Burn The Thief!!!

It's no longer news in this part of the globe whereby jungle justice is being meted out on citizens of the underworld by angry mobs on apprehension.

We were in a discussion in our Church yesterday morning and experiences of this sort were shared due to its prevalence in the community. The topic being "What do you do with a thief if you catch one".  

The officiating priest Rev. Fr. Bitrus Wazamda, admonished his parishioners to frown at taking the law into their hands owing to the fact that human life is sacred and that all of us are guilty of similar sins in the past which never led to us being cremated alive or permanently maimed. After his lengthy advice, many hands were raised in objection after he summarized that thieves should be handed over to the police.  

Some were in support of the nefarious act (jungle justice) owing to the despicable disregard for the law in the country by the very ones who are supposed to uphold it. Someone said "when you take these people to the police, they will put them in the cell, and after one hour, they will be released instead of charging them to court, and you will be in grave danger of the thief's retaliation, so the best thing to do is to kill them so that their colleagues will be scared". 

Another said; "There are different categories of thieves, if it they were just to sneak into your house and carry your belongings, no problem. But someone would come and meet you inside your own house, armed with guns, machetes and all those things with two intentions of robbing and harming you.... Kai Fr". 

Others lamented on the destruction and disruption of families born from the depravity of this wicked sect.... 

One cause of this barbaric phenomenon is lawlessness!!! Integrity and justice has lost its bloom and bounce which has turned many civilians to barbarians. I share my experience:

During my service year in Gombe, seven of us got robbed in our lodge. We were beaten, wounded and our valuables were carted away which when summed up amounted to about five hundred thousand naira (damages inclusive). We managed to run some investigations and reported to the SSS  for assistance, they did nothing. We went to the police who were able to arrest two persons in possession of our stolen items and we began to rejoice that our items would be recovered. Something led to something and these boys were charged to court. After so many idle months and countless series of hearings, these boys were pronounced guilty of a two count charge of six months each which equated to a year jail term and were given an alternative to pay a fine of five thousand naira! To add salt to injury, they were asked to pay us a compensation of fifty thousand naira only! Which they never did. How then do I take someone tomorrow to the police? 

I'm not in any way promoting the evil we do in the name of justice. Killing your fellow human being is wrong, we're not animals. "Thou shall not kill, saith the Lord" and vengeance belongs to Him alone. Burning a thief alive is a worse thing to do than stealing. 

I use this medium to call upon the government to strengthen our judiciary and for our judiciary to uphold her integrity and for the police to give the people hope. 

Posterity will not forgive me if I fail to mention that we ourselves are the architects of our destruction. Why do many young and bright minds resort to violence and crime? God in His wisdom made provision for all, but the injustice of man to man has shut many from the bounty of His creation. One family do not know where to obtain their next meal from, another do not know where next to stash currency. Even if you honestly toiled to earn such money, it still isn't yours to keep for it has been entrusted to you by God for the use of others. (1 Peter 4:10)

How do you feel when your neighbours have light and you don't?  How then do you expect the hungry to feel when they are not invited to a feast hosted by their neighbours? Be your brother's keeper and the nation will be better. 

God bless Nigeria. 

Redundancy

There’s this common saying that “Nobody wan die, but everybody wan go heaven” which is gradually getting obsolete, but a closer look at this aged phrase suggests it still holds water when we use it to examine our lifestyles.
You earn two hundred thousand naira every month of which you put in a lot of useful work that is beneficial to you, your community, your family, the nation et cetera and we all appreciate you for it. Suddenly you discovered that your backyard housed enough gold deposit, so bountiful you could harvest two hundred million naira daily for the next three years, all this without breaking a sweat and the next thing we know; you start preparing your resignation letter even though retirement is still residing out of sight.
This is what will happen to many Nigerian workers today (could even happen to me too) because we are after the money. We crave the pay not the work, and any opportunity that promises a better pay eventually sends us packing, never considering our impact on those who really need our services. This is the one major cause of unproductivity in our lives and subsequently our dear nation. Some persons can even shamelessly declare; “anything for the money.” Really? How about me paying you a million naira every month for sleeping? If you can successfully pull this off for a year then truly, there’s nothing you wouldn’t do for money and I will have to revisit the dictionary definition of the word ‘slavery’.
Nigeria as a country once exhibited this phenomenon. We once were dogged farmers, but with the discovery of crude oil, our farm boots got hanged. We as humans so much crave “the easy and luxurious life” that we completely lost sense of our purposes in life. The media/society has successfully convinced so many that happiness and fulfillment in life is directly proportional to your bank statement, and we get to watch movies and listen to so many testimonies buttressing the idea that only those with enough money could live in the best of houses, drive the best of cars, wear the best of clothes, marry whomever they desired, take vacations/tourism at will, eat and drink whatever they pleased…… and many of us be like “wow, this is the life”.  And we eventually disconnect ourselves from our duty post and end up fantasizing.
One thing I begin to see is that our love for pleasure might make us stop working altogether in future should we keep up this trend of not wanting to sweat. We now term it as “working smart not hard”, but someone has got to do that hard work lest the ‘ecosystem’ will lose her balance.
Talking about smart working, our smartphones now possess so many applications that can get so many things done. I recently attended a programme at a retreat, and when it got to the time of refreshments,  soft drinks were being served and there were no ‘openers’ available to disengage the corks from the bottles and a young man asked hilariously, “abeg who get android phone make e open opener app….”. Trust me, some of these apps do come in handy, but we should be wary of the fact that even marijuana is a vegetable; it all depends on how you cook it.
The excessive/unwise use of these software is gradually creeping into our lifestyles such that a little drop of sweat is considered distasteful unless we were exercising, of which some of us still prefer to stand on one Chinese mat to obtain the equivalent of a road walk or one electronic massager to help run so many errands.
Though I’m not a medical practitioner, but I do know that what we do not regularly make use of, dies gradually. Even our brain works in like manner for it develops mostly in areas we allow it to access. Get to allow your organs and muscles to perform their designated functions and not completely rely on some external machine/substance to do their work for them. Trust me, you are not ready to part with them on the long run…..
God bless Nigeria
   

Corruption In Our Agencies

I applied for my driver’s license on the 28th April, 2015 at the Gombe State Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) 0ffice. In the process (which consumed three days of my life), I had to go to Specialist Hospital Gombe for a certificate of medical fitness, presented some documents, Visited the Vehicle Inspection Officer’s (VIO) office for endorsement, Standard IBTC Bank for payment of the license fee, paid another fine in the FRSC’s office for a six month learners permit (Even if I had no car at the time) before my temporary driver’s license was processed and issued to me (with errors on my details) which was to expire in the next three month.
I went back to the FRSC office after three months to collect my permanent driver’s license. The officer in charge rummaged through the new arrivals of the permanent driver’s licenses, and mine wasn’t found and I was asked to come back later without a fixed date. I began complaining and one man standing next to me at the office asked me what date I applied.
“Since April” I told him.
“Last year or this year”
“This year” I responded.
“April this year and you’re complaining: my younger brother applied since December last year and up till now his own is yet to arrive...”
“So I have to be going about with this expired temporary license or what”
“That’s how they’ve been using it. Na normal thing, nobody will disturb you” 
What the man said so much irritated me for whatever situation many label to be the “trend in vogue” sometimes get me bored to tears. This happened during my youth service, and on travelling back home, I learnt of a guy who paid way below what I spent (a difference of about four thousand naira) to an FRSC officer and was issued his driver’s license in three days!
As we talk about positive change in our country, some systems/agencies ought to be retrained on how to be proactive in carrying out their responsibilities, devoid of the ‘African time’ mentality so that responsible citizens of our dear nation are not made to appear foolish where the “smart guys” get the standing ovation.
Why would a driving license not be ready after three good months in a computer age? Why are many government agencies aiding and abetting corruption by frustrating those who ‘knock at the front door’ and welcome those who come in through the back door with a ‘peace offering’?
The government should as well realize that this wicked phenomenon bedeviling our public and even private agencies is carting away billions of naira annually which should have gone into the government purse as revenue. The earlier this ugly trend is being curbed, the better, else patriotic Nigerians who have been driven up the wall may begin to make bullshit of every due process. Even I, have already boycotted some in recent and distant past.
God Bless Nigeria.