If a man buys a house, be sure he will live in it or lease it; if a woman buys a car, she will joyfully drive it; and if you give your little girl-child a teddy bear for a birthday gift, she will cuddle it and enjoy its warmth for as long as her infant sense of fondness permits. Whatever we buy as humans we do so because we want to use it or put it to use for others. Ditto if you buy a gun, surely you would use it. Whether it is a shotgun, submachine gun, sniper rifle or pistol, a gun is a gun; a fatal ‘toy’ and something not to be toyed with.

And just like drugs, guns are to be kept out of the reach of children; and much more out of the reach of unsound minds, the mentally-challenged or persons of extreme behavioural manifestation. But America does not seem to realize this. The American definition of liberty and fundamental human rights permits you to walk into a gun shop and walk out with a gun; it permits a father to buy his son a gun as birthday gift; it allows a dealer in guns to freely sell the mortal stuff to the public for as long as you have the licence to acquire the agent of death.

Now, Americans are dying by the guns; falling to the bullets they purchased with their own money. And they want the world to care a hoot? Come on Uncle Sam. You went to the market to buy rotten meat, you should expect maggots to be your companion. In the last five years alone, human lives have been wasted because of an ill-advised gun-policy that has allowed just about anybody in America to have a gun under his pillow.

Just a few stats here! The mindless killing of 20 school children in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012! The world wailed. Americans cried. Mothers beat their chests in anguish. This incident, sordid and cruel, prompted a national discussion over gun laws. Americans were literally saying ‘we’re tired of killing ourselves’. So, as usual, they called for a rejig of the gun law. They wanted a kind of control on who buys a gun.  President Barack Obama championed this cause. It’s obvious the American people stood with their President this time; but how far can any American President go with a Congress that often tends to massage its super ego against public good.

Predictably, the advocacy by the Obama government to limit public access to military-style weapons fell through against expectation of a compromise legislation that would have banned semi-automatic assault weapons and removed it from the store next door. The legislation was also expected to give wide-ranging powers to relevant authorities to do a background check on existing gun-owners and potential ones. But what happened? In spite of public support obviously on the crest of emotion, the debate was defeated in the Senate in 2013. Case closed.

Grieving Americans wiped their tears and moved on; but they are used to such horror. And just last year, another horror, another reason to grieve. There was that barbaric killing of nine people at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, and 14 persons at a community centre in San Bernardino, California. Again, Americans wailed but they could not win. Both Congress and the Supreme Court held on to an old strand in the American legal corpus to keep Americans at the mercy of the gunman.

It’s the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and it states: “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” The American Supreme Court has relied on this aspect of the Constitution. The US Constitution contains seven articles and 26 amendments and has been in effect since its adoption in 1789, well over 200 years ago. But laws are made by man for man, not man for the law by the law. America should amend this aspect of her constitution, now!

The US Supreme Court, citing this amendment, has upheld the right of states to regulate firearms. In some cases it has upturned state laws that banned handguns and required those in the home to be locked or disassembled. In plain language, the US Congress and the Supreme Court would not mind if all Americans – from the damn crazy street-walker to the white-collar guy on Wall Street – hoist guns around their waist.

And just last week, another crazy American, Omar Mateen, who legally purchased his weapons of mass destruction (a Sig Sauer MCX .223-calibre rifle with magazine capacity of 30 rounds and reportedly takes an AR-15 style magazine and ammunition; and a Glock 17 9mm semi-automatic pistol with a standard magazine capacity of 17 rounds – reputed to be “the most widely used law enforcement pistol worldwide,” according to the manufacturer -) from a Florida store on consecutive days about a week before his horrifying display of bestiality, walked into a gay club in Orlando and mowed down 49 people. Herein lies the absurdity and stupidity of the American system. Government has licensed people to sell guns, buy guns; and whatever is sold and bought must be used. So, why cry?

America should spare the world their tears. They should work on their law. Their gun problem is purely self-inflicted and internally they should deal with it. There are many good sides to the American dream. Their love for human liberty, respect for human rights, good education, huge investment in capacity building and innovation etcetera is peerless. The world should emulate these; but no sane nation should ever copy America’s obsession for guns. It’s an absurdity brewed in hell.

But just when America was mourning her dead, another absurdity, an oddity by every standard, was playing out in Nigeria’s State of Osun where Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola is Governor. The Taleban Governor has an obsession for religion in a secular State of Osun. I am not against people professing their faith; but any religious act that impedes development, hurts acquisition and application of knowledge and tends to impoverish the people both mentally and materially is abhorrent. The Governor has introduced the wearing of hijab by Muslim students to school. In an act of ‘balance of terror’, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in the state also ordered Christians to don choir garments to school. So, Osun schools have turned to a religious assembly of ‘holy men and women’. What for?

The choir garment and the hijab come at extra cost to the students and the state in an environment where salaries of teachers and other civil servants are not paid regularly. And I wonder: why is Governor Aregbesola using religion to mask his incompetence? Why is he obsessed with religious rites rather than the good fruits of such religion? A spiritual governor should pay the wages of his workers. A servant deserves his wages, says the Bible. The hood does not the monk make. Nigeria is one of the most religious nations of the world. We make sorties to Jerusalem, to Mecca, to Rome and everywhere, yet the nation is not any holier than the rest. Notorious for nepotism, fantastically corrupt, you bribe for everything, a hotbed for immorality and a nursery for crime and banditry, yet we never cease to wear our religion on our foreheads. Silly stuff!

Aregbesola should eat his vomit; reverse this retrogressive policy and pay his teachers well and on time; equip the schools and prepare the minds of the students for the challenges of the 21^st century complete knowledge economy. But CAN did not have to lose its head in the clouds. It’s not tit for tat. CAN should quickly beat a retreat with its counter policy and pray that the governor sees reason to be reasonable.

First published in Sunday Sun, June 19, 2016