Opinion by fesadedayo: Abuja bloodshed warning and Nigeria’s Cassandra complex via thecableng
Cassandra gave in to his advances, he would give her the power of prophecy. Though the damsel accepted the proposal and was immediately proclaimed blessed with the gift by Apollo, Cassandra refused to return the affection. Enraged by this insolence, since the god Apollo lacked the power to revoke a divine pronouncement, he placed a curse on Cassandra, to wit that her prophecies would never be believed.
The warnings claimed that the nation’s capital, Abuja, was potentially imperiled. Intelligence it received, said the UK was to the effect that Islamic State of West Africa Province and Boko Haram terror group were on the verge of launching coordinated attacks on the country. Already, the travel advisory has led to the closure of schools, and shops, and British Airways was said to have re-routed its flights from Abuja to Lagos.As usual, Nigeria’s inchoate response followed.
On the nature of warnings, a research professor of Philosophy at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Santiago Zabala, warned that amid a flurry of crises and existential threats that we find ourselves as citizens of the world, our ability to interpret the world around us and heed warnings from those who know has never been more vital than now.
Nigeria has also had a sizeable share of these terrorist attacks. Starting with the well-organised terrorist attacks by Boko Haram and recently, the Ansaru terrorist organisation, the innocence of Nigeria was wrenched off at gunpoint. These terrorists target humanitarian staff and assets in Nigeria’s northeast. This includes the Nigerian Army garrison, towns, and roads with most of the actual casualty shielded by the mendacity of officialism.
The list seems endless. In December 2021, long-range rockets were fired into Maiduguri city with a few of those nooks landing near the Maiduguri Airport. Reports of several civilian casualties followed. Same happened in Jere local government area of Borno state in November 2020 when insurgents killed a minimum of 70 civilians, with many wounded and others kidnapped. So also on June 13, 2020, when terrorists launched an attack on Monguno town and succeeded in killing about 38 civilians.