the high fees or we talk about the evil student loan that would enslave the children of the poor when they finally graduate from the higher institution, trying to repay back the loan?
The days of rage is finally here. The popular aphorism that says a hungry man is an angry man is pivotal in the Nigerian context of today. You don’t expect a hungry man to be happy and smiling and to work happily. Things will fall and fail!
You cannot in turn, turn around to tell these hungry, deprived, marginalized, cheated and government-forsaken peoples not to cry.
When you beat a child, it is expected of the child to cry. You cannot tell the child whether to cry in public or in private, whether to cry silently or loudly. The measure of beating determines the mode and manner in which the child would cry.
The many challenges, oppression and extortions faced by the Nigerian people are enough reasons for them to cry publicly.
At this point, we cannot go back to the hobessian state of nature where life was solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
JOSEPH ALIU is a Graduate of Law, Human Rights Activist and Social crusader and can be reached via; 09085773212, 09131704196, aliujoseph085@gmail.com
