Secure Our Motherland

Rev. Fr. Leonard O. Anetekhai

It is always a thing of concern when one is not safe to live in an environment which he or she calls MOTHERLAND. A motherland that is characterized by fear and insecurity political, economic, societal and environmental insecurity stares us in the face, while those we have voted in, who each time make promises to sustain our national security that will in turn pave way for a proper building of our nation, sits and mismanage the human and natural resources entrusted to them.
It is a truism that good governance cannot exclude the contributions of the masses, but in a situation when the so called 'Elite' exploit the sincerity of the masses for their own political and national gains, then our struggle for nation building will be fruitless. Our national and common interest has gone on vacation in the lips and words of our leaders, for none has successfully shown the way that leads to the promised dreams of our heroes past.

With the rate of bombing and other criminal acts prevailing around us, no individual is secure, and if the individual is not secure, the nation cannot be secure, and if the nation is under attack from internal sources, the nation and the individual cannot be secure. If an enemy comes from outside, one can easily defend such an attack, but when it comes from within, it sends a signal of doom, the 'step brother' of anarchy, which in turn can easily jeopardize our hope of a better Nigeria.
It is a pity that we have not learnt as a nation the many setbacks in our efforts of nation building, the civil war of 1967 and the June 12, 1993 annulled elections, even the Niger Delta problems which was allowed to aggravate at the expense of our national peace and security. This problem drew unwanted external attention to us with friends and detractors alike expressing their concern about Nigeria's human right credentials.
Now we have carved out a new name to soil our image externally BOKO HARAM. What a pity that 'sheep clothes' has now become our national uniform. We must know that “there can be no national development without domestic peace and neither development nor peace without democracy, durable institutions and respect for the human rights of the people” (Kofi Annan).
We are historically a youth in terms of nation building struggling within exuberance and fatigue, but being a youth or adult cannot suggest our failure to strengthen our democracy. If our democracy is strengthened by sincerity, strong will and national interest, then we can posses the capacity to enhance sustainable peace, security, stability and development.
Our task is a collective one and we have done our own through casting of votes, so let the masses reap the fruits of their labour and see concrete actions applied to unravel the mystery behind this trend of insecurity for concrete action backed by good intention is a prerequisite for good governance.