Understanding a mother’s sacrifice

Some weeks ago, Nigerian media was abuzz with the blood-curdling news of a four-year-old boy who was attacked by two dogs in Lagos. The attack left his skull exposed and doctors said it’s a miracle he survived. The dog was a neighbour’s and had attacked the children while they were playing and they ran home […]

Some weeks ago, Nigerian media was abuzz with the blood-curdling news of a four-year-old boy who was attacked by two dogs in Lagos. The attack left his skull exposed and doctors said it’s a miracle he survived. The dog was a neighbour’s and had attacked the children while they were playing and they ran home screaming, pursued by the violent canines. Only two could escape, as the youngest was gruesomely attacked by the dogs, which appear to be of the Alsatian breed from photos in newspapers.
When the mother of the children came home to meet the commotion, she was stopped by neighbours and seven policemen. Mrs. Helen Abraham narrated to Womanhood: “I was barred by neighbours from going into the house to save my child. The seven policemen that were around too didn’t make an effort to save the child. All they kept saying was ‘Kai! These dogs are wicked o’…so this is how they will just kill this boy’. The more I heard them, the more it irked that it was my child they were talking about. I suddenly ran in and I saw one of the dogs biting through my son’s head. I screamed my son’s name and he answered faintly. I lunged at the dog and wrested my son from it, running out with blood splattering everywhere. I ran out with him, shouting for help to take him to the hospital.” She was in tears throughout the narration.
When some mothers commented on the incident, however, most of their condemnation went the way of the policemen, and the way they could not protect the child, instead watching and commenting. Mrs Doris Eka, a 45-year-old Civil Servant, said it’s only a mother that could have understood the pain that the child was going through. “It must have been a devastating experience for the mother to watch. If she had allowed people to hold her back, she would have lost the right to be called a mother. It’s only a mother that would have had the courage to fight two vicious dogs to save the life of her son. Not even the policemen who were trained to protect, went after the dogs. It pains me that a child as young as that has to suffer what could have been averted by adults. It only translates to the fact that if the mother wasn’t, there he would have died.”
A 37-year-old textile dealer called Anita Daniel described the situation as ‘annoying’ and she wondered what would’ve happened if the mother hadn’t reached home at that time. “Only a mother would give up everything just to save her child. The most annoying part is that, they are still keeping those dogs, waiting for court order before they can kill them. So the life of an animal is now more important than that of a human being? Mothers are everything to children that is why even in the Holy books mothers are given high regard and priority. She did the right thing by damming all consequences to save her child.”
Maryam Salisu Ibrahim, 35, says many things about the whole story annoyed her. “The policemen couldn’t rescue the helpless boy and onlookers kept staring and worst of all stopped the mother from entering the house. If she had not fought her way into the house they would have been the same people that would have said all kinds of things about her not making an effort to save her child.  I personally believe both the dogs and their owner should not be spared in any way. Likewise, I would not spare the policemen, too, because if they should not have bothered coming.”
Mrs. Chinye Onyido, a civil servant in her mid-forties, said as a mother, one’s children are priority. “We mothers all live for our children so any other thing is secondary. In African culture, children are supposed to bury their parents and not the other way round. It’s only a worthless mother that will watch her child suffer. What is motherhood if you can’t defend your children? The owner of the dogs should be made to pay for damages, all hospital bills and expenses. This is my verdict.”
Mrs. Helen Abraham rounded it up by saying it’s still a nightmare for her, one she can’t seem to wake from. “This nasty experience has shown me that no one can take care of a child like a mother. In this world, everyone is out to protect their own, so no-one will sacrifice for another. A mother can never be replaced; a mother will always be a mother.”