Gaza experience in Ibadan – Femi Adeoti Column

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This world is eternally wicked. No contest. Wickedness is everywhere, all over. Stupendously overwhelming. It neither started yesterday, nor today. And it won’t stop tomorrow.

The evilness is seamlessly endless. The first recorded murder was in the holy book, the Bible. That was after the world’s first family, Adam and Eve, led us into perpetual sin.
They betrayed the trust of God. And were violently thrown out of the Garden of Eden, cursed. They lost the luxury of that garden. From total comfort to complete hardship. One extreme pole to another.
Cain and Abel were brothers from the first couple. Cain was the firstborn. Both offered sacrificial offerings from the fruits of their hard labour. The Lord was exceedingly pleased with Abel. But not with Cain. That brought the beast out of him.
It was his worst moment of ire. He tricked Abel: “Let’s go for a walk.” The innocent soul fell for it. Out in the field, he butchered his brother. That account was vividly captured in Genesis 4: 3-9.
Since then there has been no stopping them: The murderers, killers, slaughters, liquidators, terminators et al. They have increased in leaps and bounds. And the world is drenched, neck-deep in iniquity.
That vileness came visiting on Tuesday, January 16, 2024. Such evil always thrives under the cover of darkness. The Tuesday evening wasn’t anything different. It was appalling to say the “smallest” least.
And to make matters worst. The sordidness picked Ibadan, Oyo State capital, as its epicentre. It actually domiciled in Bodija Estate, a high profile residential area.
Like its folks all over, it came unannounced. That is its ugliness that accompanies its unwanted arrival. Ibadan has never been the same again. The rest is gruesome and awful history.
I was naïve the evening before. I didn’t really realise the full impact of that explosion. That actuality became glaring the morning after. Pictures and video clips of all sorts made that possible. Very telling and impactful.
It was a big goof. I took it to be one of the blasts we were used to. We have learnt to live with their genre. I erred! This came in the mood, mould, form, style and character of Gaza Strip. It was grim.
An exemplar of Gaza experience in Ibadan. Tragic and pathetic. Courtesy, Oyo Affair: “Sotannde Kodir, a young boy of eight years old, is in search of his mother after Ibadan explosion. He spoke of how they ran out of their house during the heavy vibration. He said the two of them ran in different directions and has since been left stranded at Sango, Ibadan.”
It reminded me vividly of the May Day, 1998 incident I was dragged into. Yes in the same Ibadan. I ended the journey in Agodi Prisons, Ibadan. But the two though devastating, were polls apart. They were met to achieve different goals.
The May Day occurrence was meant a peaceful protest. It turned bloody, yet it was for the right reason. January 2024 blast was not. It couldn’t have been a mere fracas or melee. It took every inch after a bomb blast. And hugely for the wrong reason.
The 1998 riot was well conceptualised, planned and executed. It took the whole city by storm, spreading like a wild, weird fire. It could not be restricted, curtailed, contained or confronted. Every part of Ibadan saw and felt it. The January 2024 was not. It was largely a Bodija affair.
That riot of 24 years ago had a genuine purpose. It wasn’t a pretention. It was an unfeigned agitation for justice. The wrong it sought to right still lives with us today. Sad!
An advocacy for an enduring democracy; restructuring being its backbone. It was meant to move us forward. A determination to erect a solid, virile nation.
The Bodija explosion was the exact opposite. It was meant to pull us down, “from top to bottom.” Nothing good was programmed to come out of it. It was to destroy everything, leaving out nothing. A monumental disaster it was.
This was more than a riot. The blast was for sinister motives. It had its trail, trappings of viciousness, inhumanity and devilishness. It was far more than mischief or rascality.
The reason the ruins were enormous. The losses were unquantifiable and still counting. The pains were excruciating and unending. The sorrow deep, the anguish intense. Simply beyond expression and comprehension.
The victims would have to live with their misfortunes. Some for the rest of their lives. They are all alone in the cold, on their own. And for no fault of theirs. Other than they chose to reside in Bodija.
Very unfortunate. It could be so miserable, unbearable, depressing and distressing. A sudden change in lifestyle, unprepared for. What a dislocation. Lamentations all the way.
The Gaza in Ibadan is throwing up absurdities and oddities. These are battering us left, right and centre. The narratives are changing like the speed of light. Just as they are equally challenging.
Governor Seyi Makinde harmlessly opened the floodgate. He was eager to calm the nerves of the panic public. It’s understandable. He’s the chief security officer. All eyes were on him. He dared not fumble. He couldn’t risk letting them down. It was a critical period for all; the leaders and the led.
He must say something. He had to say it. That moment, he had no viable choice. So, he kicked off from illegal miners’ explosives. He blamed them for the blast. He didn’t claim to know all. He attributed it to the usual “preliminary investigation.”
Moving forward, we zeroed it on an alien miner from Mali. In between, we veered into a company warehousing mining explosives.  Endless variables are playing out. They are competing for our limited space and attention.
All these clearly tell us one obvious truth. We have with Herculean task to contend with. Very grave, indeed. Nigeria’s problems are far deeper than imagined. Our foundation as a nation state is faulty. We do not need to be told.
Stubbornly, we continue to build blindly on nothingness. We fumble and stumble without check or restrain. This constitution we pretend to operate is not our own. We didn’t write it.
We cannot own it. Those who own it know it. It’s theirs, not ours. We, the people of this country, can as well reject it. And flatly too!  It is no rocket science. It’s doable.
We are aware. The hawks and wolves are on the prowl. Waiting ferociously for whom to devour. They are the greatest beneficiaries of the absurdity. They will put up the fight of their lives. They are prepared for it, ready for it.
They tag it presidential system. But they run it half-heartedly. They only implement to the maximum. Those areas that satisfy their inordinate greed.
And they look the other way and leave undone. Those portions of the constitution that offend their avarice and covetousness. Everything is wrong with us. And we are wrong with everything.
We need a total break from this abnormality of ours. That clean break is a re-set, aka restructuring. Anything short of that will take us nowhere.
Our best option is a return to parliamentarian system. We have to be honest and sincere. The system will cut all the wastes and plug all the loopholes.
It will restore sanity to our governance. It’s the fresh breathe of life we need and deserve.
The very time is now!