The silence of the talking drum goes aloud as the fierce masquerade and his stooges, which dance at night, have shape-shifted to the league of banelings walking in the day. They collectively sang in adulation, to the cloud hovering above, and chant their own cognomen while the dispirited onlookers muttered in boundless accord, as their baritone voices go wild round the village square. We are the all-in-all who is boastful of our oriki and ostentatious in our bizarre appearance.

Their masquerading attire was in no rush befitting that of the Catholic Sisters’ regalia: This time, their facial conformation was quite seeable, since they now have the key to the privy of the upper room. The very image I etched on my mind about these flurry of unfathomable lots, was that of the village head who is a Baron of the Brigands – whose household sells igbo (Indian hemp), his children – the warlords and street urchins of the ghetto, collecting illicit levies at the street junctions, his wife sells ogogoro (local gin). Yet, we want those bedevilling actors out of the village.

Clothed like a knight in shining armour, they rode into town on their horses, wreaking havoc in broad daylight, as limbs kept flying like hot air balloons: men plying away from their mud state homes; children butchered like blooded beef; life taken in a blink. Yet, there are confessions and retractions in the public space, as trophies of death are being displayed on the national screen. These soul-killers who doubles as body-kidnappers, courageously beats their broad chest, taking stance at their misdeeds, the mishap at home; mishap in the bush, mishap in the farm, walks on breathless bodies, burgle into corridors, abduct innocent souls, and continually ply their heinous trade in the open – still, they are unfazed, unchecked and unhanded by the strong arm of justice.

Their irrationality, brutality, military capability, inner mediocrity, power display, sheer audacity and boldness, sprout day-in-day-out, and Nigeria is now in a disturbed state. If the bane of punitive measures is not taken into consideration and execution, then it is only a matter of time before they could infiltrate and make striking incursions into the core of the land.

Like the terrifying and infamous “Army of the Dead”, they wag their tail – destroying, decimating, burning and slaughtering every living thing that crosses and lies in their path. They parade their feet on the ocean of demonic and devouring locusts that strip bare everything in its path. They motion in droves with the fling of death on their wings, epitomising their dark and evil wave of life-wasting, soul-killing and blood-sucking attributes.

If we are to resist an external invasion in a clime of ours, then it can logically be termed “the flux of bandits” as it has moved from its overlooked phase of phantasmagoria and deceit to a nomenclature of realities. The Abuja-Kaduna route is now regarded as the carnage of the bandits. The route is presently the most dangerous to ply, the height of abductions and kidnappings, pillaging and sacking the land in broad daylight. This could chiefly be ascribed to the reflection of the degeneration of our leadership and societal standards. Like a cat will have for a sandpiper, political jobbers parading themselves as our leaders have no compassion for the people. Some even see to the actualisation of these heinous acts of security insurgence, with a dubious target at inflating their security votes.

Nigerians are mostly concerned about the security of life and properties, but we got entangled in the opposite. We got locked horns at the security front as men kept wrestling in vain to save lives. The sects are ranked the fourth deadliest terrorist group, in accordance with the release from the World Terrorist Index. Yet, it is tagged a saint within the privy of the upper room. The incessant killings and abductions go on, and the locust kept eating deep into our struggling democratic fabric. The security chiefs are keeping mute, employing palliative measures of community policing to curb the weight of security lapses, since oneness and unison are being sidelined, while the responsibility of the central is gradually fading.

Without feigning ignorance of their just honoured and equality to the likes of Afenifere and Ohaeneze, the Miyetti Allah are the most pampered and popular organisation in Nigeria today. Little wonder, they were allegedly offered N100 billion to stop and halt the bane of killings and kidnappings in the land, as being boldly pronounced by a serving minister. The sect can gaze at the law in the eye, without a blink. The law fidgets and looks sideways – probing the bed chamber of the sect’s victims.

Fellows Nigerians – what have we done wrong? Families are being wiped out in a twinkle; communities are being sacked. Can the killings be demystified? Can the kidnappings be unfazed and unmasked? Have we done the wrong thing at the wrong time? Or have we done the right thing at the wrong time? Are the gods angry with the land? What shall we do to tame the bane of abductions?

Those who repeat falsehood on a minute-by-minute basis, never cease to spew out flimsy excuses or alternatives, to the actual realities we feel today. These insidious actors have no end to the nonsense we hear day-in-day-out, without inviting restrictions. “I had seen the IG – he is losing weight, I think he is working hard” is fondly regarded as a qualifying phrase in curbing the preponderance of insecurity ravaging the land. This is emotional blackmail, as we are being swayed by public opinions and vendetta.

The intellectual discourse and engagement of the nation’s democratic proceedings are enveloped in the theatre of deceit, ineptitude and vicissitude. The penchant for creating and designing the aura of disorderliness, by phony political jobbers are deeming to plunge the nation into perpetual ruin days. The children of those they fail to train and educate will someday come after their own children.

These phony political jobbers never stop to create alternative realities, against the judgment of what we actually think and feel – and they have the mandate to intensely beat these impoverished cook-ups into our brain. In the stillness of that, they whisper to our ear saying – “there are no scars, no wounds, no blood, but blood of national development.”

The President, in his words, had promised not to let Nigerians down in providing effective leadership and result-oriented leadership that will safeguard and ensure a better life for citizens, assuring that he is conscious of the weight of responsibility on his shoulders, and he will keep working to deliver an improved life to Nigerians.

Huh, I hope it is being actualised, for the film of promise is unending. The fowl of the air may lodge under its shadow, but when the big tree falls, the birds will scatter in different directions. Indeed, the night is dark and full of terror, but the drowning and struggling democratic ship of the nation, shall someday be rescued and rejuvenated to its full energies.

•Meduoye Adeyinka writes from Lagos and can be reached via yinkopet@gmail.com

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