Much ado about emergency, By Nnamdi Nwigwe

The howling has started. The barking and the braying. Legal and public affairs experts are displaying their knowledge; all because the Federal Attorney General and Minister of Justice made a “conditional” statement that IF senseless violence, killings and destruction of public infrastructure continued in Anambra State, a State of Emergency could not be ruled out. That would be the last resort by the Federal Government to ensure that a general election scheduled to take place in Anambra on the 6th of November, is held in a safe and peaceful environment, he said.

And as has become our stock-in-trade, our people are crying blue murder at the mere probability of Government asserting its authority to contain anarchy by hoodlums.

Opponents, including a major political party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), have decried the pronucement of the Minister which he clearly undergirded by the big, but small word “IF.”

If you ask me, a State of Emergency should be clamped on any troubled Southeast state without delay to prevent further loss of life. But that would be only after emergency rule has been declared in all other states, including the President’s home state, Katsina, where even greater violence has been witnessed.

Public anger should be aimed at both the troublemakers and those who have failed in their jobs to identify and punish them. No individual or group should have access to weapons of mass violence beside the state – under a just and impartial leadership.

If non-state actors have had a field day all this while harassing the rest of the country, it is time to put a stop to it. That is, if in truth the state is not secretly behind the mayhem using false flag operations, as some have suggested.

What we should be worried about is the nature of the Emergency if it is proclaimed. If the State House of Assembly is dissolved, the Government sacked and a level-headed technocrat installed as Administrator, it might be welcome. Similarly, if the budgets for the clueless law makers as well as the failed cabinet members is better utilized for the repair of public infrastructure, most Nigerians might not mind.

All the shouting against the imposition of a State of Emergency is hinged on a total loss of faith by the people on the leaders and their sincerity of purposes.

In the Southeast, the loss of even one young life is devastating to the affected parents, families and community. Igbos traditionally spend a fortune raising their children, most often up to university level. Similarly, they invest a lot of hope in these children. Although all human lives matter equally, there is no doubt that different cultures around the country react differently to its loss.

Those who are sent each time to “pacify” us when our youths go off the hinges and political leaders go dumb know our relative values and engage us with envy and mischief.

Our political leaders should show better leadership by genuinely addressing the issues of social discontent, declining economy and dwindling opportunities for citizens. Only then can they rightfully condemn the excesses of the young ones who are currently frustrated by a society that clearly doesn’t care.

Sending soldiers to quel social unrests arising from political insensitivity and leadership incompetence, especially when it has to do with the South East, will only make matters worse for all.

Nnamdi Nwigwe, a veteran journalist, writes from Owerri, Imo State.