By Rotimi Fasan
AS a school boy I remember reading a book of the above title. It was written by the self-styled Pan-Africanist, Naiwu Osahon.

If my memory serves me right, the book was about a young Nigerian job-seeker in Lagos.

Each morning he leaves his humble home in search of a non-existent job, and his close observations of the struggles of daily living on the streets of Lagos constitute the backbone of the book’s narrative.

Through the eyes of this struggling Nigerian youth, the reader is given a picture of life in Lagos and, by extrapolation, Nigeria.  Looking back on the way things are in Nigeria at the moment, I have no doubt that our country is in a precarious state. We are a people in custody and the only thing certain about us is the uncertainty of how long we can keep things together before the bottom comes off.

The 2011 elections are around the corner and the Independent National Electoral Commission is yet grappling with the issue of budgeting and procurement of materials to make the elections a reality.

The question of how much is needed for the process to say nothing of the adequacy of the time available for it has confounded both the wise and the foolish.

Is the N74 billion budget provided by Attahiru Jega bloated or not; can he perform the near-magic of providing a credible electoral register after the rogues’ register horridly put together by Maurice Iwu in 2007 before the end of December? Jega says he can- if funds are provided early enough. Many are sceptical.

The provision of 120 direct data capturing machines are among the props Jega demands to stage an unforgettable electoral drama that would see Nigerians asking for an encore. What is at issue, got millions of Nigerians worried is the security of our votes, as it were, people power.

How can we ensure the security of our votes, that the voices of millions of Nigerians are not stolen once again? The answer to that is still blowing in the air, for after INEC might have got its billions, there would still be the question of how to bring under control all those aspects of living in Nigeria that are not subject to the dictates of Naira and Kobo.

For how do we ensure that under-aged Nigerians, to say nothing of foreign film and sports stars, and even goats and cattle thumbprints- how can we ensure such creations of criminally-diseased minds don’t find there way into our exorbitantly-procured voters register?

Is this a matter that we can put on the shoulders of one man alone?

Leaving the issue of electoral security, another matter that should concern us is the security of life and property. Perhaps there has been a lull in armed robbery in Lagos and environs but that is not the case in many parts of the country.

While the South-East is yet convening meetings and conferences on how to tackle the question of kidnapping, the South-South is beset with the challenge of keeping retired militants and other categories of armed bandits under control, to ensure they don’t return to their old ways.

And the North-West, North-East and Middle Belt? There is no substantial difference in the story. Aside lining behind one another in different camps that seek to turn the question of zoning or not zoning the presidency in the next election into a bread and butter affair, kidnapping for money as is armed robbery, has held different parts of the North-West, East and Middle Belt in its vice-grip.

The only good thing out of the different parts of the North, politically, is the fact that the old guards that pretended to speak in the name of the majority have been scattered to the winds as they rally to hold down the roof of the house of lies they have built across these many years.

The centre can no longer hold and power is gradually changing hand in favour of the youth who are asking new questions and not retailing stories about a once-proud monolithic North. In the Middle Belt, insecurity walks on four legs with sectarian and ethnic killings still going on unabated.

Coming down West, a knock on your door in the middle of the night is enough to induce instant diarrhoea, sending you running to the restroom. In broad day light robbers pay visits to homes having written weeks before, and at night they hold whole streets hostage as they move from house to house.

People now resort to performing rituals and invoking ancient curses, as in towns in Ondo, to stem the menace of robbers. Once more vigilantes are resurfacing and when they do, they come with new sets of problems.

But what can people do when the police, outnumbered and outgunned by criminals, have been attached to thieving politicians and other unauthorised persons? In the last one week, the whole of Ibadan has been taken over by hoodlums who belong in the various commercial driver unions in Oyo State.

These hoodlums openly go around in hundreds of vehicles wielding machetes, guns and charms with the police looking on helplessly while harmless citizens hold their breath in fear.

The State government whose failure to address the needs of teachers has led to the closure of schools in the last two months has announced the proscription of the unions, one of whose leaders has just been released from incarceration.

While the teachers have remained at home, the driver unions are calling the bluff of the government. And this clear failure in leadership, which failure has resulted in the diminution of respect for life and property, is the consequence of the blurring of the line between partisan politics, brazen criminality and statesmanship.

Where do we begin to help ourselves? Who will save us?