Today I read from the social media that Professor Sagay is advocating for every Nigerian to be armed. At first I thought that it is one of those fake news in which some mischief makers write rubbish and ascribe them to some innocent people. This thinking is because this Professor is a member of the ruling party and holding a top appointment on behalf of the APC. But, on the other hand, following one or two comments I have read I tend to believe that he said so.
This is shocking especially as he absolves President Buhari of blame for the insecurity that is countrywide and says that a virus has infected the population into rampant acts of kidnapping, banditry, secret cultism, acts of terrorism, butchering of fellow citizens and so on. So the professor wants everybody to be able to defend himself. If our learned Professor wants everybody to be able to defend himself where was he when our ‘innocent and virtuous’ President signed an executive order to mop up arms already in the hands of Nigerians including the few who had been vetted by the police and given licenses to own arms? Is he now campaigning against the policy of his employers? Why is our almighty Professor leaving the elephant and chasing its shadow?
Professor, you goofed! If everybody in Nigeria has a gun there will simply be mayhem, chaos, anarchy. Nigeria is the poverty capital of the world. Can you imagine how many of us who can eat three meals a day will be left alive if the majority citizens who are wallowing in poverty have arms? Those ‘honourable’ members of the house and senate and ministers will be sent to their graves in no time. There are a lot of angry citizens about!.
Professor, look at what is happening in the United States of America, an enlightened society with citizenry far more educated and more conscious of each other’s rights than our society. You read about shootings so often. And that country has a large and well armed security system. Professor, I disagree with you. What we need is restructuring and, in particular, state police. Each state can then decide how to organise its police and the police will know when stranger elements like armed herdsmen come into town. Each state can then decide whether to go further and allow town unions to have local trained and armed vigilante. It is not rocket science.
The truth is that those ruling us do not want restructuring or state police. The APC, your employers, as a party is not ruling Nigeria. Those ruling us are those who insist that their grandfathers willed Nigeria to them. They are strangers from Guinea, Mali, Niger and other West African countries. They are the people in control of all our security agencies, holding us by the jugular. They are the people who introduced ‘visa on arrival’, the people for whom our northern borders have been thrown open. And we are busy constructing a road, and are about to extend our railway system, into Niger to make it easier for them to come in while other parts of Nigeria are crying out for those infrastructure.
Professor, I believe you know all this but you just want your voice to be heard perhaps to reassure the cabal ruling Nigeria that you are still loyal. Good for you. But all Nigerians carrying arms is a recipe for tragedy.