Insurgents strike Lagos jetty

Two days ago I wrote this.

Today comes news that MEND attacked the Atlas Cove jetty in Lagos, their first attack on infrastructure outside of the Niger-Delta. Reports on the incident are still developing, and there is only so much that is known right now, but it would appear there have been at least five casualties. Whoever the dead men are, I am sure they are not responsible for creating any of the issues for which they have lost their lives.

Just so you know, when I criticize uncontrolled militancy and extremism, I am not just talking about the Niger-Delta. I include relgious extremists and ethnic separatists, not to mention the community leaders who spur youths into land-related communal violence.

The moderate majority of Nigerians can come together to (finally) start pushing for reform and transformation, or we can continue to eye each other with suspicion while the forces that support the status quo which we don't like continue to engage in sporadic battles with extremists, militants and radicals who will never win, but will cause a lot of deaths and infrastructure destruction along the way.

When we, the common citizen, concede the political ground, choosing not to get involved or to campaign collectively for antying while hoping and praying for the best, we end up suffering the consequences of decisions we took no part in making. Take "communal violence" for example. When "youths" violently riot, some of us non-aligned, innocent citizens will die. And when the soldiers swoop in to scatter everything in sight (in the name of quelling the violence) more of us die. And at the end of it all, our shared public infrastructure and the meagre private property it took us years to acquire, will be no more than burnt-out smoky wrecks.

Haba, this has to stop. We have to shake off the lethargy, the apathy and the fatalism. We have to get involved. It doesn't matter your language, religion or region. We want the same things. We will not get those things until we get involved.

EDIT: Reported death toll from Atlas Cove attack rises to nine.