FOR every profession there are ethics. Ethics are sacred moral codes, the breach of which is a scandalous betrayal.
Journalists, writers, teachers and lawyers are often accused of being loquacious. But unfortunately they are not trained to keep mute. They are avowed and unrepentant believers in James Morton's aphorism. Morton was an English author and journalist. Hear him: "Free minds and free lips are necessary in order that men may grow and learn."
Yes. Journalists, writers, teachers and others in allied professions fervently believe that prolonged silence is often misinterpreted as complacency and indifference. To them complacency is a betrayal of their ethics, and perhaps trust. To them, being indifferent is tantamount to abdication of their sacred responsibilities they owe to their revered professions.
Thus, permit me to join my revered colleagues in saying that the government's daily condemnation of ongoing spate of banditry, every-minute kidnapping, genocidal killings, rape and arson have become hackneyed, suffocating and consequently has lost its expected bites on our collective psyche.
Thanks to the President for his another condemnation of the recent genocidal killings in Zamfara and Borno where many innocent Nigerians were again murdered and many injured. Some injuries in such instances were often equivalence of being reduced to an "homo-mortis" viz: a "dead but partially living person" as a result of horrendous decapitation!
The President went further by inviting God to please punish the bestial killers of the innocent souls mauled down again this time. But the same God had already admonished us all that "faith without work is dead." (James 2:26). I watched with an admixture of great admiration and disbelief a true life story in an epic film entitled "The Rescue of Jessica." A narrative of the ordeal of 5-year old Texas kid, who innocently was playing around in her parents premises. She had unfortunately plunged into over 20 feet deep well being constructed in the premises.
Alas! Within seconds, in a cacophony of sirens, virtually all security details in Texas were assembled, all struggling to rescue Jessica Mclure. No give up! With unfettered determinations and leonine courage, working days and overnight, all initial failed tactics and efforts were surmounted, until kid Jessica was rescued alive! The episodic scene underscores deep respect for sanctity of human lives, which no man can create, but now being snuffed out on this space with reckless abandon and utter impunity!
This orgy of genocidal instinct, banditry, daylight bravado of bestially temperamental kidnappers on virtually all the Nigerian roads, obviously call for national attention, and perhaps a declaration of state of emergency and presidential address to spell out the EXACT measures being taken to stem the tide. We recall that Bokoharamic vices and brigandage had already festered before we began to temper the scourge.
Thus, I am inclined to think that all state governors, ministers, and the presidency should please suspend their official sloganeering on often invisible infrastructure being provided us for now, and face security challenges. The dead doesn't use infrastructure.
Now that we cannot safely travel to anywhere in the country without being apprehensive and we are developing high blood pressure daily, we can obviously appreciate the UK government's decision in blacklisting as "no-go" areas a whole 21 of our 36 states. That shows how much they value the lives of their own citizens. Here we are often timid to act decisively.
What modern technology is being applied to monitor our expressways? When will helicopters, bought with humongous security funds over the years start to hover on our roads and bushes to smoke out kidnappers from their den? Before some human right lawyers begin their advocacy for killers, rapists and bandits on why they have right to live, after killing and maiming millions, thus breeding widows, widowers and orphans, what is the government doing on those arrested?
Perhaps when we wake up from our deep slumber to remember the ace writer William Watson's aphoristic thought: "Let justice be done, though the heavens fall!", we may be dancing on same spot and deluding ourselves that we are moving forward. Where law ends, tyranny begins. Criminalities often fester, where there is hope of escaping stern justice and deserving punishments. Verbum Satis Sapienti.
*Tunji Ajayi, a biographer, author and documentary producer writes from Lagos
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