Amnesty programme in Rivers State

Sir: The problem with the Rivers State government’s strategy on amnesty for cultist and kidnappers is that they are gunning for perfection in the fight against cultism and criminality. You cannot have a perfect society. Criminality is part of the society, and there is no society that is free from crime. The aim of any government should be to reduce crime.

The best way the government of Rivers State can reduce the level of criminality in the state is to show that they can fight criminality by displaying their panoply of smoking guns, indeed, not words.

Talk less and wield the big stick. The absence of the will to fight criminality breeds more crime in Rivers State especially with the level of self-entitlement by youths that have risen to a barbarous plateau. Youths, most of whom lack competence for anything but subordinate all responsibilities to government.

Nigerians are only one step better than the xenophobic people in South Africa. Only because they haven’t the free reign to kill. Give Nigerians the chance and they become nimble-footed to do so gleefully. Brazen gun-running, the serving of Molotov Cocktails during elections, the displacement and prevention of women from going to farm by denizens with guns in Khana leading to scarcity of garri are cases in point.

This level of devilry is caused by the breakdown of our family and societal values. The day we jettisoned our all time-tested values of communalism was the beginning of our problem.

The level of depravity is made worse by the type of education Nigerians receive which is devoid of humanness. Humanness is an inalienable essence of good education.

The absence of humanness makes a people uncooked. Many Nigerians are uncooked. To kill a being in the eye of an uncooked person is a novelty.Cult clashes in Rivers State are not an isolated event. These cultists are supported by a larger network of people whose details governments over time have but these leaders are always in the wind. Only when government begins to apprehend these leaders, and allow them to pay their dues to society in jail, would we see a reduction in the roller-coaster of devilry.
Why do we treat people who kill people as statesmen?
Simon Abah, Port Harcourt.