While the nation is currently in a sorrowful state over the abduction of over 200 young girls from Chibok, Borno State, Nigeria we cannot afford to overlook another monstrous crime against inhumanity that persists amongst us. It is as old as time itself and this menace has continued to live among us, going fatter and robust and yes more evil as the day goes by. This monster is none other than the multi-faceted crime of jungle justice. For many months or perhaps I should say years, different stories, videos and pictures have continued to flood the social media of many dastardly acts of jungle justices. We have seen horrific videos of suspected kidnappers being beaten to a pulp by angry mobs, young men set ablaze after heart wrenching scenes of human degradation that shows man’s inhumanity and cruelty to his fellow man. Have we forgotten so quickly the story of the mother and daughter that were beaten and had all sorts of unimaginable abominations done to them on allegations of stealing pepper in the market? People burnt alive or stoned to death on accusations of sorcery or witchcraft.
These are just but a few of the many crimes that go unnoticed. We know only of these ones because some human out there is more concerned with recording such shameful acts than reporting the situation to the authorities. Maybe I shouldn’t be so quick to talk about the authorities taking action against such incidences because videos of uniformed men taking part in this barbaric and uncultured act have since ceased to shock us anymore. Jungle justice has come to be seen as another vice that has come to live with us. But should we allow this monster breed so easily among us? Where are our mothers, where is our humanity, the compassion and loving comradeship that we so loudly preach, the African spirit of togetherness and the tribal and ethnic feelings of kinship and solidarity? Have we become so demented by the pangs of poverty and suffering, our mentality turned around by the scourge of corruption that we no longer respect the lives of our fellow man? It is sad to see even women who are perceived as the passage to life partaking in this acts that it makes my heart bleed at the level of depravation that we have so fallen into in our beloved country Nigeria? We now take a morbid pleasure in playing God and doling out the punishment of death to another man. Not just any kind of death but brutal, horrific and blood curling kind of death that subjects the subject of punishment to much torture, broken spirit, and even the heavens cannot help but mourn in sorrow at man’s fall. Pictures and video clips usually released after would bring the hardest heart to tears and make one ask the question of whether the perpetrators are humans or savages?
We scream out loud about certain practices being foreign and alien to us, how such practices are abominable, unreligious and morally wrong? Where then are our principles? Should we not pause for a second to critical look at our priorities and begin to retrace our steps back from the dark ages that we have somehow gone back to? Our frustration with our government and the state the country is in has led us to burning our brothers, humiliating our sisters on the basis of crime. Whose crime I beg to ask? Do you not commit another crime by playing judge in such a barbaric manner? Two wrongs do not make a right but the bible verse we are always quick to quote about ‘let he who is without sin be the first to cast the stone’ is always quickly pushed aside in such situations. The glee and anticipation to take another man’s life is too much to pass by. Stop murderers!
My heart is heavy and my soul weeps for the many that has lost their lives to jungle justice. The innocent that had his voice cut off, the bright stars that have been snuffed out, the guilty that wasn’t given a chance to reconsider his ways, let their souls rest in peace but let those of us here protect ourselves. Speak out against jungle justice today and save mankind from this path of destruction. Say no to jungle justice. Cherish life!
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It's a really sad phenomenon, how Nigeria appears to be regressing in many ways to the caveman times. We denounce such practices that are not harmful to anyone, and yet see nothing wrong with such dastardly acts as lynching and jungle justice. God help us in this country.
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