A few years ago,
after walking past the Manchester Jewish
Museum on Cheetham Hill Road, I decided to go in for a visit. As I am wont
to do, I had seen a plaque celebrating Dr Chaim Weizmann who
once lived in Manchester and went on to become the first president of Israel,
there was much to the history of the Jews in Manchester, I thought. [Wikipedia:
History of the Jews in Manchester]
In my mind, I thought
I knew a lot about Jews and Judaism, I was knowledgeable as an outsider but
hardly informed. I had learnt from the Christian bible how the feasts of Judaism
related to Christian festivals, teachings derived from the customs and
traditions of Judaism giving some context of how Christianity is by terms a Middle
Eastern religion that just happens to be so radically westernised.
Difference without
indifference
In church last
Sunday, during the sermon, the preacher said we should consider our
relationships with other religions, seeing first the person before their
beliefs, accepting we are in the quest for some spirituality and that we should
not claim either superiority or inferiority in relation to other belief
systems, for we each in our ways are seeking and worshipping God.
As Judaism celebrates
Rosh Hashanah which is the Jewish
new year from this evening that would culminate in the feast of Yom Kippur, between them in the
space of 10 days is Yamim Noraim;
the Days of Awe or the Days of Repentance, the preacher recommended we visit a
website, Judaism 101 to learn more about
this root Abrahamic religion.
Through a shop window
of Judaism
One could consider it
an occasion of propinquity that as I switched on my television and was scanning
for something to watch off my Amazon Fire Stick 4K, there was a television
programme on Amazon Prime called Jewish Law which happened
to be a documentary about Orthodox Jews in Manchester, filmed in 2004. They then
numbered about 30,000 living in the Prestwich area of Manchester.
In three episodes
which covered families, major feasts, religious practices, the management and
regulation of kosher, and mitzvahs or commandments, there was a lot to learn,
though this would require second and consequently more viewing to get a
better grasp of things, the attention of particularities and details made
everything seems so onerous except for within the community itself.
And I never knew
Seeing how meat products
should not touch dairy that in some households they had separate cooking
sections to handle each, like having two separate cooking hobs, ovens and fridges
was an interesting revelation. The ceremony of circumcision, without the whole
detail was just as moving.
The commandment that
Jews should not eat blood meant that eggs were first cracked into a clear glass
and viewed from underneath before use. A boy’s hair was not cut until they were
3 years old, when a ceremony that included prominent people in the community
cutting a snip of hair whilst contributing to a piggy bank. The act of mourning a
close relation does include renting one’s clothes.
Of intrigue and
interest
If you thought
Judaism was dull, you need to see the revelling during the feast of Purim that was initiated when
Esther in the bible mediated on behalf of her people preventing their total
annihilation by the Machiavellian hand of Haman. The mitzvah includes getting
drunk.
None of this begins
to demonstrate the intricate observances of Judaism, but it should pique one’s
interest enough to explore this religion in that is probably close to its
fourth Millennium. The building of the Manchester Jewish Museum which is Grade
II listed is currently under renovation, but the museum artefacts and documents
are in temporary residence at the Manchester Central Library.
To all my Jewish
friends, Happy Rosh Hashanah! Shalom!
Maybe there is a case for becoming a bit bookish about knowing how to live and work in Nigeria. Possibly making your decisions based on something more concrete than what you heard someone say and that idea has been through so many revisions before it got to you with no semblance to the original thought or import. Rumours should not equate to fact, even if eventually proven true.
If accosted, in a country rife with the abuse of rights and process, would you know your rights enough to fight your corner through the system and expect not to have been persecuted and prosecuted unfairly?
Much as we can be religious and leave much to chance, gut feeling or the sentiment of belief or clan, the many times we have entered into arrangements that fall through because the detail necessary to make binding agreements were not pored over with the necessity such requires.
This blog began on a whim as I asked on Twitter what I should write about and @LegalNaija challenged me to write something about their blog.
Taking you through the minutiae
LegalNaija is hosted at http://www.legalnaija.com/ and they have been active since 2012, they provide a disclaimer on their front page that reads, “Posts and comments by the publishers of this blog do not constitute legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship.”
However, the kind of information you can glean from the many things they write about can give insight into how to ride through much of the Nigerian bureaucracy which at the best of times can be a haunting nightmare, leaving you out of pocket and with nothing to show for it.
Simple things like reading and vetting your contracts before you sign anything; as if we should be told, but in many cases, we rarely ready the small print, it is sometimes suffused with indecipherable legalese leading in unexpected pitfalls when things fall apart. Nothing wrong in reminding us of such simple things.
A tip, an insight or an idea
On the blog, you have explainers on fundamental rights, operating businesses, seeking legal redress, bills enacted, laws and much else that a blog like mine cannot begin to cover.
However, I can introduce you to LegalNaija and ask that you follow their Twitter account @LegalNaija, there is no telling what snippet of information can be that insight or idea to ensure you don’t end up in a needless and expensive legal wrangle – and I tell you, Nigeria is one legal minefield even to the savviest of legal experts. I commend them.
I guess after reading a few of my blogs, there will be no doubt in the mind of the reader that I have libertarian and liberal views about many things concerning our humanity.
Yet, I am hardly tolerant of abuses of religion, the law, in the family, of customs, traditions or somewhat long-held belief systems that either curtail or proscribe the opportunities for freedom, liberation and expression.
Vigilant nosey parkers
In 1894, at the tail-end of Queen Victoria’s long reign when supposedly Victorian values had become quite entrenched and were being exported to its colonial outposts, there was an upheaval taking place in England.
The licence for the Empire Theatre of the Varieties had come up for renewal, this was vehemently challenged under the leadership of Laura Ormiston Chant of the National Vigilance Committee with the charge that the theatre exhibited indecency on stage and tolerated prostitution in its tiers.
Whilst the new licence placed wide restrictions on the activities of the theatre, there was a wider debate in society as to whether entertainment and enjoyment should be so strictly regulated at the behest of a morality and purity brigade. Laura Ormiston Chant did not particularly have an auspicious backstory besides having run away from a home with parents that were strict disciplinarians and who run a girls’ institution.
The fallout
Meanwhile, the first anti-homosexuality laws were passed in 1885 in the Labouchere Amendment making gross indecency a criminal offence in the United Kingdom and many of those empire era laws that have now been expunged from our law books are being reaffirmed by many of the colonies that have since been independent from the British Empire since the 1960s under that guise that such is not according to our customs, traditions or beliefs.
One notable consequence of these Victoria purity drives was what ensnared Oscar Wilde when he file a libel action, lost it, which resulted in a new trial, a conviction and disgrace in 1895.
Men as they are
However, within the furore of the debate about morality laws, a young Winston Churchill wrote to the Westminster Gazette in 1894 and stated the following:
“State intervention in the form of statute will never eradicate evil. It may make it more dangerous for the evildoer. But such a policy, while not decreasing immorality, only increases its ill effects. The state should protect [its citizens] from harm, and must govern men as they are and not as they ought to be.”
This is where the issue of morality laws places all sorts of unacceptable constraints on the freedom of expression and articulation allowing for undue and unwarranted prosecution of people for harmless activities that have been rescheduled as crimes.
Live and let live
We have too many instances of the force and imposition of various unyielding and ultra-conservative belief systems with extreme tendencies given the weight of the law to force people to be a certain way rather than be themselves and by that be better participants in their communities and societies to the good and better of all.
There is no doubt in my mind that when we not only govern but begin to see, to accept and to celebrate “men as they are and not as they ought to be” having already put in place the systems to ensure none of the vulnerable amongst us comes to harm by reason of our liberties, being fully protected in their rights and privileges and full members of the society they are in, the world will no doubt be a better place.
I did not expect today to be as difficult to cope with as the last time I was in hospital to have a FibroScan and it wasn’t.
All sorts of tests needs to be done to check on health of the liver, from liver function tests that are derived from blood tests, through the FibroScan to check for liver fibrosis and today, it was the turn of an ultrasound scan of my liver to check for scarring on the liver.
The instructions for today were not to have had any meals for at least 6 hours before the scans, however, because the appointment was in the morning, it meant I was not suffering as much as when I had to do with meals for 2 hours, but the appointment was for the early afternoon.
After attending one of the many almost pointless talk shop telephone conferences, a forum for the deluge of conversation with the aim of achieving something much longer than if everyone just instinctively and assiduously got on with what they need to do, I got dressed and called UberXL.
The driver arrived and whilst his name looked Turkish, he revealed that he was from Eritrea and there begun a discussion about power crazy leaders whose penchant for war over peace had led to the unnecessary demise of Africans fleeing conflict.
Then, I told him where I was from and where I had lived. When I mentioned the Netherlands, he expressed reservations about how safe Holland was for children because of the Red Light District and the coffee shops.
What we never talk about
First, I gave him some insight into Dutch thinking, the realisation that we are prone to vices and whether legal or not, people will indulge in their needs for sex and drugs, they will also pay for such if they need to. In Holland, the Dutch have provided a ‘safe’ and regulated framework within which prostitution can be practiced and drugs procured legally. He got that.
On the matter of children’s safety, I tried to make a difference between instruction and education, stressing that children need more involved parental education on the realities of life so that children can end up making wise choices.
For instance, I said, if my parents had discussed sex with me and clearly indicated that if I was touched in certain parts of my anatomy, it was wrong and I should come and tell them, it is unlikely I would have silently suffered any child sexual abuse. There are more things effective parent communication on the issues of life and experience that could have been discussed and saved the child the misery of bad choices and worse.
Our different experiences
Parents again sometimes fail to realise that the cultural environment in which they were reared as children and grew up in could be so radically different from that of their wards. Failing to adapt and reconcile might well leave the kids in a somewhat schizophrenic world of home life that has no semblance to street life; their encounters in school, with friends or in social settings. It ends up a disservice to the child and could be damaging in the long-term.
It is no appeal to abandon our traditions, but we cannot recreate little Nigerias, little Eritreas, or little Pakistans abroad and expect them to pass for the new realities of our nostalgic feelings for home than we can pass on to our children. Where we live moves on and where we left has also moved on, we are then caught with fossilised expressions of things that no more exist.
My UberXL driver could begin to see my point, we all reach back to our experiences back home in our childhood and castigate the realities we now exist in because we have refused to integrate at first and then aim to claim cultural superiority of our host cultures, thereby depriving our children of the essential education they need to thrive better than we ever have done here.
Our conversation ended as we drew up to the hospital, each of us having been challenged of the need to take a more liberal view of where we now belong.
The deceptions of receptions
At the main reception, I asked for directions to the X-Ray department, and much as there are many signs to the various departments in the hospital, it is a labyrinthine maze of corridors that taking directions beyond the third left or right turn is bound to get you lost in the morgue.
I found the section reading the signs and submitted my appointment notice to the section receptionist whose fast-talking demeanour completely threw me that I did not get to answer all her questions of name, date of birth and home address. I faltered giving my home address, it was not comfortable.
Then she made a mistake of ticking off the wrong name on the appointments list before properly searching for my appointment and ticking that off.
People like me
I was asked to sit and wait to be called. Most of the seats about 7 abreast per row were in theatre-like formation some 6 rows deep and then the wall to both the right and the front had one long row of seats facing us.
Many of the people occupied the seats in the theatre-like area apart from one middle-aged African woman, from what I could make of her features who sat alone to the right finding spiritual solace in the pages of her bible. Some others had the company of friends or relations as I made to sit amongst the crowd.
Just as I tucked into my bag to retrieve my tablet to make notes of my observations so far, a nurse called out my name. I arrived some 15 minutes before my appointment and was being seen to ahead of schedule.
Quite like yoga
We walked another labyrinth of corridors to the ultrasound equipment room where another nurse was busy on a computer to the foot of the bed. The ultrasound machine was against the wall to the left with the bed between us.
I was asked to take off my coats, pull up my shirt and lie on my back facing up for observation. The nurse then said she had to dim the lights in the room before commencing the ultrasound scans. I quipped in the words of a Bob Marley song, “Turn the lights down low,” to which she said, that was as far as the excitement will get. I remonstrated that she was a spoilsport and we all laughed.
She applied some gel to my stomach having warned me that is was warm, a stark contrast to the gel applied to my sides for the FibroScan that was cold enough to send me into hypothermic shock.
The probe was pressed against my skin and she started taking shots of my liver, from the front, from the right side, from the back and then slightly to the left. I asked if it was kicking, it brought a chuckle to all of us as she answered, it was.
In all this, I was instructed to breathe in, hold my breath, breathe normally and push out my stomach and this went on for almost 15 minutes. I could well have been in yoga classes for all those breathing exercises.
A short story
When we finished, a good deal of gel had smeared my shirt, but it washes off easily, I was told. There was time for an anecdote or short story related to pulling out a yellow plug at the end of the day. It was a short film starring Omar Sharif as a taxi driver taking a passenger to a cosmetic surgery hospital.
They passed by another major hospital that had been closed due to unfortunate circumstances, the case of unexplained deaths that damaged the reputation of a once renowned establishment. People in intensive care were dying overnight and some night doctors were about to be charged, being suspected of murder.
Eventually, they installed video cameras in the intensive care wards and it transpired that at 1:00AM the cleaning lady when into the room with her vacuum cleaner and simply pulled the plug of the life support machine to gain a socket to plug in her vacuum cleaner. The horror!
Hospitals now have tamper-proof plugs for critical equipment or red notices posted that such equipment should never be disconnected.
I left in high spirits after being told again that my liver looks fine, but I will get the full detail from my consultant when we meet at the end of next month. I was home just before noon.
The week ended with
some good news for women, Meriam Ibrahim of Sudan who was sentenced to death
for apostasy and 100 lashes for the additional charge of adultery for contracting
an ‘illegal’ marriage to a Christian is to be released. [BBC News]
If not for the fact
that she was with child and about to be put to bed, if is very likely that the
political expediency of Sharia law might have exacted the judgement on the
woman. Yet, they were ready to punish the lady as soon as her child was weaned.
In the 21st
Century, the state must never have any influence on what an adult chooses to
believe, the idea that religious beliefs should be viewed as congenital; that
is, passed down from parent to child with the child not having any option to
rethink, to reason, to question or to abandon the faith of their ancestors and
adopt new experiences and faiths when they reach adulthood is utterly anachronistic and
archaic.
Religious politics
The politicisation
of religion and the conflation of traditions and beliefs into a bizarre culture
underpinned by unacceptable moral laws that denigrates and violates the human
rights of the child, our womenfolk, the poor and the deprived of power and
opportunity is sometimes used by a Machiavellian elite to oppress and subdue,
whilst those same laws rarely apply to the ruling class.
There is every reason for every free and liberated human being to join voices to ensure that the last vestiges of these rotten abuses of human rights are expunged from the statute books of every state that subscribes to blasphemy, apostasy and lèse majesté laws.
Pakistan: Farzana Parveen – Abduction and ‘Honour
Killing’
Then in Pakistan, Farzana
Parveen was bludgeoned to death by her own family members that included her
father, in front of a Pakistan court, in public and with the police allegedly
standing by as disinterested onlookers. [BBC News]
That Farzana at 25
had to go to court at all is unbelievably atrocious, she was appearing with her
husband to fight her family’s claim that she had been abducted and had entered into a marriage against their wishes.
It makes you wonder
when, if ever, women do reach adulthood and a status of independent means and
personal responsibility in Pakistan.
A dereliction of duty
Yet, the courts
were ready to hear this case, and knowing how volatile such issues are, the system failed
to provide the necessary security and essential safeguards to keep the warring factions
apart whilst guaranteeing a modicum of safety for the defendant who was under duress
from the law to defend herself.
Too many questions
arise about the unfortunate culpability of the court, the presence of such laws
in Pakistan’s criminal justice system, the indifference of the police who probably
ascribe to the untenable culture of egregious abuse of women in incomprehensibly
dishonourable crimes labelled ‘honour killings’.
There is absolutely
no honour in the abuse of women, the imposition of marital duress on women
against their wishes or the killing of such women that decide to disregard the wishes
of others as they pursue their own happiness.
Do women have any rights?
The happiness of
relations cannot automatically be the happiness of an individual and any
system, law, tradition, culture or view that trammels the pursuit of personal
happiness as a fundamental human right must be excoriated and dragged with all
possible force into civilisation.
The fallout of this
heinous public murder committed with impunity, was exacerbated by another
revelation from Farzana Parveen’s husband who alleges he killed his first wife
in order to fulfil his affections for Farzana. It makes you wonder whether
women in Pakistan are only allowed to draw breath at the mercy of ‘greater’ men
for whom they exist to give pleasure or be disposed of.
Where girls threaten a rotten patriarchal system
Surely, this should
not be the case for a country that gave us the whirlwind political force of Benazir Bhutto, who I dare say was also disposed of by the Taliban patriarchy in 2007 and with us in England is Malala
Yousafzai who the Taliban were ready to dispense of because she clamoured
for the right for the education of girls. She was only 14 when they shot her.
These stories are
however the ones that made the headlines, there is no telling how many more
heinous crimes are committed against minorities in Pakistan’s legal terms and elsewhere without any intervention of the law for justice and the sad acquiescence of the
system in supporting perpetrators of these abuses.
The spotlight is on
religion, women rights and countries where human beings like us are treated as
less than human with no respect for their person, their space, their ideas,
their decisions, their happiness or their lives.
India: Gang rape and murder
Boys will be boys,
some would say about some events in India that seems to have linked feral sexual
appetite with a level of sadistic psychopathy that defies explanation. [BBC News]
Not only were the
girls gang-raped by beasts in human skin, they were murdered and left hanging
after the rapists had had their evil way with them.
Whenever the
perpetrators of this rotten crime are caught as they should be, there is no
punishment that can full atone for what they did, however, we should be in no
doubt, these people are beyond rehabilitation and they do not belong in the
openness of any society.
Unaffected establishment
What compounds this
latest in a litany of gang rapes in India [7 publicised since December 2012] is the fact that the authorities are
almost unconcerned and politicians seem to handle the matter with such levity
that baffles the mind. They seem to be so disconnected from the realities of the victims as
to be lacking in empathy and bereft of sympathy.
These gang rapes have become an inconvenience rather registering as a crime wave that
needs to be checked and handled with the severity of the law and compassionate humanity.
In a land rich with
cultural history that has produced remarkable world leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and most
especially, Indira Gandhi, whilst many have sexual needs, it needs to be clear that sexual favours should only ever be acquired with consent, where that is not the case, the perpetrators are no better than animals and one is minded that those rapists be put down like dogs.
Nigeria: Pricing the woman
Back in Africa, we
arrive in Nigeria where having enjoyed the humour of the Bride Price App we
must see a more serious point to the issue. Beyond the sexism and the objectification
of womenfolk when about to contract a marriage, we see the commodification of
women when attributes, achievements and looks are the fundamental factors
deciding the bride price above the personhood and humanity of the woman.
We are all to a
greater or lesser extent affected even if subliminally by this mindset and it
is time for us to review our motives and objectives when we are to address
these issues.
48 days since the 14th
of April, 2014 and we are still crying out #BringBackOurGirls
with a development that has included the capture of Hassan Ali, a Boko Haram leader; we learnt from him that he had already married two of the abducted Chibok girls.
[Leadership
Newspapers]
Nothing ever in
this world can ever justify the forcible abduction of girls into marital
slavery, not to talk of the being in joined in unholy matrimony with Boko Haram
brigands. At best, this is a case of aggravated rape.
These abductions
are not new, but realising what has happened to the abducted makes for
seriously horrific reading. Hassan Ali besides murdering his father and uncle
sanctioned the killing of his own sister when after abduction she refuse to
become a 'pleasure unit' of another Boko Haram leader.
Innumerable atrocities
Everything about
Boko Haram points to something Voltaire said a few centuries ago, “Those who
can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”
You have to ask
what absurd belief system enables a man to commit the atrocity of murdering his
filial relations and siblings. That alone should be enough to seek to proscribe
Boko Haram and rid our good earth of every semblance of that organisation, its
thinking and whatever support system it enjoys.
We are not the enemy
The challenge for
the Federal Government of Nigeria is that for the first time they are forced to
act beyond the vacuous promise to delivering results. The result being the
rescue from Boko Haram of the Chibok girls; nothing can eradicate the plight of
the girls from the world’s consciousness.
The sooner the
government realises it has a responsibility to act by using every means
possible to #BringBackOurGirls
realising the protests are urging them to act decisively and purposefully, rather than some ploy to disrupt the comfortableness of their exalted and
unaffected cocoons of power and privilege, the better it would be for all
concerned. #BringBackOurGirls
from the grip of the Boko Haram menace.
We must stand
As men, we need to
be at the forefront of fighting for equality for all participants in our global
village, ensuring their rights are upheld, protected and wrestled into
existence arresting the descent into the Barbarism that makes other
members of the human race any less than ourselves by reason of their gender, their
beliefs, their orientation, their means, their culture or any other
distinguishing element of our great and broad diversity.
I stand with our
women for liberty, freedom and the freedom to pursue their happiness without
restraint or interference as we all desire for ourselves in this world.
There is a story in
the Bible of Gideon who in an
act of zealotry destroyed the altar of Baal. The worshippers found out
and gathered a mob to lynch him when someone reasoned with them that if Baal
was so aggrieved by the desecration of his grotto and altar, then Baal, the god
the people worshipped should himself exact judgement on Gideon, the miscreant.
The reasonable
message there was, despite the grievance and offence caused the worshippers, “If he [Baal] is a god, let him contend for himself, because someone has torn down his altar.” [Reference and context][Judges
6:25-32 – The Message]
More pertinently, the
argument put forth is on many levels, first of all, men are prone to zealotry,
sometimes taking extreme and provocative actions. People would be seriously
offended and seek to take the law into their own hands by meting out some form of punishment to assuage their grievance.
Disarming our great gods
In so doing, they
appear to disarm or belittle the ability of the deity to act for itself where
the deity has been contemned. The question is, are men supposed to plead the
case of their gods or are they supposed to allow the gods in whatever their omnipotent or omniscient capacity to seek retribution for any disrespect or desecration by any man?
“Are you going to fight Baal’s battles for
him? Are you going to save him? Anyone who takes Baal’s side will be dead by
morning. If Baal is a god in fact, let him fight his own battles and defend his
own altar.” [Judges
6:31 – The Message]
I dare say, this
should extend to all deities be it in established religions or any form of
religious symbolism or act of worship. Much as each man should not seek to
cause religious offence to others, it is important for the religious to let the
gods fight their battles for the conscience, the soul or punish infractions of
men.
No compulsion
“There shall be no compulsion in [acceptance
of] the religion. The right course has become clear from the wrong. So whoever
disbelieves in Taghut and
believes in Allah has grasped the most trustworthy handhold with no break in
it. And Allah is Hearing and Knowing.” [Surah
Al-Baqarah 2:256][Context]
The Al-Qurʾān is unequivocal about the
issue of religion in this verse, there should be no imposition and it is a
matter of choice. Yet, if people do cross the line (Taghut), this could mean
many things from disbelief, through blasphemy to apostasy, the judgement for
that is left with Allah rather than with men.
The other verses that support this quote clearly state that the choice is that of the man and the reward or punishment is of Allah.
Usurping the role of deity
It then begs the question why men have arrogated to themselves the duty to judge and pronounce judgements in place of their deities to punish men for their actions taking away the greater prerogative of mercy and longsuffering of deity in whom they believe?
Do men expect to be rewarded for taking the law into their own hands fighting for their gods where all do not believe the same nor are all of the same consciences even if they seem to follow the same religion?
What is the justification for exacting judgement on another man for what they choose to believe or not believe as they are persuaded of message, experience or life and where does this stop or who then controls this vigilantism?
The next question
is why the state should ever get involved in these matters as if they now act
in the stead of deity to criminalise people and exact judgement on behalf of
God?
It goes without
saying that the state has no business promulgating laws that criminalise
religious thought, be that disbelief, blasphemy or apostasy. The state however may sanction offence caused other by refereeing civil cases brought by the offended; not to abridge the freedom of speech and expression but to ensure that the use of such freedoms is not abused to incite violence or cause unrest amongst the people.
It is in view of
the arguments that I have proffered above that I call on the 21 countries that criminalise
apostasy and the many others that criminalise blasphemy to abrogate and
expunge such laws from their statute books.
The state’s
involvement in these matters first politicises religion which can be used to nefarious
ends like the Muslim cleric who allegedly framed a Christian girl in Pakistan putting her at the risk of capital punishment and yet he was acquitted probably because the witnesses against him were nobbled.
There is also the
risk of vigilantism as seen here and here,
worse still is when it is used to oppress those of a different religion.
What religion a person follows should always be an adult choice, it should
never appear to have congenital provenance.
Personal choice above all else
If a person cannot
make an independent choice of what to believe because of their heritage or what
their parents believed in the 21st Century, then we have moved the
age of conscience back to before the Dark Ages where the powerful acted like
demigods with impunity, answerable to no one but the whim of how much power they
can wield.
The world is
certainly more advanced than this, and more and more, blasphemy and apostasy laws
are looking like a homage to Barbarity than a celebration of the freedom and the
liberty of thought, the coming of the civilised man. Abrogate these odious laws without delay.
On Saturday, I
wrote, Nigeria:
How Humanity Lost Oshiomhole and Gained a Widow and waited to see how
things would pan out. The concerns in that blog remain valid much as the
governor has now addressed the particular; the general is in need of action
too.
Probably, the consensus
is that Adams Oshiomhole, the Edo State governor, has dramatically redeemed
himself after the video of the excoriation of the widow on Benin-City streets
where he told her to, “Go and die!”
The widow, Mrs Joy
Ifije was sought out by the governor, and after extraneous attempts to justify
his intemperate expression, employed her as an activist for the cause of
chasing street hawkers off the roads, presented he with a large brown parcel of
cash totally NGN 2 million ($12,620) and a scholarship for her son.
The governor’s
advice was that she put it first in the bank and eventually use it to setup
shop to trade on legal trading premises – it would appear all’s well, ends
well.
The viral video did it
However, if we must
review this situation properly, the event where the Mrs Joy Ifije was
dehumanised was recorded over a fortnight ago, but the video when viral last
week, the consequences of which must have forced the governor to address a
serious public relations gaffe.
The governor
himself said his daughters had asked him to attend to the issue too, it had
become too much of an embarrassment as some even found to make political
capital out of her misery to doubly embarrass the governor.
Walk a mile in her shoes
Much as one cannot
suggest that beyond the direct apology to Mrs Joy Ifije, the compensation she
got was state money, some Utopian idealists would have preferred she spurn the
governor and reject his gift.
My answer to them was that they walk a mile in Mrs Joy Ifije’s shoes and it is very probable that from their gilded cages of privilege and opportunity they would never have understood to any degree the situation of her widowhood. That, along with the pressures to meet the needs of her immediate family and other societal demands that placed her in the situation she found herself in the first encounter with the governor.
Sadly, some were
keen to limit the outpouring of goodwill and sympathy that followed the
publication of that video to make the point of ridiculing the governor whilst
for a second time making an example of Mrs Joy Ifije.
For the greater social good
There is the particular
of what happened between the governor and the widow and there is the general of
what the social consequences of driving street hawkers off the roads without
providing safe, adequate, affordable or subsidised trading places for their
wares.
Street hawking is
the source of many livelihoods, people resort to this because they cannot
access the formal market areas for many reasons too many to mention. It is
unlikely that any would resort to the streets if they had the means to rent market
stall spaces and fill those stores with wares and goods to ensure the business
thrives beyond breaking even to profitability.
That should become
the bigger welfarist goal of the governor.
A wonderful change has come for her
Nevertheless, one
thing must not be lost on us, the fact that if that video did not go viral, it
is unlikely Mrs Joy Ifije’s circumstances would have been altered.
Certain eagle-eyed
observers noted that Mrs Joy Ifije did not seem to have changed her clothes
from her first encounter; one cannot read too much into that as much as it probably
tells a deeper story of her situation.
We can only hope
that what she got along with other generous contributions will put her on the
right path to sufficiency and success. Along with the two children who
accompanied her, I wish her the very best and that her sorrows and hardships
become things of a long distant memory.
Much as Adams
Oshiomhole appears to have acquitted himself well in being responsive and
understanding of his unfortunate folly, it is yet to be seen if whether on or
off record, after he became governor he was ever a nicer man than what obtain
in the “Go and die!” video – time will tell.
The Edo State
Governor, Adams
Oshiomhole, a one-time trader unionist took the opportunity to visit the
streets of his entire to chase away street traders as per the law of the land.
[Wikipedia]
One encounter
became the theatre of a video
recording where a widow in flailing and very pitiable supplication appealed
to the humanity and consideration of the governor, but he ignored her. [Sahara Reporters -
YouTube]
Just so cruel
To compound her humiliation
and denigration with the knowledge of her somewhat dire or desperate
circumstances, the governor in full strut of princely omnipotence flippantly
told her to, “Go and die”, as her
wares were grabbed by the egregious thuggery of the law enforcement agents that
accompanied the governor.
We can all
appreciate that the Edo State Government wants to rid the streets of hawkers,
and they have identified that they are an accident risk, but in a case of giving the dog a bad name to justify harming it; stret hawkers have been maligned as thieves, vermin and obstructions to the free flow of traffic. [Edo State
Government]
What the government
has not identified in their assailing on the underprivileged who subsist on chance encounter of custom for their livelihood is alternative, affordable, safe and subsidised hawking areas or premises they can move these people into, if they really want to address a menace. [Edo State
Government]
Cart before the horse
In 2009, these
street traders were given a two-day ultimatum to clear off the streets as if
there would be no social consequence for legitimising destitution in the name
of beautifying and cleaning up the main city centres.
One can posit that
the real menace of theft, obstruction and crime will increase if people do not
have the means to earn a livelihood in the absence of jobs, have affordable places
to trade, have the absence of welfare support or have no new or sponsored means of
alternative engagement of their skills and idle labour.
It beggars belief
that a man who cut his teeth on labour and trade unionist activity will now be
the nemesis of the underprivileged, and that is a great shame.
The act of street
trading is a crime that should be stopped. According to section 53(1c) of the
State Environment Waste Management Board regulation of 2006, any individual who
sets up a stall or a trading spot in an unauthorized area has committed an
offence which is punishable in the court of law and for those street traders
who specialize in the sales of audio and visual compact discs, who blare their
music as a way of advertising their goods, section 51(1) states that no
equipment or facility capable of producing noise above 85 decibels should be
used by any individual for more than four hours a day, this makes them also
liable to the law. [Edo State
Government]
Breaking laws through law enforcement
Now, if street
trading has been criminalised and such persons have been identified as
committing an offence, the law requires that the offender be punished in a
court of law.
It is understood
that the Governor as the chief law officer of the state should be seen to
uphold the law, but nothing in that video demonstrates that he was doing
anything of the sort.
The widow had her goods confiscated and the Governor could be heard saying she should not be taken away; by inference the widow was not going to be charged to court.
Now, as the Executive Governor, it is possible that the governor had arrogated to himself the powers of a court and in that encounter constituted a kangaroo court to be the judge and the jury of the woman. Thereby exercising the power to proscribe, to excoriate and to punish, but that would add the licence of egregious impunity to the immunity from prosecution the governor already enjoys as a constitutional right when in office.
One engagement did suggest in
our discussion on Twitter that the widow was deploying the fallacy of argumentum ad misericordiam, the appeal to pity, but if this issue did end up in court, the mitigation pleas to the judge will deploy this fallacy to temper justice with mercy.
Regret is not apology
We should be human
beings first before we find the weak to sacrifice on the altar of proving
potency and ability to rule with an iron fist.
Adams Oshiomhole, by design and for the opportunity went on a public law enforcement raid of the street traders to make an example of someone, but providence and circumstance of the person of a widow, her pleadings, his intemperance, the recording and the viral reach of the event as he stood as unconstitutional judge seems to have backfired.
He has expressed
regret at his choice of words, but that does not constitute an apology to
the woman he treated with the most reprehensible disdain. Even criminals, but in
this case, until charged, she was still a suspect, have rights and the least
that can be expected of a person in authority like the governor is to treat any
Nigerian citizen, no matter how lowly with respect, dignity and courtesy – that
is just basic humanity. [DailyPost]
How revolutions are triggered
Many viewers of
that video were touched by the plight of the widow and were utterly repulsed by the
lack of comportment of the governor that she might well be helped by funds
being raised for her cause – there is no saying that she might become a
figurehead against the egregious abuse of power and privilege of the Nigerian ruling
class. [Nigerian
Tribune]
The Arab Spring was set off by
the mistreatment of Mohammed Bouazizi, a street vendor in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, the list of injustices in Nigeria is piling up, and no one can tell which of the many documented flagrant abuses would become the catalyst for a national insurrection that could usher in a Bastille moment in Nigeria. [Wikipedia]
[Wikipedia]
Consider the human consequences of making bad laws
Yes, the law must
be upheld, but when it affects people, enacting laws and enforcing them without
consideration for the social consequences of the law is at first atrocious and then heartlessly lacking in vision, foresight, compassion or humanity.
On the balance of
what appeals to our humanity as opposed to the atmospherics of environmental
comfort and conduciveness, I am with the widow for an apology, adequate redress, prompt restitution and effective rehabilitation. Then for a broader plan to help alleviate the
sufferings of street hawkers by offering them affordable, safe and accessible
places to ply their trade.
Two cases of
Christianity running into conflict with homosexuality in the courts bring to
the fore the need for people with devout beliefs to understand the extents to
which they by law will be allowed to influence debate in a broader secular
society.
Both cases had to
do with access to children and more pertinently access to the children’s minds
in terms of fostering and teaching.
Good parents, indeed
There is no doubt
that Mr and Mrs Johns, aged 65 and 62 respectively have been good foster
parents having fostered 15 children with four grown children and grandchildren
of their own, they deserve credit.
However, whilst
they have license as parents to bring up their own children in the way they see
fit, right, with love, with care and all the religious control they might have
to bear on the impressionable minds of their own children – foster care
involves the state.
The state is by and
large secular, recognising people of diverse backgrounds, beliefs and
persuasions whilst protecting the rights of both majority and minority to
operate with civility towards each other in the public space.
The changing society
It behoves the
state not to place children in view of extant rights and protections in the
parental care of people who might trammel the open-minded broader view of the
world a child will have when interacting with society and this where
fundamentalist religious beliefs and broader secularist thinking conflicts.
The state is not
denying the Johns’ the right to believe whatever doctrines they adhere to, that
is a right they exercise with full prerogative, but where the state feels that
parental care under fostering guidelines will expose a child to teachings that
will narrow a child’s outlook good as they might seem, the state must act in
the interests of the child and protect that child from influences that could
put it at some disadvantage when the child decides to express itself in a wider
community.
The headline does
suggests Christian
beliefs lose out to gay rights [Daily Mail], but the broader issue is
beyond that catchy title, the secular state must give all beliefs equality
before the law and perform the balancing act of preventing the undue influence
of those who have beliefs over those who believe differently or have no
persuasion whatsoever to believe either way.
Don’t confuse entitlement with freedom of expression
The second case
concerns Robert
Haye [Pink Paper], a secondary school teacher in South London who as a
Seventh-Day Adventist expressed reprehensible views about homosexuality before
a class of students aged 15-16 and in another class of pupils aged 13-14
suggested those who worship on a Sunday are worshipping the devil.
Mr Haye is quite entitled
to his beliefs and he is free to share them with anyone who is an adult, a free
moral agent with the right, opportunity and mien to challenge such assertions
if they deem fit.
However, when
children are in a school, they are wards of the state that dictates a
curriculum and programme of education that prepares the children for the world
they live in.
Forgetting responsibilities
Mr Haye as a
teacher is in a position of authority and influence, it means he has a
responsibility to understand that his class is not an extension of the temple
wherein he worships, he is paid to educate guided by a syllabus and not to
fulminate contemning those who have a difference of opinion or beliefs from his
own.
The children in his
class will come from varied backgrounds many of which Mr Haye might find
antithetical to his belief system but the state cannot allow a situation where
a child is made to feel inferior for any reason in a school environment – the issue
here again is not about Mr Haye’s rights to have his beliefs but about understanding
his responsibilities in a secular setting under the employ of the state with
access to influence children.
The society is diverse
That is where Mr
Haye was lacking in perception and judgement; that he was relieved of his
commission as a teacher was a just consequence and his lament that his career
has been destroyed is a situation of his own making – it should not be blamed
on Christianity or the abrading his rights to believe whatever he does but on
the fact that he was lacking in judgement when he expressed those views in the
wrong setting and before the wrong audience.
The judge was
unequivocal in his assessment of the matter in saying, “This case is not about the right
of a teacher to hold sincerely-held beliefs based on the Bible in relation to
homosexuality or attendance at church on Sundays. It has been about how those
beliefs and views are manifested in the context of teaching in schools with
young people with diverse sexuality, backgrounds and beliefs.”
He could not do it
No one was asking
Mr Haye to recant his beliefs, what the state was asking of him was if he is to
be placed before young people as an employee of the state to teach, he should
keep to the script. Where he has opinions on a subject outside that remit he
must be conversant of the fact that the young people before him, are from such
diverse backgrounds that his views must be all-encompassing for inclusiveness
not for division and discrimination.
If Mr Haye cannot
pass that basic test, he has no business being a teacher in a multi-cultural,
multi-dimensional and highly diverse setting like an inner-city school.
Further reading
In other blogs, I
have been impressed with the way judges have been able to absent themselves from
sentimentality and promote the secularist nature of our democratic societies
and nowhere was that better expressed than in this blog - The
case for State law over religious guidance.
The bit that caught
my attention was this – “Legislation to protect views held purely on
religious grounds could not be justified, it is an irrational idea and it is
also divisive, capricious and arbitrary.”
Click on the link
to read the rest of the views of the aptly named, Lord Justice Laws.
Now, Professor Wole Soyinka is
not really the easiest literary genius to read even though I did have some of
his texts in my secondary school curriculum.
He has
for a long time been a prolific intellectual who has spoken and written about
oppression, misgovernment, corruption and the lack of accountability in
leadership in Nigeria.
At 78,
the man has not diminished in his critique of events and ideas whilst still
retaining a considered voice of reason and deep analysis of issues especially
in Nigeria.
26 years
after being awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, I still find his writings
difficult to access but full of meaning and objective discourse.
Wole Soyinka lays the groundwork for his thinking by stating that the legislation on sexual conduct between consenting adults is interference.
Then he
posits that whilst foreign commentary on the activities of the Nigerian
legislature in this regard is hysterical,
hypocritical and disproportionate that foreign criticism should not deflect
from the fact that as rational beings and particularly rational Nigerians this issue
should primarily be about “the right to private choices of the free, adult
citizen in any land.”
He
suggests that the legislative fervour that has accompanied this matter is a
distractive ploy to obscure actions of the government when out of their depth
because of the economic crises or to inject unpopular policies that might catch
the public unawares.
Conflated issues
Taking
no prisoners, he addressed the legislators to attend to the numerous and urgent businesses for which
they were elected and take their noses out of sexual practices of consenting
adults whilst warning that the said bill is redolent of legislative fascism
which has no place in a democracy.
The bill
in his view conflates two separate issues, the first being homosexual practice
and the other being same-sex marriage, something he considers deliberate.
Throughout
the article, it appears the professor is stridently against the encroachment of
the law on the private practices and choices of consenting adults whilst
acknowledging that the law does protect minors from abuse and adults from
harassment.
Biology trumps faith
Attempting
a broad definition of sexuality, he pitches tent in the nature rather than
nurture camp of sexual preference by suggesting some people are born with an imprecise gender definition
even if the said people do have sexual organs that suggest they are either male
or female.
This is
probably one of the more archaic arguments for sexuality definition but it is
in a language that the more sententious of Nigerians might understand.
Tackling
the morality views that are used to promote support for such legislation,
having averred the issue of biological truth he is categorical in saying articles of faith are no substitute for
scientific truths.
Democracy or theocracy
The
democracy we have in Nigeria is being tested, in that we must “choose
either to create a society that is based on secular principles, or else
surrender ourselves to the authority of – no matter whose – theocratic claims.”
A
theocracy should go the whole hog with all beliefs and doctrines adopted and
enforced regardless of whether the other person is of similar or different
faiths, the idea that where scriptures agree is compulsory and where they do
not is optional is a recipe for chaos.
“The national train must run either on secular rails
or derail at multiple theocratic switches. No theology can be privileged over
another in the running of society. This means, theology and its derivates
cannot be privileged over material reality and its derivatives.”
A law against nothing
On the
issue of same-sex marriage, the professor says there is no evidence of anyone
attempting to legally enter in such contracts requiring the state to honour
such liaisons at a court registry nor has any religious organisation or the
clergy been compelled to perform such a ceremony.
People
have of their own free will the right to privately ostracise or embrace such
relationships but the state overreaches itself in attempting to criminalise
such liaisons.
Moralists
are advised to have a sense of proportion and embrace objectivity, that being
the preponderance of biological fact over moral sentiment, avoiding the
tendency to incite to mass hysteria and manipulation.
The debate
This is
in my view that first time a highly respected and globally renowned Nigerian
figure has addressed the matter of homosexuality and same-sex marriage with an
open mind, if not objectively.
The
issue is one of rights, it is about sexual conduct between consenting adults,
that our democracy should be superior to the tendency to be swayed by disparate
belief systems that do not essential agree on all elements of doctrine to be
adopted as a constitutional reference point, that the state should not
interfere and that our legislators should get on with the job they were elected
to perform.
Nigerians
are asked to be more objective, less moralistic, adopt empirical evidence of
science over sentiment and even if they have private animus, it remain their
prerogative but to support the legislation of moral laws will have more
far-reaching consequences beyond the supposed targets to be used as instruments
of persecution, blackmail or even worse, present a licence for jungle justice
and mob lynching.
The
debate is beginning and the reality cannot be obfuscated with legislative distractions;
there are homosexuals in Nigeria and no legislation will exterminate one of the
many enduring representations of humanity.
