No tears left!

As I heard the news of another bomb blast in Abuja, I ran into the toilet as I felt my bowels rumble! I made calls frantically to family and friends. My outgoing calls were interrupted by incoming calls, as I mentally made a note of cancelling my attendance at the rehearsal in Kubwa on Friday. I tuned to Channels TV and confirmed the breaking news:" scores feared dead as bomb rocks Emab plaza in Wuse hours after another one in Mubi Adamawa state! "I shivered. Tears didn't come this time around. My brain was beginning to see bomb blasts as no reason for tears! How did my brain become accustomed to such news, that it refused to trigger my lacrimal glands to secrete some tears? When did things become so bad? When did we get to this point where bomb blasts are now a daily part of our discussions? How did we degenerate to a National state of emergency? I remember reading about bombs and explosions in history books in primary school and back then, I never thought that one day in Nigeria, news about bomb blasts would be a daily occurrence. My nieces and nephews are familiar with words like terrorist, blasts, explosions, insurgency, casualties and the likes! One would wonder if they are being raised in a war-torn country.  How long will this go on before something is done? How long? At this rate, bomb craters on our roads will become as familiar as pot-holes; loss of lives, as normal as power failure. Yet again, dreams have been destroyed, relationships severed, hopes shattered, hearts broken! The number of orphans, widows and widowers have increased in our population. Another set of unreasonable committees will be set up ' to look into the matter'; another series of speeches and visits to victims! From experience, that's where they'll stop! Nothing more! Yet, majority of Nigerians tonight will sit comfortably and watch the Nigeria/Argentina match. A loss or a draw will be more painful to some than the loss of lives of fellow countrymen. I am certain that some of today's victims had plans of seeing the match too. They didn't think they would lose their lives before 5pm! Please don't wait till you become a victim before we speak out! We demand our rights from this government! We have a right to be secured in our own country! Or don't we?