Taking the Peace for Granted
There is something about some people’s DNA that is irredeemably impossible. They never learn from anything and increasingly make it obvious they are unable to deliver leadership especially at a most crucial and demanding period. Nigeria, at every point in time, always offers itself a lucid example of these impossible people.
Dating back to 1999, when the country newly returned to civil rule, democracy has been tested in a lot of disruptive manners that could easily fall any other feeble institutions. But Nigeria has continued to savour uncommon grace, wobbling and waltzing through the challenges as well as patching up what it then termed the learning process of her fledgling democracy.
Sadly, almost 20 years after, Nigeria has continued to make the same mistakes under the guise of learning and thinking things would sort themselves out. Perhaps not! If deliberately taking the peace of the land for granted is what is considered a learning process, then, that equally comes with its consequences.
What happened in the Senate on Wednesday is genuinely a cause for concern. That a suspended senator, Ovie Omo-Agege, stormed the National Assembly in company with thugs, having accessed the premises from the Villa gate and made away in a commando style, the staff of authority of the legislature – the mace – is weird. If anyone thinks this can continue without consequences, such a person needs to go back to his or her history books. Democracy is not inelastic, albeit very patient. It may snap too! Circumspection is the watchword.