Of course I won't watch the video of the child killed in Lagos -John Okiyi Kalu
Posted by Admin | 7 years ago | 6,521 times
That child could have been me. I faced hunger as a child and must have blundered as a post civil war child. I dare not watch myself being lynched and burnt to death. Thankfully nobody burned me alive in those days. I noticed a spike in animalistic behavior in Nigeria and posted 2 notes calling for concerted campaigns against mob lynching in Nigeria.
Obviously I didn't do enough to stop our people from descending further into anomie once more. Beyond the life of that child, who definitely is not up to legal decision age, our country is at a tipping point in terms of our social order. The lynchings are the early signs of a failing society on the highway to Hobbesian state where anarchy is anarchical. The socio-economic conditions required for this ugly state of nature to emerge are here with us. The federal government has confirmed that our economy is in recession. The same government has confirmed a coming famine. Put together, famine and recession simply add up to gross poverty and hunger. Faced with recession and hunger the natural instinct of man is to find ways to survive.
Stealing is one of those ways and frankly there are biblical references to confirm my thesis. Who remembers the 2 women in the Bible that agreed to eat their own children for survival as documented in 2 Kings 6:9? So we cooked my son and ate him. The next day I said to her, 'Give up your son so we may eat him,' but she had hidden him." (NIV) We are unfortunately heading there in Nigeria, if the story of that boy merely looking for food is true. I have heard stories of acute hunger in northern Nigeria with the Almajirin population worse hit, as those who used to give them hand outs are currently running from EFCC or have their illicit funds supply sources cut off by the ongoing anti-corruption war.
The story in southern Nigeria is not much different as can been seen from the circulating video of a lynched hungry child. The difference is that many have turned to armed robbery and kidnapping for survival. However we look at the video, whether the boy is 7 or 17, the fact remains that we are all turning to animals in a jungle called Nigeria. Nigerians living in the most developed city in our country executed that mob killing. Other Nigerians who are educated enough to use android devices watched and recorded the killing and circulated it gleefully. Others at social media had the mental strength to watch the same gory video. We are all animals in a jungle. Everyone seen in that video, even as a bystander, should be arrested and hanged. If a crime is being committed and you fail to call in law enforcement you are an accessory to the crime. That provision is in our statutes. Above all else, the Federal Government need to immediately respond with palliative measures to help the most vulnerable in our country. Mr President Sir, Nigerians are dying of hunger and you need to open our grain stores, dish out money without going through party channels, restore YOUWIN to help create jobs and cut off recurrent executive and legislative expenditure to get funds to inject at the street level.
Execute a massive infrastructure renewal program with emphasis on road construction to employ as many as possible and then give menial jobs like street cleaning to the poor across the country. Money must reach the purse of the poor within weeks or else you will have a massive social upheaval that will defy bullets. Don't buy bullets and guns, buy food and distribute before it is too late Sir. Mob lynching is not new to this country but the current rate is worrisome and symptomatic of something much worse in our society. Many more people will steal for survival if we don't act now. When Biblical David was hungry he almost killed the husband of Abigail. Same David entered the temple and "stole" food when he and his men were hungry. Even the apostles of Jesus entered someone's farm and "stole" food when they were hungry. Non was mobbed to death. The most sustainable way to fight hunger is to create jobs. Not to kill the hungry or lynch people to death. Based on the social contract between the people and the government, it is my position that the government failed that boy and our animals finished him off. May God have mercy on all of us.
JOK 17/11/16
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