Nigeria Content Online

His Excellency Commander-in-Chief,
ministers, security chiefs, DGs, special advisers; my name is Victor
Ehikhamenor, a natural citizen of Nigeria. I thank you for the
opportunity to address this emergency meeting filled with security
honchos. Many of you may be wondering what a newspaper columnist knows
about national security. And you are right because I am not an
ex-police man nor do I even come from a lineage of military men.

But one thing I can tell you is that I
was in America when 9/11 happened and changed the world order as we
used to know it. I observed keenly the way president George Bush
handled the unfortunate terrorist act. I have also lived to see the
after effect of the decisions that were hurriedly made in the shock of
those dark moments; the world is still suffering from those decisions
as we speak. Since we learn from life more than we do from classrooms,
it is my experience in America and other places too numerous to list
now that made me decide to speak here today.

First of all, it is a monumental
mistake for us to keep politicizing the spate of bombings in recent
months, because politicians come and go while unchecked terrorism
remains a constant. If I tell you we are going to be able to totally
eradicate terrorism from this country, I might as well be saying we can
generate uninterrupted power supply in the next few years. It is also
tantamount to saying that politicians can be stopped from dipping
sticky fingers into our excess crude account at will. But one thing is
certain; we can manage terrorism and prevent future colossal damage if
we honestly and truly work with the man that has called us here today.

Since we’ve already come face to face
with enemies of our country who have no qualms crossing the Rubicon to
defecate in our already soiled land, we must act. And if we do not
carefully de-politicize and act fast we should be ready for the worst.
We cannot fold our hands as usual or say a million and one novenas to
wish away this insanity. And we must not put on the same old attitude
of “it is not my problem because I have security details to protect me
and my family”.

Let me tell you a chloroquin truth, car
bombs going off in political rallies, crowded parks or mami markets are
a different animal from armed robbery or outright political
assassination. Ask Iraqis, Afghans or Pakistanis whose suns have been
clouded by constant bomb smoke.

I must plead with old security chiefs
here that might see the president’s decision to appoint a terrorism
adviser as an indictment of them. If you were the president you’d do
the same. When a car bomb was detonated in Warri, the president
believed it would be a onetime thing but less than a year later people
were killed a few metres away from where he was sitting. He also
expected that the mountains and valleys of Jos to be crawling with
plain clothes security operatives, yet less than a year later scores of
lives were blasted to eternity.

Only a foolish man keeps whistling
while his mother is being beaten, we really should not expect the
president to rely solely on those of us in this room. We have failed
too many times and the price for future failure can no longer be funded
by innocent blood. However, we must work together and set our egos
aside to avoid being annihilated by dormancy.

Need I state that if we don’t roll up
our sleeves, remove our agbada, red hats, rounded fedoras and find a
panacea to this wound called terrorism it will be the gangrene that
will finally eat away the wobbly legs on which the country stands? Need
I remind us that this no time for knee-jerk reactions, where we
hurriedly install non-working scanning machines in our airports and
employ morons who’d take N500 and allow nuclear war heads in the
overhead compartments?

Since we have decided to appoint a
special adviser we must resist thinking along political lines and
choose the right candidate. We must remember this is not a position to
we can allow a sycophant to undermine, lying to the president on daily
basis just to keep the job. We must pick a candidate who will not tell
his friends and families “it is my time to chop”: Remember, our beloved
country is burning.

If we must call our western allies for
help, at least we must show some level of seriousness by dusting our
comatose forensic labs for a start. We should not encourage him to
witch-hunt innocent political opponents. Elections come and go and we
are left to face reality again and that reality should not be grim.
Let’s outsmart the perpetrators. And if our chosen one fails us, we
must remind him that a god is as good as its potency.

Long live Nigeria.