SYMPTOMS OF A SICK NATION

It is very easy for an average Nigerian to point accusing finger at the government and blame it for the malady ravaging the nation.But, if the pot could pause for a moment, to examine itself,before calling the kettle black,it would see they are both guilty of same.

Truly,the leadership is sick,so also are the citizens. If not,why should we as a people living in a democracy close to fourteen years old stay relatively passive while the few,who are suppose to be managers of our common wealth for the betterment of all,openly and callously looted the treasury.Only when they moved the noose close to our throats,with fuel subsidy removal,did we staged a protest reminiscent of those in the predemocracy days.

NEPA now PHCN( Power Holding Company of Nigeria), for decades, has been holding us to ransom and extorting money for electricity they are almost not providing, and we are only just satisfying ourselves with empty complains. Yet,we are eager to brutalize

and lynch armless or sparsely armed thieves; whom given the chance might have turned out better.

What healthy society would stand and watch the barbaric killing of four undergraduate students with impunity, or beat three female students to coma,not long ago,for stealing under-wears.How can a sane society sentence a young man to two years imprisonment for stealing a goat, and let a man who stole three billion naira pension money went free after paying a ridiculous fine.

Because we are sick,frustrated youths are killing members of the public and JTF( Joint Task Force) in the niger delta,while hungary and hangry people are brandishing guns and detonating bombs in the north. Throughout the country,kidnapping is becoming a normal thing. What all these is pointing to is the fact that the nation is ailing, and we have to do something fast before the situation degenerate into chaos.

The civil society groups, NGOs',human right activists,Nigeria Labor Congress and right-minded politicians should step-up their game and rise up to the challenge of nursing this country to health.They should help channel the anger, frustration and misplaced eagerness of the masses into organized agitation for a better society.

In a better society, those like the murdered Uniport students will have the chance of proofing their innocense, criminal minded entities would have no room in government and those who steal public money will get befiting judgement.A nation in which the basic necessities of life are easily accessible to the citizenry,where equal opportunity is available to its best minds,irrespective of class or social status.