The gruesome lynching of a 7 year old boy in Lagos has brought to fore the extremely dangerous attitude of an average Nigerian on the street. What reason can possess an adult or group of adults across gender to lynch a being that young, that gullible? No matter the angst, considerations based on age and expected absence of articulate reasoning should have impinged commonsense to the barbarians who pounded life out of him.
Many Nigerians who would have been productive are beneath the earth, mortified by cold hearted citizens for crimes they knew nothing of. The irony however stings the mind of a rational Nigerian when corrupt government officials who are in all respect thieves gallivant town, junket countries with monies meant to bring collective developmental projects.
These thieving class of Nigerians are celebrated by incurable barbarians in our society. Those who have taken Nigeria back to the stone age of economic reality manage to escape prosecution over massive looting by jumping political platforms, going into plea bargain and many other escape strategies. They continue to remain relevant, continue to steal public funds and continue to be worshiped by the barbaric zombies among us.
Most of us condemn the soaring trend of killings which are by the way meticulously videoed to exclude faces of the murderers, yet one is left struggling hard to come to terms how those behind the killings are immune to common sense. These spineless killers forget that crime is a result of bad economic reality enabled by poor governance by a few “loothocratic” elements in the society.
While no one is shielding criminals among us, there is no crime under the sun that should encourage people to lynch fellow beings. We have seen Nigerians die for alleged blasphemy, petty stealing, kidnapping, terrorism, armed robbery, others in the hands of mobs. The constitution is framed to give fair hearing within the ambits that all humans are equal before the law. It is indeed the law that separates us from beasts in the wild.
The recent lynching and other barbaric dispositions of Nigerians aptly remind me of definition of a “Negro” (Black race) by the Encyclopedia Britannica (1798). Derogatory as the definition is, captures a brief analysis of people whose vein flows with incurable barbarism. I hereby present the definition to put the reader in perspective on the soaring ruthlessness among Nigerians;
“Vices the most notorious seem to be the portion of this unhappy race: idleness, treachery, revenge, cruelty, impudence, stealing, lyng, profanity, debauchery, nastiness and intemperance, are said to have extinguished the principles of natural law, and to have reproofs of conscience. They are strangers to every sentiment of compassion, and are an awful example of the corruption of man when left to himself”.
Most of us are yet to evolve into human beings. We loot mindlessly once the opportunity presents itself, we kill to possess money and properties, we rape to get pleasure, we kill to assert “justice” on alleged criminals. The jungle law reign supreme as some innocent persons are framed and life mercilessly forced out of them.
Even when it is true that bestial attributes are generic to some Nigerians, the environment, our lackadaisical security system allows killings on our treacherous streets. It is instructive to intimate that some security personnel either turn a blind eye to lynching or encourage the killings. For some security operatives with human feelings, the mobs have no regards, hence they get crunched to give way. Our problem however goes beyond emotional disposition of personnel’s to security intelligence, readiness and capability in managing disgruntled conducts.
We cannot all continue to bear the ugly name of savages because it’s the trademark of a few bestial individuals in the society. It is time for us to say no to killings of Nigerians, innocent or caught in the act. Our courts must be proactive in delivering judgment in favor of victims. The Aluu four killing, the recent Kano state “blasphemy” beheading are examples of gazillion cases the courts have failed to deliver judgment on.
The extent of lawlessness in our society is not only characteristic of our dark hearts but a function of a dangerous social arrangement. It is sad that in Nigeria citizens do not have official biometrics for identification. There is no emergency code/units, our police officers expect handouts from people to fuel vehicles among myriads of anomalies. We are indeed in a society where accident is encouraged to happen.
It is time government take positive action by mobilizing camera bearing drones to advance on real time virtual policing. The Nigerian Police Force must also work with telecom service providers on designating toll free distress codes. Once the humans among beasts can alert the nearest police unit, once drones and police operatives can be detailed immediately to scenes, lynching will reduce and we can reign in humanity to change the scenery of our animal farm.
Written by, Israel A. Ebije Ebijeo5@gmail.com, ebijeisarel@yahoo.com
@ebijeisrael
