THE PICTURES OF NIGERIA TODAY. Written by KEMKA S. IBEJI

The government is complacent and crime aiding.

They kept mute and gave tacit support to the Miyetti Allah terrorists when they were terrorising all parts of Nigeria. Everyone called on the government to act but instead the government killed the people in pains. The government cleared the way for the murderers of her own citizens. Miyetti Allah became the unvoted government and mounted all corners of Nigeria commanding minds.

Boko Haram has pillaged the land for years. The government while in opposition defended them and promised to put an end to it once elected. It is already six years and counting but things have gone worse instead. The government has done nothing seriously but encouraging the terrorists by giving them amnesty, scholarships, jumbo pays, ransom, sponsorships, empowerments, aids and recruitment into the military. Our government has demoralised her own military while boosting the morale of the cheap, uneducated, frail looking, malnourished and worthless criminals.

The Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami, was identified as a terrorist enabler and one. The government, instead of investigating him and granting justice to Nigerians, has taken up the duty of defence and support. They have sent out and despatched every machinery to ensure that the suspected terrorist is protected and covered. The same man is in custody of the most sensitive information of the land. The database of this country is in the hands of an acclaimed terrorist. It sounds the government is the terrorist itself and nobody seems to know.

Peaceful protesters are killed in their numbers each day in Nigeria by this government because they are either not from the North or they are not violent. Their worst mistake and only crime is being lawful and peaceful. The government will kill you! All the government hears and encourages is violence and crime.

At the protest of #EndSARS, the government mobilized the military with the gravest armament to kill and murder the peaceful youths of the country who asked for nothing else than a better country. The government refused dialogue, rejected negotiation, turned against fairness and fair hearing, truncated real rights of citizenship but emboldened criminals. The government sent out hoodlums and none Nigerians against their own youths and citizens. Many lost their lives and many still live with the pains. We saw the pictures and videos. They were spread across the corners of the earth but the earth went silent.

Down Southeast, the MASSOB and IPOB members who have been on nonviolent agitation have been killed like ants and flies. Nobody talked for them. We saw their dead bodies floating down the rivers and their blood flowing across communities. But the government was in charge of their murder and destruction. What did they do? Just asking for the rejig of their exploitation and continued hostilities even after the end of the civil war with the epithet of "No Victor, no vanquished". The war has continued on the side of the government.

The bandits have been allowed to fester as they kill the people of the Southern Nigeria like games on daily basis. They have made life unbearable for farmers from the middle belt down to the south. Everyone live in fears on trembling feat just for the killer herdsmen and armed bandits. The government, supposed monopolist of violence, shares might with the terrorists, bandits and herdsmen while disarming the citizens. The government helps the criminals to rape the citizens and take them captives.

There in Oyo, Ekiti, Ondo, Osun, Ogun and even Lagos, the criminals are rampaging with government immunities dangling and hanging. Nobody says anything. The people of Southwest are killed everyday overtly and covertly. Their brains are humiliated in their own land after defeating the world out there in strange lands. Their wives, sisters and daughters are raped before them, their husbands are violated in their presence and their belongings are dispossessed of them by the criminals assisted by the government. When a son of the soil raised his hands in defence of his people, the government raised standards against his and his folks. Abomination is institutionalised and worshipped by our government on all fours.

How do we mention the Middle Belt? They no longer have humanity. Life there has become worthless and their land has been marked for desolation. But the government is in subtle or surreptitious charge of all the wrongs. What a government.

The people of Nigeria have been so patient and long-suffering. They have endured so much of lack, dehumanisation, exploitation and subjugation by the government and the ruling class. They tax hell out of the citizens yet there are no amenities. No good roads, no electricity, no water, no education, no health, the justice system is dead and on bazaar, opportunities are for sale and prebendalism is the order of the day.

The Executives are looting, the Legislators are looking and looting, the Judiciary is stealing and destroying peace through the murder of justice. They have all planted violation as seeds to harvest. Nigeria is now in shambles. Who do we blame?

When the people shall rise as the time is imminent, I pray that our streets and roads are not littered with the corpses of these folks. The anger in the land of venomous and deafening. Peace is no more here and the peaceful is at the center of freedom fighters and the terrorists. It is violent everywhere; of justice and of crime.

Which way Nigeria?