FG Vs Shi’ites: Before We Slip Off This Ciff! By Olawale Olaleye 

If you are not bothered about what’s going on in the country today especially, as it concerns security, you are either too young to comprehend the situation and properly analyse its potential complications or you do not have any stake in this geographical expression called Nigeria.

For many days running, the Shi’ites have sustained their protests within the Abuja metropolis, but you only get to hear about their activities the moment the protests get violent.

It is pertinent to state that for about four times or more since December 2015 that he was arrested, the leader of the Shi’ites movement, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky had been granted bail by different courts, which the federal government failed to respect. But kept lying to justify while it had continued to keep him and his wife in detention.

The last statement issued by the presidency, saying violent protests would not earn the sect justice and directed them to turn to the court was by all standards insensitive. How do they go back to the same court, whose pronouncements you have constantly and brazenly disobeyed? On what premise would that be?

However, you need to pause for some moments and ponder what probably has been giving force to the resolve by this Islamic movement to continue to dare the federal government in their pursuit of justice? Are you not even worried that they are seemingly determined and undeterred by the nation’s security presence to die in their huge numbers whilst seeking justice?

I understand that if it appears justice was not looking feasible after justly seeking redress from the court of law, the temptation to want to resort to self-help is likely high.

But more than any other justification, I’m also convinced beyond all doubts that these guys are getting some form of supports from certain foreign countries, being a very major factor that makes their constant confrontation niggling.

Thus, if we are now going from Boko Haram attacks, to killings by herdsmen, kidnapping and maiming by bandits and now, constant violent protests by the Shi’ites movement – all of which have not ceased – what is therefore left of Nigeria’s fragile peace?

How do we deal with a plethora of security complications amid a seemingly unbothered government, which not only thinks the challenge is isolated, but has zero sense of urgency in dealing with them and other pressing national issues?

For me, two wrongs will never make a right anywhere. The federal government, clearly, has not acted well in this matter. It has made it seem like it has something personal with El-Zakzaky, the same way it has handled the case of the former NSA, Sambo Dasuki.

But does that give the Shi’ites group the right to self-help by taking laws into their hands – killing people and destroying properties? Methinks not.

It’s been one destruction too many and even if El-Zakzaky was released today, somebody must pay for these atrocities, including the killings of innocent people. We cannot go on as if we live in Banana Republic. Enough of this madness!

Let the federal government do what is right, obey court orders and release their leader and let the same law avenge the death of people lost to the stupidity of the Shi’ite members by making those already arrested scapegoat. They should be charged with murder. It’s as simple as that.

But every action taken must be within the ambit of the law and we cannot afford to procrastinate any further otherwise what lies ahead would be totally incomprehensible. I’m not afraid but completely worried.

May the souls of DCP Usman Umar and Precious Owolabi rest in peace. Amen