Latest News
![[OPINION] Where Is Our Humanity? - Ifeanyichukwu Afuba](/media/k2/items/cache/363e557ae480d452cad251c9018e5dcd_XL.jpg)
Between 1985 and 2000, the Aka Circle of Artists was a prominent feature in Nigeria's art scene with her yearly group exhibitions. On the occasion of her 1990 outing, Nsikak Essien, a member of the 13 man fraternity, came up with a work titled Armageddon. It was a montage of horrifying news stories, each as shocking and saddening as the other. The long run of tragedies, natural and man - made, all happening in a few years, truly evoked a feeling of damnation. Where are we headed, was the natural reaction the artist's portrait elicited. And yet, those were the days of "innocence" compared to the present hellish times. Thirty - five years ago, we heard of kidnapping only in thriller fiction. Today, kidnappers, ritualists, cultists, killer herdsmen, bandits, separatist gunmen, and what have you, rain havoc everywhere, leaving the streets flowing with blood. The violence of criminality has inflicted a climate of desperation on many of us; eroded reason in much of Nigerian society, triggering an upsurge in the terrorism of jungle justice. We seem caught helplessly in this double tragedy that tears at the moral fabric of our society. Where do we go from here?
Daily, the base side of our being is on the ascent, nurturing and spewing hate; as it were, overwhelming the natural instincts of compassion and brotherhood. How have human beings, born with emotions of pity and fear turned into beasts; into unfeeling sadists; into savages with insatiable appetite for torture? This is the question that comes to mind when you watch videos of the harrowing experiences kidnap victims are subjected to in the bush. What kind of heart condemns fellow humanity to sleep in thick forests, exposed to the elements? How do the captors activate the cold - mindedness to beat their hostages routinely and ruthlessly in the bid to speed up ransom payment? Are their ears sealed with wax that they do not hear the anguished cries of their captives? Are their stimuli castrated that they cannot be moved by the painful cry of the tortured? In one particularly heart - wrenching video, the sadistic gunmen set fire to a plastic container and let the balls of fire drop on the hostages. Are these monsters or human beings? Can anyone who has not sold himself or herself to the devil act so outrageously?
And there are responsible - looking men and women who collaborate with these heartless barbarians in various ways. Theirs too is another abhorrent story; an equally dangerous angle draped with deceptive cover of respectability. There are the spies who monitor the roads for the terrorists, who feed the criminals with information on security deployment and movements. They communicate the ruffians in the bush on the location of checkpoints, the strength of security personnel manning them and when the patrol teams depart. There are the other set of spies who identity and mount surveillance on individuals with high kidnap value. Their daily routine is quietly studied, processed and followed up for some time to determine regular movement patterns. This intelligence gathering is provided by harmless - looking individuals in our communities who nevertheless know the horror that awaits those they prey on. We have those who help the extortionists collect and put the blood ransom to use. At this stage, you must wonder, how with the flow of funds that pass through their hands, these outlaws always look gaunt and wretched? And there are those who provide them with needed supplies on a regular basis. These accomplices mingle with other citizens on the streets daily, managing to put on calm, smiling faces. Where is their humanity?
We also contend with the unrestrained violating the sanctity and dignity of life, right on the streets, in our homes and neighbourhoods. What do we make of the scary stories that make headlines in both traditional and social media? In the second week of January 2025 we had: "Man Rapes 3 Year Old Girl"; "Female Corper Butchered By Gospel Singer"; Man Sets Wife Ablaze Over And there's the video of a lady staff accused of theft in a boutique being brutalised by three men. And so on and so forth. Now, it seems a worst case scenario, a vicious cycle of violence that we have on our hands. Except a formidable security team intervenes promptly and decisively, a suspect caught at public crime scene will most probably receive jungle justice. And people do not flinch at the thought of deliberately setting a human being on fire. Some of us can stand at close quarters to watch the victim writhing in unspeakable pain of consuming fire - without wincing empathically. Then, one more form of dehumanisation - stripping and parading suspects naked. This madness of the mob is not restricted to crime suspects. Sexual offenders are also subjected to this sleazy assault. A few days ago I saw photos of a young man and woman accused of adultery in Cameroun forced to squeeze themselves into a pair of jeans trouser!
What do the mobs gain from these contemptible humiliation of accused persons? How does stripping a fellow of his human dignity address the wrong they presumably committed? The very idea is sick; enforcing such arbitrariness as social order is nothing but descent to animal level. And as always with mob action, the danger of condemning innocent persons guilty is always there. Remember the Aluu 4? In the blind rage of a mob, four young gentlemen, undergraduates of University of Port Harcourt were pronounced robbers, beaten black and blue, then slowly burnt to death on October 5, 2012! And here was one of them, cringing and drawing his body away from the flames only to be pushed back again and again to the furnace of excruciating pain. The video I watched showed an acquiescing crowd comprising teenagers, youth, middle aged and a sprinkling of elderly people. If you could not save the young men, did you have to encourage the murderers in their evil deed?
Perhaps, psychoanalytic theories offer some help in understanding extremist behaviour. They are generally viewed as bordering on "maladjustment and personality dysfunction." While some experts believe that abused childhood could trigger violent reactions later in life, Freudian studies indicate that an individual's id, quest for power and dominance could brew a monster. Thus, care should be taken not to adopt a simplistic explanation of barbarism.
Would the rationalisation of abandonment and dispossession by society advanced in analysis of those camped in the forests also apply to domestic aggressors? If want of money alone was the prod to crime, what do we say about rising cases of hostages killed even with payment of ransom? Even in cases of ritual killing to make money, we must distinguish between need and greed. Just as the ego and superego offer the means to overcome raw instincts of the id, modern society still produces heroes of humanity. These testaments of universal brotherhood, accommodation of the other, empathy for the distressed and the common good have capacity to heal society if widely embraced.
On a hot, dry afternoon sometime in 1977 or 1978, we idled about in the dormitory at College of the Immaculate Conception, Enugu,waiting for the lunch bell. We were generally tired after the day's classes. But from one end of the dormitory, I heard rising voices, a growing altercation, scuffles and seconds later, a fight broke out. As efforts were made to separate the two boys locked in tight grips, word got to the house master who lived close by. Five minutes later, the two combatants and a small number of house members were at the court of Mighty, the house master, sitting in the porch of the quarters where he lived. After listening to the accounts of what led to the fight, he went inside the house. Everyone was expecting him to emerge with canes. Reappearing shortly after, he held two ten Kobo coins, emitting shimmering rays of fresh mint, in his hands. "It's the hunger", he said as he stepped out. We all moped at him as though he had spoken Greek. Handing out a coin to each of them, Mighty continued. "You buy a loaf of bread for yourself. A hungry man is an angry man." The assembly erupted in excitement, and as it did so, tension, ill feeling, grudges gave way to lightheartedness, grace and sense of overcoming.
The likes of Mr Auwal Dankode, a cleaner, who in August 2024 returned ten thousand dollars found in an aircraft in Kano, counter the argument that poverty compels resort to crime. Nelson Mandela proved himself a hero of humanity when on becoming President of South Africa, he resisted the temptation to take revenge against those who put him behind bars for twenty - seven years. And this was a man whose mid life, the crucial stage between youth and old age when major achievements are recorded - had been brutally taken away from him. But he came out from prison preaching reconciliation. On May 13 1981, a Turkish gunman, Agca Mehmet Ali fired four shots at Pope John Paul II at close range as he greeted a crowd at St Peter's Square, Vatican City. The Pope was hit in the abdomen, right arm as well as left arm and had to undergo a four hour surgery. On regaining consciousness, the pontiff made a short broadcast assuring that he was out of danger, and asked for prayers, not for himself, but for his attacker. On discharge from hospital, the Pope promptly visited Agca in his cell and told him: _I forgive you._ Following a release application by the now acclaimed saint, Agca was set free in 2000. Many would have seen the picture making the rounds on social media of a white lady picking up a thoroughly emaciated toddler said to have been abandoned somewhere in Calabar. The kid, so skinny, could barely stand. But there's an accompanying photo of the same lad, now an able bodied youth, beaming with smiles on matriculation gown with the angelic lady hugging him. What a powerful win for humanity!
 |
ReplyForward
Add reaction
|