By now, the French government must have received some form of sympathy message from most world leaders, if not all. Such messages often describe what has just happened to the French people as “outrageous”, “heinous”, “evil”, “unacceptable”, “senseless”, etc. They often end this way: “we stand with you at this time of grief”, “we shall work with you to ensure this does not happen again”, etc. Kenyan government received such messages when terrorists struck in Kenya. Nigerian government received similar messages. The United States has received several of these, etc.
Empty messages. That’s what I call these messages from world leaders. If these world leaders mean what they say in these messages, terrorism would have been history. ISIS, Al Quaeda, Boko Haram, whatever they are, and all of them put together, cannot be more powerful than the world.
Until world leaders agree to work as a team against terrorism, the worst is yet to happen. Terrorists are not spirits. They are our friends, brothers, sisters, countrymen and women. They don’t live in the moon. They live in our midst. Their guns and bombs are not made in the heavens. We either make them for them or we sell to them whatever raw materials they use to make these weapons. They don’t mint their own money. Do they?
Tomorrow, business continues as usual, especially for the rest of us apparently “unaffected by the Paris attacks”. But who knows who will be next. So long as terrorists are still breathing, none of us is safe. World leaders, is it not time to put aside your differences, hypocrisies and special interests, and work together to stop this evil? Put together, we, as a world, have more than enough resources to contain terrorism in a way that no one else can even dream of becoming a terrorist. What are you waiting for?
