ANARCHY LOOMS AS HUMANS HUNTS HUMANS
According
to Hobbes, a state without an organized government will turn to anarchy, where
life is brutish, nasty, solitary, ugly, poor and short. Thus, to him anarchy
tends to strive where there exists almost no established body of rules guiding
the conduct of humans in the society. Hence, government, constitution and laws
are very essential for a society to debar and checkmate the societal vices that
tends to succeed in any given society.
To
this end, the issue bordering me as a person is simply what most people term as
‘jungle justice’, which to me is ‘man inhumanity to man’. A system where
justice is delivered without room for redress or explanation. This system is
that judicial system whereby everybody on the street is deemed certified and
qualified to stand as a judge to any entity, irrespective of age, gender,
status, mentality, height, agility and IQ. Once you are suspected to be a kidnapper,
thief, witch and or a miscreant you are tagged as unlucky and ‘doomed’. Lo and
behold the judges appear from almost nowhere in their throng fully robed with
all that is termed needful for ‘perfect justice’.
It
is expedient to state here that what inspired this write-up was borne out of an
experience that occurred close to the NNPC Filling Station, Tanke, Ilorin, on a
faithful Sunday noon. I was with a dear friend and we were on our way to work
when we met these ‘judges’ in their numbers beating an insane lady almost to
pulp. This made us to park our vehicle to confirm. We were then told that the
lady constitutes other kidnappers who work the street as an insane person
perpetrating their wicked art. However, with our observation there exists no
trace of sanity in the body system of this lady because while they hit and
inflict her with pain there was no trace of remorse. While this persisted, my
colleague went to get the police, while I was at the scene of the incident
giving a situation report of issue. At the long-run she narrowly escaped death
naked.
Historically,
many other instances of note abound to attest to this plague eating-up the
fabric of society. On October 2012, the senseless brutal killings of four
students of the University of Port Harcourt raised dust before lying low later
in 2013.
In
the capital city of Osun state alone, cases of jungle justice are being
recorded almost daily, most especially since the discovery of the dreaded Soka
Forest. On the 24th and 25th of April, 2014, reports shows
that not less than three suspected kidnappers were lynched at various locations in Osogbo. Of the three
suspected kidnappers, one was burnt to death at Ayetoro, the others Plantation
and Igbona, all areas of Osogbo town.
Also,
the case involving the family members of Freeman Agomah, who use to live at
Ejigbo, Lagos state. Mr. Agomah's wife and two daughters were tortured and
sodomized by a gang of men in Ejigbo, February 2013. One of the
daughters, Juliana died as a result of her injuries two months later. This case
in Lagos is just one out of the numerous cases that occurs on a regular basis
in the state. As
is the case in Rivers, Osun and Lagos State, so it is in Kwara State. As recent
reports show that lives have gone and are still being lost to lynching within
the capital city of Ilorin; within one week three suspected kidnappers were
burnt to death. The first occurred on Friday the 11th of April near
the Emir’s Palace Road in Ilorin with the second and third at Oyun Bridge,
along the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital Road.
The
question then that comes to heart is that why will people find it easy and
pleasurable to prey on their fellow man? Is it not disheartening and
cannibalism to take the life of another person?
To
proffer answers to the questions, the issue that stands shoulder squared in the
country is the case of injustice. The norm in Nigeria now is the more money you
steal the higher your chance of pardon by fine or bail of a token too low to
the amount stolen. This thereby leaves the citizenry in acting the ‘judge’ so
as to prevent the injustice in the security and judicial system of the country.
In
line with this, the rise in cases of terrorism, kidnapping and armed robbery
has groomed innocent citizens to take laws in their hands, as though there
exists no security agency in the country. This then transforms civilians to
vigilance groups who daily take it as a responsibility to arrest and kill
suspected kidnappers, robbers, witch and destroying properties.
Besides,
the policing system of the country is being plagued with bribery and
corruption. To the extent that the hunter ends up in jail as the ‘bush meat’
while the hunted work the street as a free man. These situations is very
pathetic and discouraging to Nigerians and for these reasons, many Nigerians,
even when they are victims of crime feel reluctant to report to the police.
The
end result of a society with these characteristics is rise in the mortality
rate, with an increase in the death of the innocent in society. To the extent
that society turns out to be inhabitable morally and hygienically.
As
a remedy to this issue plaguing society, the security and judicial system of
the country should be refurbished so as to restore its lost glory, thereby
serving as a deterrent to jungle justice in the society.
More
so, the essence of the presence of more functional social amenities cannot be
sidelined because social amenities like stable electricity, good road, pipe
borne water, schools will engage the people gainfully; thereby not giving room
for evils that may erupt as a result of idleness.
Succinctly, the state
where humans hunt down each other must cease for the prevalence of all round
peace which comes with development.