There, and Here

It was a lunatic, who after his thatched hut that he torched was totally consumed by the resultant inferno looked around from a distance and gleefully announced to onlookers: “Finally, light has been made to prevail”. Time and again the world is treated to such acts by the countless lunatics that dot most parts of the African continent. In the last eight years it has been Nigeria’s Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo’s turn to set the country that he presides over as president ablaze. What started as a normal four year presidential term in May 1999 was gradually turned into a torching exercise by this individual who suddenly proclaimed his self-conviction that he is a messiah from God to deliver the nationalities that British colonialism cobbled together into an artificial supra-national state early in the last century. In the period since be began his second term in 2003, Mr. Obasanjo stopped at nothing to extend himself in power. When his blatant machinations to alter the constitution failed in the National Assembly last year, he began to use state agencies including the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, which is mandated by law to conduct elections as an impartial umpire, to erect road block after road block all in the bid to undermine the process.

The difficulty that he encountered from a cross section of the land in his determination to extend himself in power does not derive from his self-anointment as much as it does from the dismal record of lack of any tangible achievement that he chalked in the eight years that he has been in power. Last Saturday witnessed the start of that inferno he brought to bear on the land. The first in the line up of elections that he recklessly dubbed a “do–or-die” affair for him and his party the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, translated to exactly that. At least, 22 people were officially reported dead in the course of one day. The world has been made to witness the most violently rigged electoral exercise in recent time. But like the proverbial lunatic, Mr. Obasanjo has simply pronounced his satisfaction with the conduct and outcome of that clearly flawed exercise.

Not withstanding Mr. Obasanjo's delusion that by burning down the hut called Nigeria he would pave the way for what he alone consider as better visibility, healthy-minded onlookers believe otherwise. We’ll see what will become of him this time when the inferno he started dies down completely.

Then, the shooting incident yesterday at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia that left a reported total of 33 faculty and students dead. People have been scratching their head asking countless questions as they deal with what has been described as the worst campus shooting incident in US history. What went wrong with the shooter who has been described as a student in that institution? How was he able to wreck this magnitude of havoc in two episodes that were interspersed by a couple of hours? Should American society not afford to deal with this sort of horror? More questions than answers, one would say. This is certainly yet another incident strong enough to compel America to embark on an extensive soul searching. The time to begin is now.