This is a historically trying period for mankind, a unique time warp that reminds us how very puny we are in the natural scheme of things. Our delusion that we are the masters of the universe has been badly exposed by an invisible, vicious virus. All over the world, people are scrambling for cover, confused and fearful of what tomorrow will bring.
Even for the well-to-do nations, the times are challenging economically. But they have the resources, the institutions and the will to enable them survive and bounce back from the wreckages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Take the United States of America for example, the most impacted country in number of infections and deaths. The Congress and the Federal Reserve have jointly put in place about $4 trillion in economic relief packages. And the House of Representatives has just passed another $3 trillion for the same purpose.
Even many smaller nations have done very well in trying to mitigate the severe economic impact of the pandemic. Far more than us, as our window for borrowing funds has narrowed and the government, already struggling for direction and purpose before the pandemic, is not up to the existential challenges the country is presently facing.
So, what will tomorrow bring to Nigeria? The answer is blowing dangerously in the wind. We can see it, and we can feel it. The omens are, indeed, terrifying. Judgement day is coming very soon.
But it’ll not be the Rapture when, according to pentecostal Christians’ belief, Jesus Christ will be sent back by His Father to separate the good from the bad among us. It will be the howling mobs of millions of deprived Nigerians baying for the heads of their oppressors and joy killers. And when their own rapture is unleashed, nobody will be safe. The good and innocent, the bad and ugly among us will get the same treatment.
Mob justice is always swift, brutal and non-discriminatory. Whoever is not with them and of them is the enemy. Once their collective anger and volcanic energy explode, all hell will break loose. The result will be carnage on a massive scale. Lives and property of all kinds, private and public, will be wasted.
The grand folly of building prison walls around our homes, creating a false sense of security, will be ridiculed by how easily our supposed fortresses are breached. The prison walls, no matter how high, thick and well fortified, won’t protect us. A hungry man is an angry man with nothing left to lose, except his life that, in his own estimation, is valueless. And millions of angry people become demented mobs propelled by a force as powerful as that of a tsunami.
Who and what can stop a tsunami once its catastrophically destructive power is unleashed? Same for a demented mob. Once it sets off, there is no stopping it until, like a tsunami, its energy is exhausted. But the depleted energy is reflected by the widespread wreckage of lives and property. The social order swallowed by chaos in an instant of seemingly infinite time and mass insanity.
This scenario is not a fantasy. It is already being played out by the daredevilry of Fulani bandits and killer herdsmen; the audacity of the One Million Boys gangs in Lagos and similar lawless cult groups all over the country; the huge spike in intensity and spread of criminality; and the failure of law-enforcement agencies to stem the tide. All these on top of the 11-year campaign of terrorism by Boko Haram. And the situation, as frightening as it is now, will inevitably get worse.
The reason for that is as clear as a tropical sun-lit day. It doesn’t need any form of divination to reveal it. The vast majority of our young population, particularly the segment of it that ranges between 18 and 35 years, is unemployed. And that dangerous bulge of energetic but idle hands keep growing exponentially.
The omens are, indeed, terrifying. Judgement day is coming very soon.
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