By JOHNSON EBIGIDE
Hunting involves killing games for livelihood. A hunter goes after an animal with his weapons with the aim of killing for his survival, just as the strongest animals, particularly the carnivorous, go after the weaker ones for their daily meals.
Hunting therefore is the survival of the fittest. It involves a lot of ambushing and clever skirmishes !
Even among humans, especially in Africa, nay, Nigeria, hunting is daily taking a worrisome dimension with the proliferation of armed security men who are daily taking advantage of their privileged positions to rip the masses off.
From the Nigerian Police to the Army, through the various state organised traffic management agencies and local vigilante groups, bearing arms, Nigerians are daily being hunted down, not for the growth of the country, but for individualistic self-aggrandizement of the armed bearing personnel of the motley security and traffic control outfits in the country.
As for the Nigerian Police, the highways in the country have become their stations, leaving vital civil issues to traditional rulers. Yes, a policeman was said to have unabashedly stated that the highways are the oil companies of every serious policeman in the country, adding that his monthly salary was not as attractive to him as the daily falls from the extortions from commuters and motorists on the highways !
And as for the Nigerian Army, some bad eggs in the military have taken the uniform they are wearing as a licence to terrorise members of the public, creating an unfortunate situation that is painting the country as not being in a civil rule, but in a military dispensation. Tell me ! What are soldiers doing along major highways in Nigeria, instead of remaining in the barracks, preparing for any attack on the territorial integrity of the country !?
It sounds strange, but uniforms and guns are what most Nigerians crave for now. Being armed creates an aural of not being vulnerable and appears to most Nigerians at present to forestall their being unnecessarily ambushed and dispossessed of their valuables and lives by some of those whose salaries are being paid through their taxes for their personal safety.
As for other ever growing duplication in the security of the country, it is a daily occurrence of frame ups of Nigerians in the name of generating internally generated revenues for the respective state governments.
Only recently, a man driving his car in one of the southern states of the country was ripped off by the traffic outfit in the state. It was reported that the man beat the traffic light and had been stopped by the traffic operatives alongside other offenders.
The report had it that the man voluntarily handed over his car key upon demand to one of the operatives, but was surprised that his car was driven away to an unknown destination without his being in the car.
The report had it that when the man complained about the development, he was told that he had been summoned to a kangaroo mobile court where he was charged for various offences, including fighting the operatives of the state traffic management outfit.
At the end of it all, he coughed out N100, 000 for the release of the car and another N10,000 for leaving the car in the premises of the agency for five days !
Hunting in Nigeria is growing by the day with institutional corruption. Is it true that the Federal Road Safety Corps is seeking approval to carry arms ? What are those arms for !? To shoot down a fleeing driver they are being paid to protect from road mishaps on the highways !?
The institutional corruption in Nigeria is so nauseating that even the Boys Scouts and the Girls Guild would soon join in hunting down Nigerians because they are putting on special garbs !