Nigeria: The Collapse of Order

Collapse upon collapse

Like the head of the synagogue upbraided Jesus for healing the sick on the Sabbath, the contemporary head of the synagogue now threatens us with wrath, retribution and terror for asking the sensible questions. A collapse of reasonableness.

A month has passed since a building collapse claimed over a 100 lives of which more than 80 were South Africans, the many who had come on a sort of pilgrimage to Lagos to prolong their lives with the expectation of miracles bordering on magical acts for healing, peace or some particular touch of grace, mercy or favour for this man of God. A catastrophic building collapse.

The man has every right to go about his business, but it must not be at the expense of lives carelessly lost for the very likelihood that building codes were flouted and ignored. Yet, this is a collapse of institutional heft to ensure laws are adhered to.

The untenable collapses

The whole idea that some unidentified flying object hovering over the building shook it to its pulverised destruction according the head of the synagogue is as fantastic as it is risible, yet this atrocity has had no one held responsible for it. Suffice it to say, this is a collapse of reason.

Each apparent message that appears to come out from the establishment seems to put the focus on the head of the synagogue as the victim of machinations both spiritual and temporary, his own personal crisis that he intends to overcome. No doubt the collapse of accountability that is the everyday expectation of the powerful in Nigeria.

The hapless victims sacrificed to this atrocity have been labelled martyrs and surreptitiously this characterisation lends itself to exculpating the whole officialdom of the Synagogue Church of all Nations (SCOAN) from any responsibility for the deaths of these people. Besides the collapse of responsibility is the collapse of real compassion for the lost.

The inexcusable collapses

The government itself has been derelict in its responsibility too by pandering to the whims of men of God, fearful of their power and followership that the law consequently grants immunity for more impunity by these demigods. The collapse of the lien of civil authority to ensure public order is kept by holding everyone equal before the law.

The president and the governor should by rights have visited the site of the disaster, but were ill-advised to have a photo opportunity with the head of the synagogue until they had established the truth about the building collapse. The collapse of discernment and discretion on the part of people who should have known better.

Besides, the visit could have precipitated a diplomatic crisis with South Africa and soured relations with them, considering South Africa was more forthcoming about the numbers of their citizens lost than the head of the synagogue who while schmoozing with the press for favourable coverage wanted them to concentrate on mentioning survivors of the mishap. A collapse of diplomatic tact considering the number of foreigners that perished in the incident, it was utterly careless.

Avoid more collapses

Sadly, if nothing is done to bring the law to bear on this event with at the minimum indictments of manslaughter imposed on the leadership and the corporate person of the (Synagogue Church of All Nations) SCOAN, we would have lost the best opportunity to show that no one is above the law regardless of whether the person is a religious leader or not, and that someone can and should be held accountable for avoidable accidents as a result of people acting unlawfully and carelessly. A collapse of our criminal justice system resulting in the collapse of justice for the victims and of judicial process.

Nigeria needs to be delivered from the stranglehold of untouchable men of God answerable to no temporal authority and thereby are deluded into acting with untrammelled licence leave destruction in their wake and leaving God to clean up their mess. Here we risk the collapse of the primacy of the secular state that applies the law equitably, expeditiously and rightly.

#ABSURape: It is now justice or bust on Social Media

They walked

I should have gone to bed but after reading the news story that the police were of the opinion that the ABSU gang rape (Twitter hashtag #ABSURape) victim agreed to be raped [1]; all gloves had to come off.

On the 5^th of October 2011, walks to protest the #ABSURape were organised to take place in Umuahia, the capital of Abia State, Abuja and Lagos, the walks were seriously militated against by the Abia State government with radio jingles advising people not to support the initiative, the walkers were then briefly harassed by the security services.

In Abuja, the walkers got to meet certain ministry officials though much was done to prevent it from happening but in Lagos, they did walk to the Abia State Liaison Office where forceful representations were made on this matter.

My reports of these walks were gleaned from postings made on Twitter, other participants can provide more detailed information about what they experienced, we have to address a more serious burning issue.

So, he watched that DVD

The Abia State Police Command has apparently suspended investigations into the gang rape with the view that the girl victim consented to the rape.

Now, I find it impossible to get it round my little head from what has been reported by those who have viewed that video that the said victim was looking forward to a sex orgy by any stretch of the imagination.

A J. G. Micloth who is the Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of the state’s Criminal Investigation Department said he watched the DVD “tape” sent to him and could not see the young lady resisting the rape.

In trying to exculpate the police from taking any responsibility for solving the crime, he suggested the suspects could not be identified from the legs amongst the possible 70 million Nigerian males, which is fair enough.

Some serious questions

However, in the next statement there is a clear abdication of responsibility and a default to the tolerance if not the condoning of sexual violence when he first said, “gang rape is often videoed as a tool by under-graduate boys to rubbish the self-esteem of snobbish girls.”

The questions that arise from that statement are:

So the police recognise gang rape as a tool and are unconcerned about it?

Is mutual consent not required for the recording of any sexual activity?

Do girls have no right to be snobbish and deny advances from boys they are not interested in and be protected from such menace?

When did our society degenerate to the level that such activity by undergraduate boys had become the norm that the police did not care that it happened?

How can a policeman of such a high-ranking utter such statements without any consequence?

Is there a definition of rape in Nigeria?

Then he went on to say, “even if the lady had not consented,” which introduces the suspicion of rape that the policeman had turned into a triviality with the flippant nature of his comment.

He then figured, “that she was a girlfriend to one of the cultists and must have probably cheated on him and when queried ‘insulted’ the boy hence he probably assembled a gang to teach her the lesson of her life.”

So, without any proof whatsoever, he had come to the conclusion that the end of teaching her the lesson of her life had been justified because her supposed boyfriend had been insulted when he questioned her about a possible allegation of cheating on him.

Reviewing the statements together, the policemen has decided that even without consent, but for the sake of teaching her a lesson, it was not rape.

It really beggars belief that it is no more law enforcement working through the proper legal process of aggrievement or crime, investigation, arraignment, adjudication and punishment that in the words of the policeman, teaches “the lesson of [his/]her life” but as it were, jilted undergraduate Nigerian men can take the law into their own hands with impunity, rape women with no consequence and find support from the police that the supposed victim was having a nice time.

A rotten investigation

Now, obviously, the names that have before appeared in the media have been said not to belong to the alleged rapists but innocent persons who were helping researchers ascertain who the victim was and hopefully elicit who the rapists were too.

The police however contend that they have combed the records of the university and visited the supposed locations of the gang rape act and concluded there were no such students at the university.

The only respite in this sordidly unbelievable tale is that the police have offered NGN 500,000 as a reward leading to the arrest of the culprits; this I believe will be augmented with the NGN 200,000 stumped up in the name of the Enough is Enough Organisation.

In all, we have to recognise that the university, the government and the police have from the onset been more than reluctant to take on this case, in fact, they have been hoping that the clamour for justice will wane over time as they twiddled their thumbs in denial and indifference.

There are no words to describe the view of the governor of the state when he suggested the rape video was staged by his political detractors to discredit him and his government; it plumbs the depths of inhumanity that will give the devil second place that no compassion has been shown towards the victim apart from the desperate attempts to close down this heinous crime wishing any remembrance of it will not go away.

Social media activism is it

Once again, we need to redouble our efforts on every forum and by every means to get these men and much as we would hate for the victim to have to relive the ordeal she went through, no justice is served for her or the impunity to commit other crimes if information cannot be coaxed to apprehend them and have them severely punished.

It goes without saying that one’s confidence in the Abia State Police Command to pursue this investigation to a conclusion is lacking, they are prejudiced if not voyeuristically pleasured by the DVD than to see what their duty to society is and it is appalling that such can represent law enforcement even in the dungeons of the harshest cruelty in this whole wide world.

It would appear the Situation Room for this crime returns once again to social media where injustices might well be compounded but everything and I dare say anything must be done to apprehend those cockroaches – this #ABSURape must not go unpunished and by God let it be those 5 men and none else.

As for those who condemned the social media activism as tabloid stupidity, they had better come off their high horses and sanctimonious disavowal with some constructive ideas as to how to help the victim and apprehend the culprits; enough of playing smart, carping from the side-lines with feigned righteous indignation.

Source

[1] ABSU gang rape: Victim agreed to be raped – Police | Vanguard

Editorial: The many issues around the #ABSURape

A video gone viral

The last week saw the gathering of emotions and revulsion at the video of a lady who from reports of viewers suggested she was being gang-raped by 4, maybe 5 men.

The video had gone viral and it appeal to the humanity in many of us to sue for the apprehension and arraignment of the men involved to the point that justice will be done and seen to be done.

Apparently, the recording of this atrociously evil act was made on the 16^th of August 2011 and it had been circulating within the campus of Abia State University that goes by the acronym ABSU.

Impunity and entitlement

For all the clamour for retribution and justice there seems to be a lot awry that we cannot somehow confidently expect that what we desire will be realised.

The lady, the victim might have gone to ground nursing her wounds that would range from emotional to physical and anything in between that might not find succour, comfort or respite – justice is probably the furthest thing from her mind – she might just want the event to be a haze, an unrecalled memory as if it never happened.

The video suggests that she was being punished with rape as weapon of vindictiveness and torture just because she somewhat disrespected one of the men.

That presents another problem, a society that thrives on inclination of the certain people feeling they have complete entitlement and can with impunity act criminally expecting nothing to come of it because they have the tacit approval of society to revel in lawlessness because the law is handicapped or they have the means to suborn every process that will attempt to bring them to book.

Inured for titillation

That is the possible precipitous decline into anarchy we face if these attitudes are not arrested and punitively sanctioned not only as a deterrent but as a message that society will no more brook such manners in our communities.

Beyond this there is another niggling problem, whilst watching the video might well have elicited evidence that the law could use, there are some whose intention was to derive the titillation element rather that than the social justice push – we have somewhat become inured to such violence and violation that some even thought the lady was almost too docile to have the video depicted as the recording of a gang rape.

One is left to throw up ones hands in exasperation; we have great difficulty dealing with sexual crimes in Nigeria from child sexual abuse through to rape and the denigration of women. An incipient and sinister interpretation of religious laws allows for women to be treated with disdain.

Our lawful acquiescence to injustice

In some cases, the onus is pushed on the woman to appear in a certain way in order to not to be preyed upon by rabid men with untrammelled passions redolent of the jungle. The Nigerian male is almost allowed by law to be absolved of responsibility for being unable to control themselves – it is like a somewhat “indecently” dressed lady has it coming, she is ready fodder for abuse and much more and she has no recourse for justice.

The ladies are not helped by women legislators who help perpetrate this atrocity on their fellow womenfolk with the silliest laws about dress ever to be promulgated that at a UN meeting of women they were ridiculed for their risible ideas.

The same difficulty in tackling sexual crimes is what drove the university and the state government to deny the rape ever happened. It ploughed the depths of incredulity when the governor suggested the video was created by detractors to discredit his government.

Unable to handle the matter

The Minister for Youth Development should be commended for trying to get to the bottom of this matter, the rape did happen and whilst it might not have happened on the campus of the university, there is no doubt that certain parties to that criminality were or are students of ABSU and for that reason along both the university and the government should engage and work to uncovering all those who have brought shame on the state.

A member of the House of Representatives moved a motion on this matter and there was one who suggested there were many more pressing issues than rape to deal with.

At which point one can only say our political representation is completely oblivious of the rights of the individual and the need for social justice, besides it also shows how deeply ingrained our toleration of sexual crimes is that it is take as par for the course.

The social media devil

Social media has been agog with this story and it is probably what gave rise to the more general coverage that extended in international new sites. There are many concerns with this, in the quest for justice some have been falsely accused such that the collateral damage in resolving this case might hit a lot more people and shatter reputations.

The authorities have their share of blame for this, if they had been proactive to investigating the rape rather than defaulting to denial and had set up an incident desk for the matter, all information would have been channelled there rather than on the unfettered and unregulated forum of social media communications.

In any event the Minister for Women finally gave voice to the matter not to seek solutions but to offer another one of those political platitudes, they are concerned about welfare and well, the case just founders in inactivity and reticence because even though our huge population is a by-product of sexual activity we are still quite squeamish about sex.

A long fight in the making

There are strongholds and barriers to take down and one can only hope that it starts with the concerted efforts of every Nigerian with a heart and soul working to ensure that those men do not go unpunished and hopefully that lady can also get all the help and therapy she needs to rebuild her life.

We still have a long way to go on this matter, in fact, what it brought to light was that campus rapes happen quite frequently and nothing really gets done about it – that, my friends, is utterly, utterly untenable.

Nigeria: Our Culture adopted for criminality

Our masquerades and culture

Those long varied conversations with Iya (my mother) the other day veered into the amusing, if not incredible but depicted the complete lawlessness that is eating into the fabric and peaceful co-existence of society in Nigeria.

We have always enjoyed the masquerades when we all come out to see the dances, the acrobatics, the drummers and sing the folk songs that make the Yoruba tribe the most given to festivities of every kind.

Our folklore or read superstitious inclinations, consider masquerades heavenly beings, to be respected and revered but they are never touched – their colourful garments sometimes identifying a clan of masquerade pedigree renowned for having powers that instil irrational fear in the onlookers.

[Reading some research material, the masquerades known as Egungun in Yoruba are considered people risen from the dead – bones (skeleton) made alive, hence the assumption they are heavenly beings – benign as people would want this to be, we do in ways worship our ancestors and give the dead a lot more reverence than the living in Yorubaland.]

The criminality of masquerades today

The masquerade festival usually lasts a week, however, it appears these heavenly beings have decided to take up abode on earth – I quipped to Iya – the masquerade has become a menacing chief of criminals that runs through the market grabbing condiments and ingredients that included two live goats - A recipe for masquerade stew?

His cohorts bear whips, harass people and demand under duress monetary gifts whilst creating traffic jams and rolling over bonnets of cars that people are so terrified of menace and aggression, they are completely pliant parting with “gifts” for idle men who can get away with it.

This enterprise has become so lucrative, the festival has been running for 3 months and there is no end in sight except when it rains – in which case the masquerade probably changes into waterproof garb to keep up the game.

It would appear masquerades are no more the harmless entertainment with some underlying traditional rituals and a public cultural spectacle; they have been co-opted into criminal enterprise and have become a lawless and menacing clique in the pay of powerful and shady masters.

Oro in daylight

This whole matter was escalated to a more terrifying spectacle when in the middle of the afternoon, the chiefs who at one time were respectable elders of the community but now have their noses in the trough of relieving people of their effects through menace, gathered in the centre and allowed Oro to come out to play.

According to the earlier research material - The word Oro means fierceness, tempest, or provocation, and Oro himself appears to be personified executive power, Oro is supposed to haunt the forest in the neighbourhood of towns, and he makes his approach known by a strange, whirring, roaring noise. As soon as this is heard, all women must shut themselves up in their houses, and refrain from looking out on pain of death.

One would ask, what is the haunt of the forest doing in the middle of town, in the bright light of day - The Oro only visits the town centre at night when surely all women would be in their homes and completely out of harms way.

Menacing the women

Iya in her car, returning from church, resolved that any Oro that comes out in the daytime wants to be seen of women and should not by any right menace women when it has violated its nocturnal cover.

How I wish other women were able to stand their ground on this matter but she talked of women abandoning their vehicles in the middle of the road and running off to seeking cover in what definitely was a completely illegal and lawless activity.

Iya safely manoeuvred through the melee but it was not a sight for the faint-hearted, it took the governor to call these criminals masquerading as custodians of our traditions to order.

Apparently, as the governor would have learnt, it is one thing to enact a law banning street parties but if it is not policed and the law upheld by law enforcement measures; it would be flouted by all those who think they can do things with impunity.

But Oro in the centre of town at 14:00 hours just really takes the biscuit, big time.

Lame game

Even I

Coming to 40 years of age, one is at times deluded into thinking; all that could be seen has been seen such that one is hardly ever lost for words. Generally, one is hardly ever lost for words.

However, it was with utter incredulity that I viewed a clip of a young cyclist who was being chased down by a car, knocked off his bike and when he took to running was run over by the car.

Well, that is unbelievable in the least, it would have me calling the police in no time, taking photos with my mobile phone and recording everything that would lead to definitely getting adequate and speedy redress.

The occupants of that car should and would justifiably rot in jail if there was any justice in this world. Well, I do wonder if there is any justice in this world at times - Selah! [A biblical punctuation in the Psalms signifying pausing for thought].

As word would have it, someone got fined and had 5 penalty points applied to their driver's license further along the line 10,000 pounds ended up in someone’s account with a statement of utter regret - you will note, jail never featured in the whole episode.

Going over the detail again

The occupants of the car were the police, the evidence of being chased down and run over was recorded from a police helicopter during the a supposed drug raid that had them chasing after an entirely innocent man of colour in England in 1999.

The cyclist was at the receiving end of the fine, penalty and compensation after 5 years; however, for 6 years the police used every sleight of hand to prevent the publishing of the footage of that utterly despicable activity of law enforcement.

The reason this issue is in the news is because that footage finally saw the light of day having been extricated through the vagaries of the Freedom of Information Act, the police having run of out the state security excuses of concealing information that portrays them in the worst of light.

One is almost at  point of sympathising with the police in those circumstances, we cannot afford to have civil society knowing that the police could be that reckless - even that does not begin to describe my pique. Basically, we need to be able to retain confidence in law enforcement, but NOT at any cost.

Closing comments

The body of evidence developing from this story and many others that inform my opinion can be summed up as follows; whilst there is a case for running away from the police if you are an ethnic minority most especially if you are innocent and blameless to escape the privation of getting beaten up, it appears if you do run you might suffer the greater privation of losing your life.

Our cyclist escaped with sufficient injuries to scar him for life, Jean Charles de Menezes unfortunately did not, apparently, and neither was he running from the police.

This is all regrettable, more so regrettable when those who are meant to protect turn against those they are meant to protect.

Reference

BBC NEWS | England | South Yorkshire | Crash footage released to victim:

BBC NEWS | Politics | Police chief's apology rejected: