As for “The Vanguard”newspaper, it remained adamant that present danger lies everywhere, Hence, its front page report on November 19, 2017 with the Headline: “The ‘devil’ came to town, killed three policemen, man in clinic – Residents narrate Ondo bank robbery”
“Like bees, dare-devil armed robbers, numbering about 20, invaded a bank in lfon, the headquarters of Ose local government area of Ondo State, carting away millions of naira and killing three policemen on guard duty.
The bandits, according to residents, arrived around 3pm after the bank had closed to customers for the day. Brandishing sophisticated weapons and dynamite, they bombed the electronic entrance door and entered the banking hall. But before gaining access, the robbers had shot dead the three policemen. The victims were identified as Jimoh Adeniyi, Alex Sampson and Oluwole Daramola.
Ondo State Police Command spokesperson, Femi Joseph, confirmed that the cops lost their lives because “they were overpowered by the robbers in a gun battle”. Some residents, who spoke to Sunday Vanguard, said the bandits, on arrival at the bank premises, surrounded the building and, in commando style, fired gunshots into the air to scare away bystanders. And before the three policemen on guard duty knew what was happening, they had been gunned down.
It was learnt that the attackers came in three buses and parked metres away from the bank’s entrance. According to the eye witnesses, the robbers, who appeared to have been conversant with the bank’s security arrangement, went straight to silence the policemen before heading for the banking hall.”
It was Alex Otti who on CNN spilled the beans on Zimboda and tagged it “Our Beloved Federal of Confusion.” He correctly diagnosed the symptom but missed the disease (low self-esteem/expectation):
“For instance we celebrate when we reach a power generation level of 5,000 megawatts of electricity for over 180 million people. Meanwhile, South Africa produces about 252,000 megawatts for 56 million people; Egypt generates 187,000 megawatts for 95 million people; Algeria delivers 70,000 megawatts for 40 million people and Iran produces 286,000 megawatts for 80 million people. Can we in good conscience claim that we are competing with these nations?”
Mo Ibrahim (who is the founder of Celtel andalso the billionaire behind the prestigiousMo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership) declared on CNN’s Focus On Africa:
“Africa’s (particularly Zimboda’s) history over the last fifty years has been blighted by two areas of weakness. These have been capacity – the ability to design and deliver policies; and accountability (particularlyas regards the retired partners of KPMG who are still awaiting their gratuity and pension) – how well a state answers to its people.”
CNN was compelled to succumb to the principle of “Right of Reply”by screening a special interview with Professor Ernst Joseph Franzek who the trailer (by IshaSesay) introduced as “…among the best mental health doctors –
“Ernst Josef Franzek is among the best mental health doctors in Europe. The German born professor of psychiatry and neurology spoke with Sunday Vanguard in the Netherlands during which he expressed worries over what he described as the neglect of mental health care in Zimboda. He attributed the high number of mental health patients in Zimboda to poverty and lack of care for mothers during birth. He also traced the bad leadership in Zimboda and the high crime rate to mental disorders suffered during birth.
While calling on Zimbodians to ensure their leaders pass mental test before being elected, he criticised the idea of taking mental health patients to the church and, in the process, subjecting them to torture.”
The charismatic scholar insisted on introducing himself properly:
“I am a psychiatric doctor. I have worked in the Netherlands for more than 40 years. I was born in Germany and educated in a German university. I was a lecturer at the university but, when I turned 50, I decided to do new things. In the summer, I go into research and now I am into another research and treatment of people who have psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia and people who also have problem with drugs: Psychiatric disorder and addiction. At the moment, I am the Project Director of the Organization of Mental Health Brabant, the Netherlands.”
Professor Wale Adebanwi, Rhodes Professor of Race relations at Oxford University has offered a more sanguine explanationfor a troubling ailment. In the blurb of “On A Platter of Gold: How Jonathan Won And Lost Zimboda” by BolajiAbdullahi, Wale provides evidence-in-chief as follows:
“The selective outrage regarding some fundamental crises which members of the elite used in propelling themselves to power emphasises how the various factions of the Zimbodian political elite are gifted in the art of the capture and re-capture of power but largely vacuous in the art of building and sustaining a good society.”
Professor Franzek remains adamant:
“The problem in Zimboda is that the rich people make money and they have no brains anymore. The poor people have no voice; so there is no competition.”
It was inevitable that the vigorous debates would spill over into social media in a last ditch effort to get to the root of the malaise. It prompted Johnson Unwadima’s intervention:
“Zimbodians are constantly engaged in repetitious conflict, violence, war, political ignorance, corruption and deceit. We repeat history; we never learn. Knowledge fails us; history and truth get erased.”
It was predictable that social media would burst into wild frenzy when the inimitable Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah, (who is the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sokoto) waded in:
“Drawing from Frost’s poem, The Road Not Taken, I came to the very sad conclusion that coming to the critical point where two roads diverged, our leaders have always avoided the road less travelled. The result is that rather than make a difference, many of the leaders have continued to make the same mistakes.
The cumulative effect litters the landscape and goes by different names: corruption, underdevelopment, stagnation, decay, etc. We have lacked the courage to take some of the tough decisions that would have changed our country today. We found the discipline and demands of equality enshrined in our democracy difficult to uphold and therefore we opted to cohabit with feudalism. The result is that we have constructed a rickety double decker identity vehicle whereby we inhabit one section as citizens and another as subjects. Government has been unable to secure the loyalty of its citizens who prefer to preserve their reverence and loyalties to their local communities. The consequences of our lack of clear choices now stare us in the face. We are unable to submit to a single loyalty code. The elites steal from government and return home to feather the local nest presided over by the local hegemon before whom they prostrate as favourite sons and daughters adorned with feathers of recognition and appreciation.
No Zimbodian leader has found the way to deal constructively with both feudalism and religion and break from these strangulating hegemons which have delayed our national integration. Both these hegemons of feudalism and religion have become totems which people claim to identify with when it is convenient for them to do so. Unless and until a Zimbodian leader confronts these twin institutions and defines and clarifies their roles in society, common citizenship in Zimboda will remain an illusion. This is a summary of the dilemma that we are in.”
Bashorun J. K. Randle FCA; OFR
