Violence of another kind
No day passes without the newspapers carrying one form of gruesome act of violence between individuals on a one –to- one basis. The other day an enraged father visited on his young son the most peculiar kind of punishment. The teenager, Emmanuel Eluma from Oturkpo in Benue State had stolen some money from his grandfather […]
No day passes without the newspapers carrying one form of gruesome act of violence between individuals on a one –to- one basis. The other day an enraged father visited on his young son the most peculiar kind of punishment. The teenager, Emmanuel Eluma from Oturkpo in Benue State had stolen some money from his grandfather and on being told of the offence, his father promptly reached for his dane gun and fired at poor Emmanuel Eluma. He was lucky, he did not die but his eyes and nose were blown away. Emmanuel lost both eyes and his nose to the bargain.
Similarly, a few months ago, a court in Ekiti State sentenced a young man to death by hanging for killing his own brother and father over some dispute on land. Asked why he did such a gruesome act, he shrugged and said it was the devil. There has also been the celebrated case of a bride who rather than consummate her matrimonial duties on her nuptial night chose to poison her newly wedded husband and turned a happy occasion into a funeral occasion.
The one that shook me to the marrows however was the reported murder of Isa Idimeh, a former producer of the popular programme: –Democracy in action-on the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN). According to reports, Isa, a traditional ruler of Ojikpadala Egume in Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi State was seized from him home, and shot to death on a major road in the area. Considering Nigeria’s recent violent experience some may say so what’s new about all that I have stated? But I am saying that in spite of the heavy death toll brought about by the unremitting insurgency, we cannot pretend that the second category of killings do not also deserve urgent measures to combat it. What has the society turned to when a father blinds and disfigures a 13 year old sired by him from his own loins, in a premeditated act to inflict punishment on him for stealing 800 naira? Or how can a man take the lives of his own father and brother on a dispute over land, oblivious of the existing law that states that killers would be killed. Again what kind of fury could have necessitated taking the life of a fine broadcaster turn traditional ruler -like Isa Idimeh?
In all these instances, the law should take its course firmly in order to serve as a deterrence. Having said that, it is unmistakeable that the gory incidents indicate the low value placed on human lives in Nigeria which, as Thomas Hobbes puts it, has become brutish, short and nasty. A society overtaken by violence should be of concern to every sane person but especially the government which should find answers to why Nigerians at the slightest provocation deal one another the death blow. And all this in an age when religious and other temperance societies are not only proliferating in leaps and bounds, but also should be urging love, compassion and forbearance in inter-personal relationship.