After 9-11, America didn’t leave the world in doubt about her resolve to take the fight to the terrorists wherever they are. Since then, Osama bin Ladin is now thought to be adept at the ways of the caveman behind the tall mountains of Afghanistan.

As Nigerians recover from their own 9-11 (known as Do or Die 2007), let there be no mistake that they too will take the fight to their own terrorists in the days ahead. For Nigeria, Obasanjo too will soon find out that like Osama bin Ladin, he has only won a pyrrhic victory with Maurice Iwu. In their own 9-11 which was a climax of 8 disastrous years, too many Nigerians have been brutalized, dehumanized, annihilated, abused and left shell-shocked to let sleeping dogs lie.

Under the euphoria of savoring this pyrrhic victory, Obasanjo, Maurice Iwu and the PDP may not realize that Nigerians too have the capacity to do what the U.S has done to decimate the ranks of Al Qaeda. They must also remember that the revolution to cleansing Nigeria has begun long before our own 9-11. If the militants attempt to capture Jonathan Goodluck in Yenagoa is a preview of things to come, it’s clear that Nigerians will rise to the occasion of recovering their stolen votes and mandate and that the new PDP governors and leaders have their work cut out for them.

In orchestrating this unfathomable mockery of elections, brazen display of heartlessness and abuse of power and miscarriage of justice, Obasanjo and his PDP band of terrorists must have thought that Nigerians in their characteristic mien will hunker down in their bedrooms and once again resign themselves to their miserable fate, they have under estimated the collective will of Nigerians and have miscalculated this time. If they didn’t think of it before, they have realized it now that power doesn’t give anything until it’s demanded. So, this time, those who have rigged themselves into power will find out that uneasy lies the head that wears the crown and they will no longer have a free ride and their safety in any street, any alley, any backyard, crescent, any town and city and Government House will be highly-prized. That their close relatives may as well go on self-imposed exiles. This time, the leaders will have to contend with the militants whose ranks will surely grow, enough to tilt the state monopoly of brute force and gross abuse. This time, Government Houses will become Government Fortresses or annexes of Army Battalions or Brigades. This time those who have rigged to win will find their seat of power as glorified prisons.

While Nigeria’s recovery from this 9-11 is in full throttle, we must be creative or inventive in ways that will make election rigging in the future less and less attractive. In doing so, we must send the message to our terrorists within that they can never get away with their crimes against the Nigerian people wherever they are. Until now, we have let our leaders think that once they escape to western countries they have eluded detection from the long arms of the peoples justice. Let us start to change the dynamics. Let’s make our leaders think that their safety and those of their families is more important than all the loot they can escape with. The greatest punishment is to force a man to hide from himself despite the reach of his power and resources.

During Obasanjo’s 8 years of terror, rampage, hatred and destruction of the country, we made the classic excuse that we were powerless, that there was nothing else we could possibly do to salvage ourselves. In retrospect, we must realize that Obasanjo succeeded only because we too failed to play his own game of lawlessness and our inability to make the government unworkable. For the most part, the rest of the country thought only the militants had problem with Obasanjo and we bought the lie that the militants were the ones trying to sabotage the country. Today, we know the painful truth. There was also this thinking that in order to confront Obasanjo, one must’ve been a uniform-wearing and AK-47 carrying militant and must go live in the creeks and rivers like they do. Oh, no there were many other ways we could’ve engaged the National Assembly members to make them go after Obasanjo to do the right thing, but we feign powerlessness and let him think he was the best thing and God’s gift to Nigeria.

Well, we have the opportunity again to learn from other people around the world and how they have fought their cheating, lying and power-drunk leaders to a standstill. Now is the time we must bring to bear our resourcefulness and ingenuity on our leaders, past and present.

Again, let’s put it succinctly. The recovery from this 9-11 won’t be easy. Old habits die hard. Soon, Obasanjo, Maurice Iwu, James Ibori, Lucky Igbinedion, Peter Odilli and other thugs and thieves will swamp western countries and sermonize on how great democrats they truly are and we would join them, clapping, hugging, kissing and worst still, extolling their Osama bin Ladin-like exploits! Without shame, and because our consciences have been sold to the highest bidder, we would remind Obasanjo that there are so many unclaimed titles waiting for him at Ota and Abeakuta as if he doesn’t know already! We won’t mind one bit displaying our Post- Traumatic- Stress- Syndrome for the whole world to see. How can others then take us seriously when we complain how much we have been terrorized by this cabal of leaders? In these meetings, Obasanjo would explain that no democracy is perfect and that our massively flawed ‘elections’ that coincidently produced only PDP winners was in order. Further, he goes on to remind us how he brought the rule of Law and Order to Nigeria. In that moment, you feel like President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela at the United Nations, you feel like screaming, ‘here is the devil, I can feel him, shut your f**king trap’. But, instead you keep your silence, remembering your grandmother’s admonitions about arguing with the devil, the madman or the drunkard. As expected, we would fight to shake his hand and plead for his autograph and let him know how sorry we were for not recognizing that he was indeed God’s gift to Nigeria. Back home, the new PDP ‘Governors’ will call for all aggrieved to reconcile in the interest of progress, peace and national unity. Parties and traditional dances would be organized to usher in the ‘new’ dawn. Again, we would buy all that shit and wait for another 8 years for the cycle to repeat itself. Wow, aren’t we really the giant of Africa?

In other countries, this massive disenfranchisement of millions will not sit well. This effrontery to tell Nigerians that they are fools and will continue to be so would have been met with ground -breaking protests. But as Nigerians, we love our lives more than we hate sacrifices. All we want is a great country where the good things of life just fall on our laps. We hope that once our leaders are tired of maltreating us they would willingly change. Unfortunately, this will not happen until we realize that we are not powerless and our situation isn’t hopeless. The power is in all of us. Individually and collectively, we can make the terrorists in our midst FEAR us. In this war, not all of us will be foot soldiers. But ask yourselves, what can I do to help the militants or those who want to be in the front lines digging the trenches and carrying the weapons? What can I do? Our heroes, Nelson Mandela, Maj. Isaac Boro, Fidel Castro and Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings are people who at one time or the other looked deep into their souls and discovered that they could do something to change their then miserable societies. These are great men who were defined by their courage and convictions to do the right thing so that society can be enriched by freedom, justice and peace. The lesson?, Nigeria and Africa has their fair share of combatants and heroes waiting to be revealed. They are not sleeping. They are waiting and beckoning for us to recognize them. All they need is a little encouragement and inspiration. Like America, we too must send the message that wherever our terrorists are, we can take the fear to them. That, to me should be the shape of the coming unconventional war and the secret of our RECOVERY.

Imagination is Everything- It’s the preview of life’s coming attractions.

-----Einstein

If you believe anything is possible,

You too can walk with Kings.

Ebi B Asain

Robot  # 1 | 29.04.2007 13:44

var sbtitle1614=encodeURIComponent(Recovering ...Read the full article.