Enough Is Enough !

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends”- Martin Luther King

The Lagos version of the Abuja walk by the Save Nigeria Group titled, “Enough is Enough” is taking place today at 10am. We’ll be moving from Arch Bishop Vinning Memorial Church to the Government house in Alausa. Our message has not changed, we are marching in peaceful protest against the current issues which stem from the same root -lack of good governance! Ever so often the intellectuals want to ask -why are you walking? Will this walk achieve anything? Are there no other risk free things that can be done? Is there a hidden agenda?  Intellectuals love to ask questions, and thankfully, I’m not un-intellectual as well, so I can answer what I can.

6 months ago, I stayed for many hours everyday at the intensive care unit of a Teaching Hospital, waiting outside in the sun everyday as my young mother struggled to live. Ever so often power would fail in the hospital, and I will hear the UPS of the most funded and most equipped room in the hospital beep as it neared its life’s end. Amazingly these life support UPS’ were no different from those used for small personal computers.  I sat and watched as many fairly clothed bodies got wheeled daily to the mortuary. It wasn’t rocket science, but it struck me, when power fails, people die!  My mind wandered back easily to the road accidents that I had seen on my many road travels over the past few months, and to the other thousands of lives lost uncelebrated. It’s real, that we are losing people who ought to be alive daily in this country!

Eventually my dearly beloved mum passed on, but she left me with the gift of a mind boggling realization! There is a death roll in this country and all our names are on it, and in silence and negligence we may all take our execution orders, either from our ailing roads, our ill equipped hospitals or from the hazardous interventions to substitute all forms of power!

We are here at this junction in our 49yrs plus history to say with one voice, Enough is Enough! To power failure, power vacuum, power ailment or power epilepsy!

I have asked myself quite regularly, who is responsible for killing all these people?

Is it the government that has regularly failed in its promise to provide power in any form?

Is it the senate who have refused to enact the laws allowing states to generate their power or for the constitution to be followed so we are not ruled by a leader who left in a hurry  and asked us not to worry that good luck can rule the country by taking orders from his blackberry?

Is it you and I, the people, who with our silence and negligence allow the wrong people to get the power?

Or is it our religious leaders who have so much influence and have refused to use it for our greatest common good?

Is it the good clean men who refuse to dirty themselves and have allowed the worst of us to rule the rest of us?

Or is it my good friends and brothers who are benefiting so well from the current decay that they have been rendered blind, mute and powerless.

I say yes to all! Everybody who has the capacity to lead us, who has the potential to be voted for, who is a leader and has earned the trust and respect of people in this nation, has committed a great offense. Our negligence has put the wrong people in power, made our hospitals unequipped, left our roads as deathtraps, and have assisted in killing, murdering and sentencing many young talents and future leaders to early graves! The silence of your pastor, your CEO, your mentor and yourself is the reason for our bad roads, is the reason for the deplorable state of power in Nigeria, is responsible for poverty and the death roll in this country, we have sinned!

Quote me if you want, but no matter how many dead your pastor or imam raises, he is by negligence, responsible for killing more. No matter how much good works we do, our silence has destroyed more! You and I are guilty as charged! Guilty Guilty Guilty! Our most influential man was counted because of the opposite of the reason that we are condemned as a nation! Our silence speaks loudly! Our silence and non-verbal endorsement of vision-less leaders, power vacuums and remote controlled leadership, have made our paradise potential nation a living hell! Our land is flowing with milk and honey and our people are living on dirt and leftovers!

If we do what we need to do for this country, we may die! If we run, we may live, at least for a while! But in days not far from today, we will die, on our beds, on hospital beds or on the deplorable roads! Are we willing to trade all the days and years, from now until that day, for once chance, just one chance, to gather ourselves together and tell those who place power vacuums over our heads, that they might take away our national cake, they may defraud our nation, they might even rape our land and empty it’s resources, but they will never take away our future!

Like the proverbial resilient frog, which gets cooked in water by raising the temperature 1 degree per hour, we have taken it all, but now the water visibly boils and our cup of patience full. With one voice today we shout. Enough is Enough!

Enough is Enough!

We will neither tolerate power vacuums in the PHCN nor in Leadership!

Enough is Enough!

We are not happy with a Plane load of 300 people dying in the streets of Jos in Religious wars because of inaction from a missing leader.

Enough is Enough!

We will not accept the label of terrorism bestowed on us by the 58 days inactivity of our president’s mobile phone.

Enough is Enough!

Leadership Vacuum is dangerous and is responsible for killings in the north, kidnapping in the east, Militants gang raping in the South South and intellectual indifference in the west.

Enough is Enough!

We the young people will no longer be represented by 50+ year old dying men who still claim to be youths.

Enough is Enough!

We demand to be lead according to the dictates of our imposed constitution until another is established. Please Mr. President, Vacate the Seat!

Enough is Enough!

We are neither fools nor kindergarten children, we refuse to be insulted by the Attorney Generals manifesting as atani Generals – meaning deceivers.

Enough is Enough!

We know that one lie requires 10 others to support it, and the 10 others require 10 each. Our Senate, Judiciary and leaders at large have built a pyramid of lies and a cacophony of deceit.

Enough is Enough!

We know that the fact that our hearts desire a New Nigeria is because one exists. We raise a proclamation against all those who shackle us.

Enough is Enough!

We refuse to accept the political coloration of our demographics that is designed to deceive us into believing that we are not enough!

Enough is Enough!

This is just the beginning, we shout with one final loud voice we say to all those who stand in the way of progress for this nation. All those who by silence, negligence, force or illness, you shall all be swept by the hands that put the stars in the sky.  And together we pray -

Enough is Enough!