Gloom envelops Nigerian media

As Nigeria's special human rights commission bit the bullet and issued an arrest warrant against the army chief of staff, commentators highlighted a growing sense of malaise in the country only two years since the end of the military dictatorship.

Many were anxious to see whether the police would act on Justice Chukwudifu Oputa's order - "a major test of equality of all before the law", in the words of The Comet. But others had already made up their minds that democracy has failed.

President Obasanjo's government is accused of losing focus

"I hear people say we have freedom, but what manner of freedom?" asked Tijani Yakubu in an opinion piece on the Nigeriaworld web site.

"Is it freedom when you cannot sleep well at night because of the fear of armed robbers? Is it freedom where you as a citizen living in any part of this country do not know when you will be caught in ethnic clashes?"

"No matter what the sycophants of this administration say, nothing has changed," he insisted.

As a nation we have failed

Post Express commentator

"The politicians are busy lining their pockets."

Okibe A. Richards, writing in the Post Express, agreed.

"The present government is losing focus as to why the people have voted them into power," he said.

"At individual constituencies or collectively as a nation we have failed."

Justice

The case of Gen Alexander Ogomudia and the rise in violent robberies suggest part of the problem lies within the realms of justice and law and order.

But if some were looking to Justice Minister Bola Ige to take a lead on the matter, others were busy writing him off.

Commentators aare asking what has changed since the military dictatorship

"The participation of Chief Bola Ige in the current federal government has been tainted beyond redemption," M.O. Ene said in a piece on the Gamji.com web site.

The minister's biggest blunder, the writer argued, was his handling of the country's erratic electricity board, the NEPA.

"Nigerians will never forget that the man failed woefully in his promise to reverse the biggest joke of a setup in human history."

"Every time he speaks lately, I worry about Nigeria," the commentator wrote, prophesying, "The country is going to hit rock bottom."

Fraudsters are the heroes and heroines of the society

This Day commentator

The future was equally bleak for Tony Ugbagu, writing a commentary in This Day newspaper, who laid the blame on increasing materialism.

"Nigerian society is fast degenerating into an absolute satanic pursuit of materialism, the essence of capitalism," he said.

"The prudent in government is the most vilified, and much of time eliminated by the voodoo of the ambitious subordinates... Fraudsters are the heroes and heroines of the society."

Crime wave

An opinion piece on Nigeriaworld argued along similar lines, suggesting that with the recent crime wave the country was paying the price of lack of investment in its youth.

"We collectively failed to nip oppression and kleptocracy in the bud," Samuel G. Adewusi wrote.

"Now the fatherland treasury is empty, the infrastructure is non-existent... people are jobless."

What were young men to do, he asked, if universities were "perpetually closed", or they had no connections or enough money for a bribe to get a job in a ministry?

Answers

But whereas others merely painted a gloomy picture, he went on to propose solutions for the country's ills.

"The answers are within us," he insisted.

"We should stop collaborating with those who steal public funds. We should cease giving them respect and honour."

Also, people should re-educate themselves, instilling "in ourselves and our children the culture of production" and shunning "non-productive consumption".

"All of us should be prepared to change our world-view and assist our people, especially our youth now. Because if we fail to do so this current spate of robberies is just the beginning."

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.