By KENECHUKWU OBIEZU
Nigerians are forced to relive mind-numbing trauma whenever and each time men in uniform step out of line. Instantly, there are flashbacks, and suddenly, a deluge of memories comes crashing down.
A couple of days ago, personnel attached to the Sam Ethnan Airforce Base, Ikeja stormed the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company, where they assaulted workers and journalists.
Are the personnel not Nigerians? As an arm of the Nigerian Armed Forces, what efforts have they made to ensure that Nigeria’s appalling power situation is resolved soon? What part of their staggeringly shameful resort to self-help tells them that they can take out their frustrations with the power situation in the country on innocent civilians?
In which sane country does security personnel storm a business premises, beating anyone on sight and seizing their devices? This is indeed truly shameful.
Every now and then, given the resistance they encounter in the course of carrying out their increasingly perilous task of protecting Nigerians, men of the armed forces cry out over the deteriorating relationship they enjoy with Nigerians. With actions like this, how will it not be so?
What is the Air Force hiding? What is it desperate to continue hiding? IKEDC says it is owing about N4 billion. They have not come out to deny or dispute the figure. So, why have they not paid? Do they think that being an arm of the armed forces exempt them from paying electricity bills?
It is one of Nigeria’s great embarrassments that more than 60 years after independence, and more than 25 years since the country limped to a return to democracy, it has neither been able to secure 60,000 watts of electricity or even the lower 20,000 watts. From year to year, the country has continued to limp into darkness, with devastating consequences for the economy and quality of life. Even Nigeria’s democracy is imperiled by its perennial power outages; for, indeed, democracy dies in darkness, literally and metaphorically.
If the Nigerian Air Force feels sufficiently disturbed by Nigeria’s romance with Stygian darkness, it may be in a better position to protest and create change in the country if only it can spare a little time from its all-engaging and all-consuming duty of defending Nigeria.
There is bottled up frustration with the situation of things in Nigeria. This bottled up frustration is not reserved for any group of Nigerians. All Nigerians feel it. Consequently, no group of Nigerians can presume to feel more frustrated than other Nigerians.
Many Nigerians are law-abiding. Save for the few rebels and renegades who are bent on turning the country upside down, many Nigerians recognise the sacrifices the Nigerian military is making to defend the integrity of the country, especially in these days when terrorists pound sections of the country with renewed fury. Nigerians of goodwill support the military without reservations.
Yet, whenever personnel of any arm of the military lets loose their pent-up frustration and lets fly on Nigerians, Nigerians as one are reminded of the dark days of military dictatorship when Nigerians groaned under the boots of military officers.
Violence hardly solves any problems
If the Nigerian Airforce has become a chronic electricity debtor as the IKEDC has undisputedly disclosed, the debt and consequent power outage can only be cleared by negotiation and liquidating their debt.
Going to beat up staff of an electricity distribution company or deploying other forms of criminal highhandedness not only presents them as irresponsible debtors but also as dangerously unprofessional.
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