The pathetic cases that Nigerian youths have become

The pathetic cases that Nigerian youths have become. 

Some people visited threads with an arsenal of abusive words for the governor of Lagos state because they may have observed from the Facebook page of the PDP candidate that he,  Jimi Agbaje "conveniently" visited the scene of the crime last night and posted things they wanted to hear a governor say in the aftermath of the unfortunate incident.  

To these folks,  Fashola has politicised the situation with his remark blaming the security lapse on the frequent and largely unscheduled visits of the president to Lagos and other Southwest states in recent weeks. What Agbaje has done they however do not think has anything to do with politics but is rather statesmanlike. They have asked if all the armed robbery incidents in Lagos can be linked to GEJ and I ask if Agbaje has visited every crime scene and armed robbery sites since he became the PDP's flag bearer? Let's not kid ourselves that JK did what he did because he's like the Pope. This is electioneering period and just about everything we observe politicians and aspirants do and say would have politics written all over it irrespective of party divide. 

I have no grouse with JK visiting the robbed bank yesterday;  at least it was just round the corner from his campaign office in Lekki. My grouse is with the teeming population of predominantly young people who visit social media forums to completely embarrass themselves.  Many have taken their desire to see the end of Jagaban's influence in Lagos too far by condemning the remarks made by the governor without properly examining his words and making sense of it.  Worse still are those who only read captions and headlines and never read anything extra before anchoring their jaundiced views on such headlines. 

Many have called the governor insane,  confused and other far worse derogatory names.  One fellow even dared to call him a baby politician while many contested his "SAN" status.  Anyone unable to comprehend that we operate a central policing system where recruitments,  appointments and deployments are made from the police headquarters in Abuja outside of the control of state governors would be difficult to help. 

The governors of states have no say in who gets sent to them as commissioner of police in the state neither do they have control of how squads of policemen may be deployed and redeployed within and outside of the state since the police structure is also composed of zones made up of states.  Lagos is in zone 2 with Ogun state and under the command of AIG Mbu the former commissioner in Rivers who opposed Amaechi and who vowed to take the lives of 20 for every cop cut down as a result of election violence.

Fashola is constitutionally the chief security officer of Lagos state however;  he wields limited authority over the state's commissioner of police especially when face to face with the heavyweight and overwhelming federal might which in bodily form is represented by the president and his inspector general. Fashola does not recruit policemen neither does he pay their salaries or kit them.  There sure is a limit to what he can say to prevent the commissioner from redeploying squads to bolster the security detail around the president who has been making numerous desperate visits to Lagos and other Southwest states in recent weeks. 

Is it that difficult to follow the train of thought of the governor about the failure of the force to mount any resistance to a robbery incident that witnessed the cutting down of 3 isolated cops and also the escape of the gun men in a speed boat?  Is it really that difficult to understand the potential effect of any sudden deployment of men to guard the path of the visiting president and his usually carnival like entourage? He was at the stock exchange and the Awujale's palace yesterday or are people oblivious of these facts too? 

Most have chosen to ignore these variables and put the blame squarely on the governor since they see absolutely no reason why the president should be implicated in this incident when he is not the chief security officer of Lagos but the commander in chief of the armed forces and the chief security officer of Nigeria.  Last time I checked, Lagos had not seceded from Nigeria. If the Commissioner of police in Lagos got  2 contrasting directives from the governor and the president,  I suppose he'd obey the governor since that is what many suppose is the ideal. 

The president "surely" has no blame in the security failure in Lagos yesterday that saw many sprinting for safety in preparedness for the Rio games next year and an entire road locked down.  A functional police force would have had it's men scrambling from both ends of the admiralty way and at least one chopper to lead the speed boat chase.  These regretfully didn't happen and 60 robbers were not cut down for the 3 unfortunate officers killed.  That is enough to grieve the governor of any state;  that the audacity exhibited by the gun men would most likely go unchecked without anyone brought to justice. 

The president should not be blamed for the robbery but he cheerfully claims the victory over the Ebola virus outbreak recorded in Lagos when we cannot actually trace any tangible thing he did to ensure the virus was contained.  He claimed victory earned by the staff of the first consultants hospital and the Lagos state health management board. He took the glory from the brave men and women who did the contacting,  tracing and management of the infected individuals.  The governor who ought to have earned that praise chose rather not to share in the glory but reeled out the names of every individual both dead and alive who worked tirelessly to curb and tame the virus. 

If the folks insulting Fashola deem it right for Jonathan to claim the glory and victory over ebola which was largely spearheaded by Lagos state then should Jonathan not be equally blamed for the security failure which could be linked to his visit to Lagos? 

Let us try to utilise common sense always in analysing issues that have to do with our nation; being quicker to study and assess and slower to speak or comment.  

Calling out the presidency and the police now for this oversight may just be what will save somebody tomorrow if the police do the needful to ensure that the presence of a president or his wife in Lagos does not disrupt police organization and perhaps airport traffic control. 

Reason Nigerians,  reason.