David Mark, while marking his 61st birthday
celebrations said “I will serve humanity for the
rest of my life”. But I read with sympathy the news
item contained in the media recently where
passionate letters were written to David Mark. The
first one was by some affected Nigerians concerning
the killing of our citizens in Equatorial
Guinea. There were others who are still languishing
in that country’s jail for no just cause. Also
recently regarding the same Equatorial Guinea, some
Nigerian businessmen have appealed also to Nigerian
government to intervene to secure the release of
their boats (and ships) being detained unwarrantedly
by that foreign
government.
The second letter to Mark was about the Somali
pirates who had held in captivity, since August
2008, about ten Nigerians who were on their
legitimate duty from Saudi Arabia where they had
gone to acquire a new ship for their employers, ESL
Integrated Services Limited. These victims have
remained under bad treatment ranging from lack of
medical attention to starvation, etc. The Nigerian
government have failed to
enter into any negotiation just like China, France,
Spain Ukraine and US who had at one time or the
other some of their nationals held hostage by the
same Somali (pirates) captors. Yet the same
government would continued to go into negotiations
with captors of their officials and family members
here in Nigeria.
The federal government of Nigeria has continued to
keep quiet about what affected their citizens in
Diasporas. This negates some portion of the oath of
office Nigerian government officials. Do we still
have Ministry of Foreign Affairs? If we do, then one
expect to hear from them urgently on these matters.
The Senate
President may seem not to be concerned about these
matters; nevertheless, Nigerians must not continue
to suffer under the unperturbed attitudes of their
leaders. The nation should not wait until there is a
serious revolution.
I guess we still have a government existing in
Nigeria?
Samuel Okon Bassey, Goldie Street, Calabar, Cross River State.
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