By Abba Muhammad Tawfiq
The citizens of Adamawa state had not relented in pledging their allegiance to the authorities governing the affairs of the nation when “Lockdown” was enjoined for a couple of weeks to halt the proliferation of covid19 so as to ensure that a state of convalescence was fully restored in the dear state and the nation at large when the spectrum of dispersion of the pandemic was looming large.
The priority of every government is always to ensure the safety of its people by providing food and security and other basic necessities of life.
Therefore, to make a pleasant bustling of life through the then imposed state of lockdown, the Federal Government in its mightiness was able to cater for the nation by sending the so-called palliatives to every state through their respective state governments.
While other states were able to successfully distribute these palliatives in peace and security, the story is contrary in my state.
The enormity of the matter was how the good people of Adamawa state had been launching vitriolic attacks, vehemently centralizing their criticisms directly towards the federal government owing to its inability to curtail the hazards of hunger and hardship.
Unfortunately the series of events following the peaceful End SARS protest which was said to be hijacked by hoodlums in Lagos state had caused sabotaged considerable number of properties including the palliative warehouse which on the other hand, had vindicated the Federal government’s effort in tackling hunger thus created awareness in the masses of other states thereby igniting their fury to break through the warehouses of their states and loot them to completeness.
On Sunday the 25th of October 2020 the theft of the hoarded goods in the palliative warehouse in Yola wasn’t only accomplished but accompanied by annihilation of other huge governmental and private properties across the state.
Its indeed perplexing the way the government is unleashing its bitter feelings by scolding the masses following the balefully condemnable damage made by the frustrated masses in their claim of what is rightfully belongs to them. Our ability to delve into the genesis of problems will enable us to paint the problem and admit the best means of how things can be perfected.
If truly the government in its effort were not too poor and greedy but honest and fair enough to mitigate hunger and hardship in regard to delivering these palliatives, the sleeping sword of grievous war of these masses wouldn’t have been awoken and no mayhem and defeat could be made at the powerful foot of the government.To fathom clearly the point I’m trying to make, I will seize this opportunity to beautifully urge our government to look back and emulate those states that had successfully lifted upon their shoulders the weight of the task being suspended on them by giving out the palliatives to those who are entitled and worthy of it and see if an unwholesome scenario of such will precipitate within the state.
Conclusively, in lieu of the heinous strategies of imposing “curfew and house to house search” employed by the government to compel the recovery of the looted properties even by threatening to demolish the houses of those who fail to return the looted stuff, I think it will rather be best to establish ways of recovering them in peace in harmony. The said strategies have only led to the stagnation of many things in the state capital as businesses are not operating, strict limitations to freedom of free mobility and the consequences of that is still on the poor masses while it is the fault of the government from the initial point.
Tawfiq writes from Yola and can be reached through: abbamuhammadtawfiq@gmail.com
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Sky Daily
