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Jungle justice, not our way of reasoning

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Mrs. Jennifer Yarima

GONE are the days when people suffer and die in silence over their inability to open up on issues that negatively affects them. One of such issues bedeviling our society and left conspicuously hidden under the auspices of conspiracy of silence is the rampant case of sexual molestation and other forms of violence being experienced by mostly women and children in the society today.  After enduring these difficulties for long, many people now have learned to open up and not die in loneliness as the case used to be in the past.

Certainly, times are changing and many people are becoming more informed and aware of their rights and privileges which had eluded them as a result of culture and traditions that had caged most victims of this carnage in slavery.

The common saying, “when you see something say something” has been of immense help for people to be each other’s keepers and sensitive to their environment particularly when it comes to issues as such. Yours sincerely has always wept over the wreck-less behaviors being exhibited by some people who have no regards for human dignity. Such people are not at all remorseful over the increasing cases of the maltreatment meted the vulnerable in our society.

One was recently shocked to the bone marrow concerning the show of shame displayed by some unscrupulous elements who paraded themselves as ‘vanguards’ of Agunese Affam-Mmaku community in Enugu State, following a viral video of a naked woman which trended on the social media alleging that she was caught stealing a basket of snails from a sacred forest.

Fortunate though, voices of reason have risen to condemn the inhuman treatment meted this woman who was stripped of her pride over allegations of stealing meager pieces of snails. It hurts to know that these snails were either manufactured in the laboratory or offered to the gods but termed as sacred on the basis of outdated and harmful laws.

Her abusers who were mostly youths subsequently forced the middle aged woman who is a widow to carry the basket of the snails on her head. It’s sad that a mob made up of these youths  had to beat her up stripping her naked, tied palm fronts round her naked waist and neck before parading her round the community. This traumatic experience not only weighed the woman down but her children and relations who were left wondering how their mother would eventually overcome such shame.

The pathetic aspect of the misfortune is that it has drawn the attention of interest groups and the public, particularly women groups in Enugu who have described the act as dehumanizing. In a joint statement, the women groups said it was inhuman to strip a woman over allegations of stealing a mere basket of snails. It has gladdened the hearts of many that elders in the land have not also tolerated the ruthlessness of these young men who carried the law into their hands.

Their collective voices have demanded for the prosecution of the perpetrators of this dastardly act. Therefore, many stakeholders are stuck to their guns that the culprits must be brought to book. One had however wished that such an ugly situation never took place. The woman had denied that she did not commit the crime, but was just transacting her normal business. How much longer will the womenfolk continue to be victims of societal ridicule and trash is the question many people are asking.

One is not giving any excuse for any crime if it’s genuinely committed, but we must not resort to jungle justice in such a cruel manner.  As a people, we must come to the reality of the fact that there are more decent ways of addressing crimes than resorting to a situation whereby laws are taken into our hands through the exhibition of jungle justice rather than ensuring that suspects undergo legal judicial process before they are convicted.

Therefore, it would have been more for these youths to have considered her plight as a widow and treated her fairly. If her husband were to be alive, I am pretty sure  that it wouldn’t have been this bad with no respite to the woman.

 

Between betrayal and ambition

Kenneth Dareng

I monitored closely how events unfolded at the just concluded  national convention of the Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] and the political intrigues that led to the emergence of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar who picked the party’s nomination for the 2023 Presidential election after defeating his closest  rival Governor Nyesom Wike with  a  hundred  plus  votes.

All that is now confined to the history books but what has remained a talking point is, how Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State, also a Presidential aspirant decided  at  the 11th  hour  to abandon his close ally Wike and stepped down for Atiku Abubakar which automatically threw the spanners in Nyesom Wike’s  political ambition to fly the PDP’s flag as its presidential  candidate  at the  convention.

Many political observers have ascribed Tambuwal’s acion as an act of betrayal. Wike himself at a reception organized for him shortly on his return to Port Harcourt from the convention alluded that he was on his way to victory  if  not  for  Tambuwal.

Perhaps, by now the word ” BETRAYAL” should not be strange to most individuals  as husbands, wives, brothers, friends, colleagues  friends,  political associates or generally as Nigerians or as Africans who might have at one point or the other felt betrayed. Indeed such a pain does  not  go  away,  it  serves as a constant reminder to the person carrying such burden which  can  be  for  a  life  time.

Ironically if Wike felt betrayed, then what would Chibuke Amaechi be telling him? I heard supporters  of Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu calling Vice President Yemi Osibanjo  a traitor then forgetting what their principal did to former Lagos state Governor Akinyumi Ambode.

History has shown betrayal has lived with mankind from ancient days till date with the examples  in  ancient  Rome BC, Julius Ceasar was betrayed by his closest friend Brutus who at the point of dying after being stabbed by his friend , asked;  ”etu  Brute…” [even you  Brutus?].

Jesus  Christ  was betrayed by one of his disciples Judas and so it has been with different forms of betrayals across all strata of society today. Sometimes it is the quest for personal or group interest that leads to such actions  which also depends on the motive and at what  cost. Some would even smile and say  it  is  matter of interest with no permanent  friend nor enemy. But  whether  we  like  it  or  not  our conscience must prick us at that moment when a betrayal is about to be committed that is if that individual  has  any.

In  Africa,  we have seen quite a number of such instances  like  that  of Thomas Sankara who was brutally assassinated by his childhood friend Blaise Campaore  who later took over power in Burkina Faso. And here in Nigeria we have had many of such right from the post- Independence era where Dr Nnamdi  Azikiwe was said to have been betrayed by the power brokers of the South West by supporting  the  North in installing Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa as Prime Minister while he was a mere ceremonial President. So it went during the 1966  military coup which changed the narrative  from  one  betrayal to another which has today succeeded in creating a deep wound in some cases. For example, the Coup that toppled General Gowon  was announced by his friend and fellow Plateau man Major General Joseph Nanven  Garba, while the coup that terminated General Muhammadu Buhari was spear headed by General Ibrahim   Babangida.

Therefore, it may be right to say that betrayal is always driven by ambition which not only hurts the other person it also creates a gulf of personal hatred and anger with dire consequences which now   penetrates across political, ethnic and religious divide with the potency to divide even  what  is    call  Nigeria.

 

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