Fire! E no get enemy! Of course, what Fela Anikulapo Kuti sang was “Water, e no get enemy”! But the highly increasing incidences of arson in the society at large, has made necessary the consideration of the parody of “Fire! E no get enemy”!
Indeed, the concept of water and fire not harbouring enmity with or against anybody can be explained in the notion that just as life depends on water to a large extent, so also does life depend on fire to a large extent.
Just as we can’t contemplate about life without water, so we can’t contemplate life without fire. Both are quintessential factors in the lives of humans. Just like the air life hinges on!
Incidentally, just as useful and important as water and fire are to life, so also are both destructive to lives and property. During the rainy season, for instance, water flood cause so much havoc that take huge tolls on lives and property. Both during rainy and dry season, fire causes enough mayhem to lives and property.
Now, while some of the water and fire disasters are obviously classified as natural disasters, the increasing incidences of fire outbreaks are avoidable man-made human disasters. They’re technically described as arson. We call them “takes
The Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary defines “arson” as: “the crime of deliberately setting fire to something, especially a building”! It defines as “arsonists” those that commit the crime of arson!
One thing very ugly about arson is that because fire is involved, and because of the agglutination and cluster of houses, of which after the arsonist activates his crime, sets his target building on fire, and leaves the scene of the crime, the fire begins the further journey into wanton destruction of nearby houses, the number of which may be indeterminate before the firefighters arrive.
The consequences don’t end in the razing of the buildings and probable loss of lives. They go beyond and afflict the sensibilities, creating all manners of emotional upsets, particularly trauma and opprobrium. Many people end up with severe depression, hypertension and even death! Just because of the fire little fire that was sparked with a match stick or small lighter!
In this short essay, we’re intended to have our say on the option of arson as weapon of response to socio-political misunderstandings and altercations. Our verdict is that its an act of cowardice to set ablaze the house of an opponent instead standing him man to man spiritually, physically or legally.
If you regard your opponent as an oppressor or suppressor, would the razing of his edifice stop him from oppressing and suppressing you? Smart people devise ways and manners of converting their oppression and suppression by their oppressor and suppressor into advantage! Violence is a whirlwind! It blows no good to both parties in a squabble or conflict!
Instructively, when people opt for arson to settle their disputes and differences, after the fire must have done the bid of its evil and wicked master, some members of the public will unfairly pour the blame on the leadership of the State and pile the buck on his table.
Take, for example, the Executive Governor of Imo State, His Excellency, Distinguished Senator Hope Uzodimma. We’ve come to realize that as an Astute charismatic leader, he preaches peace and pursues peace in words and deeds.
We feel its unfair and unfortunate that despite of Governor Uzodimma’s hearty pontificating on peace and love in the Imo society and Nigeria at large, some class of Imolites still patronize bizarre violence that culminate in the deployment of weapons of mass destruction, such as arson against their fellow Imolites.
The sages had continually taught the lesson that no normal person engages an armed person in a heated confrontation. The propensity for such act ending in the shedding and pouring of blood, burning of houses and other negatives is very high.
According to Governor Uzodimma, the genuine growth and development of the State hugely depends on the level of sustainable calm, peace and love in the State among the people. That’s a statement of fact that has engendered modern civilized growth and development of the society over the centuries.
Of course, having proved to be equal to the task, Governor Uzodimma has shown ample capacity for containing the demands of his highly elevated office. He accepts responsibility for the buck that land on his executive table.
He restored peace, safety and security when peace was compromised, debased and disrupted in the State. It’s believed that he would make sustainable the peace that he has restored in the State. There’s no perfect State anywhere.
Above all of the above, there’s a need for Ndimo to redefine their understanding of and attitudes towards the concepts of government and governance.
The success of government reflects the success of the State and the people! Therefore, there’s a need for Ndimo to work and pray for the success of government so that their own individual and collective success can be guaranteed.
It’s unwise for some class of Imolites to see negative outcomes in the social engineering of the State as a failure of government and governance, and thereby curry undue huge capital to hurt and harm the government and the governor, psychologically. Do taunts, mockery, abuses, insults and curses really hurt and harm the government and the governor?
Who’s government, anyway? In democratic locales as is obtainable in Nigeria, the people are the government just as the government is the people. The president or governor or LGA Chairman is just somebody assigned by election to play the agent of the people. Government is a collective reference to all citizens! It’s not elected or appointed few from among the population that are the government!
What that means is that anything done by anybody to hurt and harm the government or the governor is an unwise self-immolation! No normal person cuts his nose to spite his face! When out of anger or frustration or whatever you cruelly burn down houses of your fellow citizens, with the aim of discrediting the government and the governor, the question you must ask and answer is “did you burn down Government House or did you burn down the governor’s house?”
Ndimo must learn to continually and unstoppably think, work and pray for the best for Imo State, for the overall good and benefit of all Imolites. It must start by citizens being more civil, more tolerant and more accommodating of one another. Let love marry peace to bear unity and progress. The world is watching!
By God’s grace, Imo State must be rehabilitated, reconstructed and recovered!
