Much ado about everything

Ballason
Gloria Mabeiam

And what a week it was: Of mourning, Trumps triumph and everything in between. This column joins with all well-meaning Nigerians to pay respect to the souls of the deceased gallant soldiers who died in the North –East penultimate Friday. Lt Col Mohammed Abu Ali has now become a metaphor of how to infuse life into the years allotted to us. Ali is reported to have been one of Nigeria’s most efficient fighter whose grit, gumption and grace belied his 38years.
Ali, a recipient of the Chief of Army staff award for exceptional bravery and excellence was nicknamed Sarkin Yaki (War Lord). He was the commanding 272 Task Force Battalion at Malam Fatori in Northern Borno. He died in confrontation with suspected Boko Haram terrorists who attacked 119 Battalion, Nigerian Army location at Malam Fatori on Friday, in a failed attempt to capture the town. He had prior to his death led the army units that recovered Gamboru-Ngala, Baga and several communities from the terrorists.

His death brings to memory another huge loss previously registered on September 12,2014 when two Nigerian Airforce officers, Group Captain Abdulrasheed Bamidele Braimoh and Wing Commander Chimda Hedima who were on an interdiction mission at Kauri against the terrorists were shot down by the terrorists. Hedima was brutally slaughtered by the terrorists as witnessed by one of his soldiers, while the whereabouts of Braimoh remains unknown.
Military commentaries are already insinuating that sabotage may have led to the death of the six gallant soldiers; this brings to the fore the mindlessness of this seemingly never ending insurgency. One reads the papers and finds it confusing what to believe. In one moment, media tells you Nigeria is winning the war; in the next you read of mind boggling casualties. Are we in a never ending spinning cycle of bloodletting? Have we got to the root of this issue to find out how best we can address this internal monster that has perished the souls of over 5,000 Nigerians and incapacitated many more; or is this a war?
More seriously is the enemy within and the welfare of the fine men and women of our armed forces. Are they receiving their due? If they are poorly equipped; what do we make of the N732.79billion in security votes rationed as: N294.5billion to Ministry for defence, N145.2 billion Ministry of interior,N283.09 Nigeria Police Formation and N10billion to Operation Lafiya Dole? How about the extra N57.7 billion voted as due to the office of the national security adviser? The questions are more than the answers available.

However, the plea credited to the late Ali where he pleaded with Nigerians not to forget his sacrifice is a call that should irk the conscience. He left behind a young wife, Samira, three children namely: Fatimah Abu-Ali 7,    Mohammed Abu-Ali 4, and Yasmin Abu-Ali 1; a family which he must have desired to groom and grow.
What does his sacrifice mean to us? Who are the beneficiaries of this war? How does this blood grow their macabre desires? For more than a decade, the North East has been a gushing fountain of blood. The years have demanded from us the resolve to put feet to our national determination to end this war but each time we seem to get to that victorious point, the destination moves further like an enticing mirage.
We need a government that would put steel in their conviction and one that is strong enough to open up the mystery around this mindlessness and then deal with it. We need a thorough investigation into corruption and impunity in the armed forces; and we need this investigation concluded while those found wanting are made to face the wrath of the law. Is the Buhari government that dream government or do we wait for another? May the soul of Lt Col Mohammed Abu Ali, Wing Commander Chimda Hedima and all gallant officers who paid the supreme price continue to rest in peace.
Unto Trump’s thumped triumph: Love him or loathe him; Donald Trump waits in the wings as the 45th President of the United States of America. There have been anti-Trump protests in over 20 American cities. It is doubtful if public rage will tinker with the outcome of the polls yet what cannot be ignored is that a man without experience; one who has no verbal stops or impulse checks will ascend as the country of arguably the most influential nation in the world.
I hear the phenomenon is called Trumpism- a failure of political parties to respect the public’s choice rather than force and foist an unpopular candidate on a teeming population.

The verb of the word functions as a media play –turn-fatal; when a funny news item becomes downright dangerous. It’s no more a joke, that Trump who was the object of cartoons for his inability to comb his hair and his abrasive statement is now…you guessed it, President of the United States.
But the meltdown in the Democratic camp is also a lesson. The reign of the Clinton dynasty has suddenly come to an end. Free at last Democrats! No more shoving out the preferred Bernie Sanders for a candidate who does not command public confidence nor instill hope for integrity in government process. Head or tail, America was bound to be a half-win; half lose and to think that they have the knowledge and sophistry of technology to work as a cleanup tool!
Alexis de Tocqueville saw it coming when he said: “Society will develop a new kind of servitude which covers the surface of society with a network of complicated rules, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate. It does not tyrannise but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.” The man must now be turning in his grave to watch the democracy he fathered in America turn into a comedy of sorts.
What are the lessons for Nigeria? Very many. When we take people of known corrupt track records and put them on the political lane to run, we may just be creating our waterloo. When policy summersaults occur just to bring in an unpopular regime; the price to pay is never far away.

Now, isn’t that what we do most of the time? We switch the price tags and give value to the valueless things. People who should be in retirement are recycled. Those who rob our nation blind are dusted off the shelf and instilled with impetus to rob some more. Those who are of proven integrity and competence are edged out from their natural and deserving positions.
Yes we’ve been there, done that and sadly are not slowing down on the bad game. However the story of America should be a lesson to us all- that when politics becomes only a game, the game can turn its players into a game and then consume them. As it is said in Hausa, idan ka gan gemun dan’uwanka ya kamu da wuta, ka shafa ma naka ruwa. (Literally; when your neighbour’s beard is torched by fire, you got to get some water on yours to keep the carnage at bay). Let us learn the lessons and heed the warning for if we continue on the ignoble path, we shall not anchor safely.

Military commentaries are already insinuating that sabotage may have led to the death of the six gallant soldiers; this brings to the fore the mindlessness of this seemingly never ending insurgency