Scraping beneath our thin veneer of civilization



#Aluu4

 

I think the resonant thoughts in the minds of many folks today probably revolve round something like this: ‘Thank God I’m not from Aluu.’ For folks who have relatives, children and siblings there (I have four brothers there), well, you can guess our thoughts: ‘it could have been them.’

The brutal extra judicial murder of the four University of Port Harcourt students in the student community of Aluu, in Rivers State is no longer news. It has also caused so much hue and cry that the only folks who aren’t steeped in the supposed facts of the issue are those whose lives are also beset by problems, meaning of course, those devastated by the recent floods ravaging the country, especially the riverine communities surrounding the nation.

The story has been reported in a million or even a gazillion ways and versions. Some say they were thieves, some said cultists, others yet, mere students who went to collect debts owed them. It is a herculean task trying to sift through the ‘facts’ in an attempt to separate the truth and the lies, as only the dead students and the person(s) they went to accost can say for sure what happened, and what the root cause is of this suddenly huge issue that has led to the indefinite closure of the university and a number of youths remanded back to their homes in an interruption of their academic pursuits.

Stripping away all the unsubstantiated facts, all we have, and only care about, at this point is this: four University students were savagely and brutally murdered by a mob. Before looking at the sentiments involved, the bare facts are that there were acts of murder committed against humans who possess the right to life, a fundamental human right.

Having stated the above, we can now go on to discuss. Since when did extra judicial killings cause such hue and cry? Shockingly, the answer is: today. I distinctly remember watching a very graphic video of a lynching and burning alive of a suspected thief on the streets of Lagos last year for supposedly stealing a necklace. I watched that video and couldn’t get the imagined smell of burning skin off my nostrils for days or the actual images from flitting in and out of my subconscious. No surprise then that I have resisted watching this one. Cowardly maybe, but it works for me. I have decided to take the narrations of braver folks, who were able to watch the video, as fact. But that particular one didn’t cause this same uproar. Like I previously said, burning suspected thieves and or beating them to death didn’t start today. How then did it start and why did it become so commonplace until this recent killing?

The causative factors range from the simple ones, caused by necessity, to the more complex and psychological reasons.

Starting with the simple, the Nigerian police, in fighting crime, have been as effective as, Samuel Peters in a fight against Vitalis Klitschko, or say, Federer against Nadal on clay. Funny, but true. It was a perfectly accepted truth that looking up to the Nigerian Police to deal with robberies and burglaries was a big waste of time. It was evident that to curb the then overwhelming menace of armed robbery, pick pocketing and burglaries in Lagos as far back as twelve to thirteen years ago, the ordinary residents and citizens would have to do it themselves.

Hence began the unsavoury, but brutally effective act of beating and burning any apprehended person alive. This was tacitly, though informally approved by the government and the disinterested police force as at then. They were very effective solving marital dispute and arresting marijuana smokers than at chasing thieves or responding to distress calls, especially in the middle of the night. Hardly had a thief been apprehended than people arrived with contributing items such as fuel, matches and used tires, the last of which is abundant in the automobile congested state of Lagos. Policemen learnt to steer away from such gatherings, perhaps realizing that their ineffectiveness gave rise to it, or perhaps they just didn’t care. They knew that the thieves had no relatives interested enough to bail them, and so arresting them wouldn’t be lucrative. It soon became very normal for us kids growing up in Lagos to see burnt carcasses of humans on our way to school most mornings.

Sooner than later, this trend spread quickly to other very populated parts of the country where there were jobless youths in abundance. It then became the standard punishment for any apprehended thief proven or not in and around the country. As is often the case where good intentions are achieved the wrong way, it of course went out hand and degenerated into something so horrible, even the initial proponents of the act cringe at the mention of tires right now. One could then say this horrible practice started out of necessity.

Moving to the complex, why was it sustained? What made this detestable practice stand the test of time? Can we also attribute it to necessity? That would be delusional. We need to realize some truths first. Psychologically, humans are drawn to the gory and the gruesome. This has happened in every era of human development and civilization. The Romans and their coliseums where the gladiators fought, gave birth to the Olympics. There people, and by people, I mean average joes and janes, went to see their fellow humans kill themselves. They did this for sport. All these still exist in various ways in our lives today. They exist in sports like kick boxing, in wrestling, heavy weight boxing, e.t.c. These are merely civilized forms of violence and we cannot turn away from them as it is our nature. Furthermore, from time to time,we still require our fix of the more primitive scenes. Hence the horror movies in Hollywood, violent movies, like Spartacus et al, the expendables (wonderful movie though), viral videos of terrorist beheadings and fatal accidents spreading faster than ebola, and of course, lynchings and horrors like the #Aluu4 killings.

To prove my point, honestly attempt to answer the following: why did this video go viral in mere minutes? Why did a huge number of people stand by and around watching this horrible act and refuse to do anything to stop it? What was the attraction for those people who watched the video after learning what it contained? Oh, and just so we know, a fair number of those who stood around watching the lynching have to be students too. Why did the outcry over their deaths not start until a few days after the video had gone round? If the earlier watchers weren’t outraged after watching the video, what then went through their minds?

See, these questions have answers lying not too deeply in the psyche of the human mind. The average human mind is drawn to violence, gore and carnage. This, I believe is the one fundamental we need to acknowledge first and then try to deny ourselves this fix when the craving comes. In self help meetings to cure addictions, the first thing you are encouraged told to do is to introduce yourself and say you were and addict. Tell me, if the culprits of this horrible act are caught, by a sample of the general public, what would they do to them that would be very different from the crime they committed?

Note that I am not in any way claiming to be above this psychological defect, nor am I suggesting what is right or wrong. I am just chipping in my own two cents, (if you are generous, or one cent, as I myself think it is worth).

There have been numerous suggestions about what to do, ranging from doing same to the culprits, removing the students of Uniport from that community, by a hare-brained contributor yesterday on channels television (how she intends for that to be done she didn’t say, I think she’s most probably blonde), allowing the law take its course, which it has started to do, as I hear, to closing the school down, which has also been done, and others too numerous to mention.

I, personally have no suggestions for justice. I am not suitably qualified to profer any. I can only say, in the aftermath of all these, that efforts should be made by both the government and the community leaders (not the callous and dickless one, if you pardon my French, who approved the killing of those young men) to mend relations between the students and the community, because their fortunes are forever intertwined, as long as the school remains there. Efforts should be made to make the students (and their parents) feel secure again in that environment and the bulk of this should be shouldered by the community.

Finally, we should also say a special word of thanks to RIM, producers of the Blackberry for facilitating the exposition of this heinous crime. If not for them, believe me, this killing would have stayed where it happened – at the scene, like countless others that have gone unreported. Also, heartless bastards, when they are in the mood to perpetuate their inhuman acts of fuckery, again, pardon my French, will think twice, knowing that they could suffer the same faith we hope the #Aluu4 culprits will suffer, as a result of the existence and effectiveness of the social media. Also, to any of you who reads this and still harbours any thoughts of ‘Aluuing’any one, be well advised.

Phew!!!! I had forgotten what joy writing gives. I have to return to doing more of this. Back to an article a week I guess.

THE UNBORN DEAD

First I am liquid, only one of many fluids,

I cause no trouble, am serene, like the druids

Even then I’m alive, though filled with uncertainty.

Thinking, what is this sac that holds me in captivity?

Time passes; I grow in body and mind.

When do I get noticed by the parent mind?

Why pour these hot fluids on me? They burn me.

Imbibe more fruits. They develop and form me.

Oh I’ve been noticed, now, no more foods come.

Aha! How restless the parent mind has become.

Now I have an idea. Too young to let me stay

And little stones come. For what purpose I pray?

Stop the stones. They turn me back to blood

Am I deformed? My limbs, they refuse to bud

Oho! They’ve stopped. Do I have time to re-grow?

I sense a larger space out. Have I enough to show?

But I have to struggle. I sense my minder worried.

Am I that much trouble? She seems so harried.

Where are you going? Oh no! I sense danger here.

Wait! Wait! My screams are not loud enough to hear

Um wait. Won’t I find out what I have to give?

Am I to be killed before I have a chance to live?

Ah! The sword of Damocles, it sucks me out of my harbour

Sliding fitfully into oblivion, I scream pitifully, ET TU' DOCTOR!

Playing Jeremiah

Ever hated being right? Predicting and hating it when your prediction comes true?.

If you have, then you have a pretty good idea what went through my mind through-out the subsidy removal strike and protests. Owing to my pro-government stance on this issue, I have received a lot of stick. In fact, any person who reads my previous piece on Nigeria and our annoying system would be very much surprised to discover that I am for all intents and purposes, pro-subsidy; however, the thrust of this blog post is not about deciding who is right or wrong on the issue.

With the dust having settled since the uproars of the past few weeks, we can now critically evaluate the happenings.

What I want to do in essence is evaluate the main characters in this play and see where they have done well or erred.

First and foremost, a little background information. Most of it is public knowledge however; it just presents a particular picture in context.

Not many people actually understand the subsidy issue. The explanation of this policy is simple: the Nigerian government pays huge amounts of money to a select group of people who import premium motor spirit (P.M.S) or in lay man terms; petrol. These moneys actually represent a huge portion of the national budget year to year. The essence of paying these monies was to reduce the pump price of petroleum. This time around, owing to a promise of transformation from a hitherto ineffectual president, the Nigerian Government decided to remove the subsidy from premium motor spirit, i.e. stop paying the funds to the oil importers, promising instead to use the money saved to fund other badly needed projects in the country.

Do we start with the government? Yes I think we should, them being after all the policy promulgators and all that.

Where can we commend them?

ü Simple, they took the bold step. A president previously categorized as weak suddenly grew some balls and decided to face the biggest drainer of national funds and attempt to convert that deficit into positives.

ü The government was upfront about the difficulties to be encountered by the masses upon the removal of the subsidy on petroleum (even though any average Nigerian could have discerned this), ostensibly citing it as temporary, promising an overhaul of the petroleum sector, which serves as the main stay of the Nigerian economy.

ü The intentions are honourable. They made a structured programme for spending the saved money, setting up a committee consisting of reputable Nigerians to oversee it.

Where did they err?

´      They failed to lead by example. Nigerian cost of government rates as one of the highest in the world. The budgets for personal and official expenditure of the president and his aides as well as the other Governmental officials and appointees including the senators and their appointees are downright astronomical. How then do they expect us the masses to toe the line of austerity when they are not showing us the way?

´      Imagine being the C.E.O of an International organization, when new company policies are about to be effected or new programmes are to be incorporated, what is the most essential move to be made? The answer is simple: dissemination of information, this ensures that the paid help are fully aware of the reasons for and the justification of the policy to be implemented. Here, I have to admit, the Government failed. Granted, they made efforts, albeit to a public untrusting of governmental policies because of past experiences, still, I have to say they did not do enough. Did they go to the grassroots, the villages? No. they did not.  Did they saturate the airwaves with the publicity we then saw after the strikes and protests? Those moves were then reactive instead of pre-emptive.

´      Palliatives: To me, the first duty of the government is the welfare of the people. The palliatives hurriedly put in place after the reactions of Nigerians to the removal of the fuel subsidy should have been in place before then. Here, they totally erred, eroding what little faith the people had in them.

Next, the people. Now some would probably berate me for putting the masses under scrutiny but I think we deserve some blame in this. My reason is simple. The subsidy discussion had been going on for a while, in fact, for about three months prior to the actualization of the policy, but we refused to read or heed the handwriting on the wall. We, the masses, in general made no effort to learn about the pros and cons of the policy. We simply saw it as a fuel price hike, which incidentally, it was, but it was greyer than that. I am of the opinion that the tension would have been less than it was if enough people had made the effort to thoroughly understand the subsidy issue.

That point being made, we did extremely well to have protested what we perceived as a trampling of our rights as Nigerians and the high handedness of government. Our protests and reactions made the government listen and bound them to a bond they will find extremely difficult to extricate themselves from except they deliver on their promises. It is a well acknowledged fact that the proposed cuts in government spending is as a result of the successful protests undergone by our protesters.

Now to the people’s champion,  labour. Yes, they organized successful protests and kept the protests largely peaceful and non-violent, but there is a question I’d like to ask….. Where had they been all along? The people got it right with the protests. The protests of the masses weren’t just about the pump price of petrol, but about corruption, the excesses of government and a lot of other vices that had kept the Nigerian citizen hostage to the sands of time. Labour got it all wrong when they protested solely against the pump price. A friend of mine asked me what the day-to-day job of the labour leaders was, is it the preparation for strike and protests? How about lobbying and acting as watchdogs against government excesses?

Like I always said to my friends, labour does not help us. Rather, they always fail us. Like this time around, they did. What stopped them from sitting with the government and demanding, as early as November or October last year that they see the palliatives on ground before the subsidy removal implementation? If they had done their jobs, there wouldn’t have been any need for any nationwide strike. The truth again is that the Nigerian labour Congress was caught napping as was every Nigerian. So they should get off their high horses and admit their share of the blame.

Nigeria’s politicians are the bottom of the lot. The senators, councilors and other eminent politicians simply took the opportunity to score cheap points by appearing in the forefront of protests they had no hand in organizing in order to castigate the present government. The opposition in Nigeria was exposed as being toothless. In developed countries, crises situations are opportunities for opposition leaders to convince the electorate that they have something better to offer. Nigeria’s opposition showed that they actually have nothing to offer. All they did was criticize the present government without giving or proffering any solutions to fixing the quagmire the country was in, exposing their lack of imagination and not instilling any hope in them by the electorate.

All in all, I can say conclusively, is that there was no winner, nor was there any vanquished. Time is the only judge here, perhaps we’ll find out if we took the right course or not, in good time.

When do we do a Libya?

Right, I promised to write on a regular basis, but, well, I have to be sober most nights to do it, don’t I?

Before going into my piece, let me apologize first. I did promise myself that If I ever start a blog It definitely won’t be political, but here I am, my very second real piece, breaking that rule. This I just couldn’t resist. I really think my fallibility is justified.

This past year, at least 3 African nations have rebelled and ousted their rulers. With the exception of Ivory Coast, these nations are better than Nigeria economically. Yes, they are. Our brothers often travel to Egypt and Libya in search for greener pastures despite the strict one religion culture they practice there (well, maybe Egypt does have some Coptic Christians, but you still get the general drift), braving the hazards of crossing the huge Sahara while trying to smuggle themselves into the country illegally.

Yet, they rebelled, for reasons lighter than what we face in this country of ours.

Granted, they may have been fuelled or incited by some unscrupulous foreign powers, and they also rebelled against rulers who were iron – fisted and had clung to power for donkey years, with some of the rebels never having known any better or any other ruler. These differences are but minor dissimilarities.

No. we do not have a despotic ruler to oust from power. Neither are we being hauled off to jail in the middle of the night for speaking out against the government. No, too, our women are not being oppressed and seen as child bearing tools only; they are actually given a percentage in leadership positions. So, maybe we are not a Libya, or an Egypt, or even an Ivory Coast?

No. we are not. We are Nigeria, with our problems so myriad that we have lost track of what to complain about. We have taken our rot as the norm.

What we have is a system. An unacceptable way of life that has become acceptable, a way: the Nigerian way. I can tell you categorically, that even with my best of intentions, if I am voted into power, I will be powerless to do anything owing to the sort of established practice we have here.

Big admission? It’s justified. How many of our present ministers have occupied different ministerial positions in the past? I’ll tell you: most of them. Despite their obvious failure, these men are re-cycled again and again in and around the executive positions in the country, creating a situation of “the powers that be” that we are powerless to prevent.

The calculation is simple. If I served the past two administrations and was ineffectual as minister of two different ministries or sectors, what is the probability that if I am appointed a minister in another administration I will do better?

The great Fela summed it all up when he sang that his hit (which I grew up to meet) in which he said suffering and smiling is the nature of Nigerians (or words to that effect. I don’t claim to be an avid Fela follower). However, he couldn’t have been more correct in summing up the Nigerian spirit.

A few days ago, I sat for an examination as a youth corps member, a professional exam if you call it that. The number of ‘corpers’ who sat for the same exam was very high. Normally, it could be seen as encouraging that Nigerian youths are trying to obtain professional certificates to better themselves, and ultimately, the economy. However, the underlying and more practical reason for this is more disturbing- having a first degree is no longer enough to get a job in the country. Most applicants now feel the need to obtain certificates – any certificate, in a bid to gain any possible advantage over their mates, reason being that there just are too many applicants for extremely few jobs. Therefore, one, including yours truly, has to make sure he isn’t left behind. Why, for heaven’s sake do we keep trying to work around the disgrace of a country that we have, instead of trying to cure the ills of our ailing nation?

Walk on the streets to any newspaper vendor on any given morning and you will find men of all ages converging and reading the dailies. The young men amongst them will be devouring the sport papers and the older ones, the news dailies. Then listen to the arguments and/or discussions that will ensue in their midst. These are the ones that gripe. That’s all we ever do - gripe in our comfort zones and timidly swallow all the junk we are handed down, while accepting that the high level of corruption and greed in our society has come to stay.

Now I must make it clear here that I am not in any way advocating violence or revolution – the needless waste of human life never appeals to me and it’s the only reason why I do not rejoice at the freedom the North Africans have been able to carve for themselves. I am only lamenting the ‘bend over and take it in the ass’ attitude of Nigerians (if you pardon my French). I am a bit hypocritical here because I simply have no idea what to do to change the status quo, but then I wonder, Isn’t there something we can do? Can we not overhaul this system?

Alex Ibru died last week, Ojukwu , mere days ago. This year has the highest number of senior citizens dying more than any I remember in previous years (I may be wrong), however, the old guard is slowly but surely dying. The mantle is surely falling upon us, the younger folks, the baton being passed upon us (and note that I use the term younger in a very loose way), but nothing will change if the system of the old guard is also passed on. The status quo will remain the same and we will keep sliding down the path of self-destruction, unless we do something to change it.

Since we cannot fight or rebel, I just have to ask, is there any peaceful way we can do a Libya?

Use the rod

“Oya… commot am, Commot everything….. Mama Gbubemi flog am well well, im wan tief blackberry.. as u no get boyfriend wey go buy am for you we go help you advertise wetin you get make boy come carry go… foolish girl”

“See – she dey cover her breasts” Slaps her visciously on the face and she promptly removes her hands from her body, opening it all for all to see. “ehen.. na so we want am.”

The above scenario is not made up. It is fast becoming a norm in this country of ours – The beating and stripping naked of Girls for any offence committed. I say any offence because; even though it is mostly due to stealing, there have been a few other instances where the girl in question did not steal. She might have insulted a boy in or around her higher institution premises, or is indebted to another girl.

Before delving into the possible causes of this deplorable act, let us look at the act itself.

What exactly is it supposed to teach the girl? Is it supposed to help the girl? Wont the girl in question be scarred for life and posses a deep seated hatred for anyone who falls into the category of her assailants?  Then, has the purpose been achieved?

What exactly does this say about our society? How and when did we degenerate into using jungle justice as our first, second and last potions for discipline and correction? I was discussing this with a friend of mine some weeks back and he gave the standard answer of trying to teach the girls a lesson, and I hit him below the belt by playing the only trump card I could ever hope to own in this sort of situation – I asked him what his reaction would be if it happened to his sister and his response was that she wouldn’t steal, (sidestepping the question) but I persisted and he could not find any answer to the question.

Some ten, fifteen years back, Lagosians decided that the best punishment for thieves was to burn them alive, after beating them. I really cannot say if it has reduced the crime rate or prevented men from stealing, but one thing I can say is that there is the possibility that it has made the average armed robber in Lagos more ruthless because there is the certainty that if the same people they are robbing do catch them, it is the end of the road for them, I can also say with all certainty that it has reduced the people who burn them to ghouls. Some of you may dispute this, however, what then will you call yourself if you delight in ending another human’s life so ruthlessly? Who empowered you with the right to decide that this person has outlived his usefulness in this life? Most succinctly, who appointed you judge and executioner?

That, however, is not the original thrust of this blog post. I cannot say exactly when we transferred this viciousness to the female folk, It, nonetheless, is becoming alarmingly common place in our society. It is out rightly worrisome.

A second example is a particular video I was shown of two girls who came visiting a university of Benin Student and, being lesbians, did their do in the middle of the night. Come morning though, their room being adjoining to a guy’s, the young man brought other guys who were neighbours, and they proceeded to beat the girls terribly and force them to repeat the very acts they were doing the previous night in the privacy of their room, except they now had to do it in public and while being mercilessly flogged and videoed.

You get to ask yourself this question. Was the young man who instigated this act really angry that he heard their cries of pleasure the previous night, or was he just sexually frustrated? What exactly gave him the right to ‘discipline’ these girls?

Now, I am in no way supporting lesbianism, or saying what the girls did were right, however, isn’t there another way we could actually point out to these girls the folly of their ways and get them to change instead of beating them?

It is easy to say It will teach them a lesson not to ever steal again, or make them change their sexuality, But seriously, will it? Will the lesbian girl not hate the men who beat the hell out of her for doing what she liked doing, or will the thieving girl lose all hope and trust in the mother figure that disgraced her so heartlessly? What exactly are we doing to their psyche? A bigger fear is that, are we not hardening these girls?

That you might know

It isn’t everyday one gets a chance to venture into something that represents, for one’s self, a heady challenge.

Having shaped my views and perceptions by the Internet at large, and specifically, by the blogosphere, I have then decided to take up the daunting and perhaps near – impossible task of writing a blog.

Yes, yes, I know what you are probably thinking….. that having spent too much time on the Internet reading other peoples’ thoughts, he now feels qualified enough to feed us his own spiel… well, If you are thinking that, then we have started on the right foot… we’ve agreed on one thing at least.

In my mocking self pity, I forgot to say a bit about what this blog will be centered upon.

The blog will be candid about most things affecting Nigerian youths, our society and our relationships with each other. Since I am the furthest thing from being an authority on any of these topics, I shall be inviting some guest contributors to contribute and share their ideas. Your comments will be as well appreciated.

Right, that’s about it for now. Expect more by the ‘morrow.