LET us spare a thought for our brothers and sisters who would be all but oblivious of the transition from the last year to the new. Those lying critically ill in hospitals or at home will be unaware or indifferent to the fanfare that accompanies the shooing out of one year and the ushering in of a new one. Even those nursing them will have little to cheer about and will wonder if the rest of the world actually shares their pain, their anguish, their worries, their frustrations and, in some cases, their hopelessness. To the sick and the infirm and those who love them dearly, let us offer a prayer for God to send them succour, to mitigate their suffering and bring relief to their pain. Let us hope that sometime in the early part of the New Year, 2016, they will have cause to smile, to celebrate and to look forward to the next day, the next week, next month and the next year with hope.
We should also spare a thought for the millions of the displaced persons scattered around planet earth, but particularly in Africa and especially our own internally dis- placed persons (IDPs) here in Nigeria. A lot of them are having to spend a particularly biting cold season, especially in the North, in makeshift shelters with hardly enough clothes to keep them warm, barely enough to eat and unsure of when life will get any better. May God almighty, the Merciful, send down His relief to those and others in need of the basic necessities of life. Those who can should endeavour to visit, at least, one hospital and or one IDP camp in the first quarter of the New Year, with the sole aim to console the denizens of those places either with cash, materials or kind words. Best of all with a combination of all three. Don’t let the devil persuade you that your visit will make no difference because other bigger donors are doing it; do your own; you would be surprised how great YOU will feel afterwards.
In the last few days and weeks, we’ve been saying goodbyes to many things. Today this column is joining many others in saying a very cheerful goodbye to IMPUNITY. Impunity is a behavioural tendency to behave as if there is no rule of law, no consequences to criminal behaviour and no fear of sanctions. At its extreme, impunity presupposes that there is no such thing as nemesis, no day of reckoning and that the concept of Day of Judgement is a fairy tale invented to frighten and deter cowards and fools from taking full advantage of opportunities, as they come. It is even conceivable that in the deepest recesses of the twisted mind of the impious, he thinks and believes the concept of God is but a fable; and that Vladimir Lenin is right after all when he said that “Religion is the opium of the people”. For the last five years plus, Nigerians have been suffocating under the tyranny of those who believe in impunity as a legitimate norm and consequences are inconsequential. While they prevailed over the affairs of our country, they plundered its wealth, destroyed its image and credibility before the eyes of the rest of the normal world. What they cannot steal they destroyed; what they cannot destroy they incapacitate; and they did everything they did with relish, totally indifferent to the fact that they were destroying the future of the future generations of Nigerians, their grandchildren inclusive. They so battered their own country to the level that Nigeria became the object of cruel jokes on corruption matters globally. Only two days ago, a Reuters contributor, Josh Cohen, wrote a damaging report on corruption in the Ukraine, which he captioned:
“Corruption in Ukraine is so bad, a Nigerian prince would be embarrassed.” How coincidental; retired Col. Sambo Dasuki who is now standing trial for multiple corruption allegations is actually a Nigerian Prince from Sokoto, North-West Nigeria. I wonder if he feels embarrassed.
So now, imagine, if you can, the pleasure, the joy, the ecstasy and the merciful relief to be saying goodbye to IMPUNITY and the impious. There can be nothing like it on earth. We are like a people escaping from five years of captivity. Goodbye IMPUNITY. And good riddance.
To the incurably pessimistic, don’t even contemplate the possibility that our country will ever collapse back to that nadir again. At least, not in the near future. By the time the law takes its full course with those found guilty, their fate will be sufficient warning to even the deaf, dumb and blind.
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