Scraping beneath our thin veneer of civilization
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| #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.
