I was shocked to the marrow a few months ago
when I got home to a strange news, the
type I'd never heard of before in my area in history, past or my growing up
years (I am not assuming such never happened though). I only asked why Femi
(not his real name) a young 19 years old boy operating a barbing salon just
outside my house was not opened, and to my surprise, I was told that Femi, and
his friend Drogba (nick name) my neighbour's son who was 18 years old and a
third person who probably was as strange as the dastardly act were raped two teenage
secondary school girls, recorded it with their phone unmasked, and shared it
with friends. It was almost unbelievable because I watched two of the three
accused grow up, and I sometimes do the long journey of driving home, just to have
a haircut in his shop to encourage him. I dismissed allegation (the family
syndrome) until I was confronted with the video. I busted out with rage, my blood boiled and I would
have committed another crime if any of those kids were 100km near me when I saw
the video. They were lucky to be far beyond my reach. Femi was in police
custody cooling off while he awaits trial, and his gang members had absconded
before the law enforcers could lay a hand on them. The sad reality of this
event was that the video was in circulation for months, people watched it and
passed it, nobody was going to report it because they knew the criminal kids
involved and their parents, it was wrong but it was acceptable because of some
stupid communal bond (family syndrome). It took a real mother, one great woman
to report the case. She discovered that the girls that got raped were her
daughter's classmates, she felt it could have been her daughter in that room
crying, begging and screaming for help and mercy, she dragged the bull by the
tail ignoring whether it kicked or not, without fear of the communal stigma
and danger involved, she went to the police and took them to the home of Femi
first, but the news of the arrest broke and the two others fled before the law
could catch up with them.
Eight months later, 20 years old Femi has been
sentenced to spend all of his youth in prison and should probably be out before
his 40th birthday if he lives long enough to complete his 19 years sentence.
His fleeing compatriots were also found guilty in absentia and given a longer
sentence but since they are at large, they will begin anytime they are found,
anywhere in Nigeria by the law enforcement agencies. I am saddened by the fact
that this young boy will lose his youth and perhaps his co-criminal will
someday be found and led to prison too but hey! Who will stand up to lead this
few public office holders and corrupt politicians that rapes Nigerians by the
million everyday to the altar of justice so we can send them to a pathetic
sojourn within the walls of the very desolate prisons across Nigeria.
Nigeria is built on the immoral and feeble threads of
diverse communal connections along different variation in the name of
ethnicity, tribe or religion and the stench of the decay in our society we
cover daily with the torn umbrella of being our brother's keeper. The
hypocrite in us as grown so huge that we can no longer act or pretend. It is
as seen on TV, unscripted like the pages of the scriptures. An Edwin Clarke supports the lackluster performance
of the presidency not just because he's being enriched by it, but because he's
an Ijaw man, a Dokubo is far more outspoken with is alienation. The North will
only hear of it if the man is Hausa or Muslim no matter how light the weight of
his credibility is, the Easterners will not even bother about whether their
brother or sister is a saint or sinner as long as he, she or it is "Ndigbo"
and the Yoruba's have a lewd expression for supporting this mediocrity that has
brought Nigeria to her knees "Omo wa ni, eje o se" (He's our son, let him do it irrespective of his
standing), I just hope this syndrome doesn't cripple Nigeria and keep her lame
before we break out of it. Perhaps the only people that had sent their own to
prison is the OBJ and the ex-convict is Bode George and it was all as a result
of personal beef and not for the good of Nigeria.
Nigerians are being raped and sodomized every second
of every day and night by her own government and people. We wash in horror but
instead of calling the law to act, we sympathize even enjoy it and share the
misery with the next man, woman or child just because the culprit is a kin by ethnicity,
tribe or religion but we are quick t scream if the rapist is from the other
side of town, screaming for his head or tail in atonement for the sin that
happens recklessly and endlessly within our own court that we do nothing to
control, end or punish the culprit or heal the victim. It is one of those
things when it the criminal is one of our own, we do everything to cover the
dust and mop it up, but we scream till we convulse when it's an Imam because our
own murderer is a deacon. I hope the mothers (male and female) amongst us will
awake to the danger this anomaly potent within, let's not wait till the victim
is our son or daughter, let's squash our stupidity in supporting mediocrity. We
can end corruption by exposing it within our walls and household, end the
menace of Boko Haram by pointing our sons that are in the sect, build a new
Nigeria by ending the stupid protection policies that God did not ordain us to
observe.
I doff my hat for Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, the father of the "Xmas Day Bomber" who
reported the extremist tendencies of his own son before that fateful Christmas
day episode. We must quit pointing fingers and win the war from within before
it wane us down to the lowest ebb and win us from within and without.