VIOLENCE PREVAILS BECAUSE OF THEM

Presently, “occultism”, which is one of the means used by University management to victimize political organizations, groups, activist, social critic and students who are strong in its demands for government to fund public education, or generally speak on issues affecting the students in school; now encroached itself like disease into communities.

However, this doesn’t automatically mean that attending University education is obsolete likewise the ghetto is a virgin. The point to be establish here is that things are losing it grasp in the society and government have totally fail in attending to it because of policies that doesn’t really address the core issues that affect the neighbourhood directly.

And because of this total collapse in social amenities, a lot of young boys and girls between the ages of 15 to 25 indecisively have to recruit each other in order to belong to any these groups so to protect themselves against any harsh opposition, that possibly, if erupt into gang war they can have  a home for protection.

This in many occasions has led to ugly scene where the police will have to intervene to quell it. Most time, the intervention of the police to arrest this situation further peel people with anger over the way the police have turn the whole crisis to an opportunity by harassing people especially bike-men for toll-fee. This degeneration muscles together point finger at the vultures. 

While the thuggery issue connected to violence continue to trigger concern in the neighbourhood. In the last six months, it was recorded that more than eleven persons between the age brackets of 15 to 23 have been hunted and killed in different location in Ajegunle by unidentified group referred as to “Cult Boys”. Since these killing have been taking place in the community for the past months now.

The Ajeromi Ifelodun Local government hasn’t made a statement on this erupted crisis breaking loose in the neighbourhood. Instead, the local tigers before the Local government election that rounded off Saturday 22 July, 2017 have been busy drinking their belly filled into happiness; abandoning the major worries responsible to this mess its policies created that degenerated into calamitous burden for people. 

According to source or witnesses, death met some of these boys when not expected. In fact, the last that occurred was at Wilmer in Olodi-Apapa where some group of boys shot a boy refer to as listed target around 8:45pm on Monday 14 August, 2017; which left the area in disarray and traders have to quickly seal survival off the day because of this incident.

The same had also occurred three weeks ago where a boy was shot and after then butchered beyond recognition at Nosamu Street in the evening; when people were returning from job. Another was at Awodi-Ora where the boys they came to killed weren’t at home. It was his room-mate that bore the mark of death. He was machete mercilessly but later survived in the hospital.

This is one out of the many that has occurred both record and unrecorded in the past weeks. From eye witnesses who saw most of the killing said they were carried out by groups in Black on Black or some other colours. Like the lynched in Nosamu Street, eye witness reported the boy murdered was first shot with a gun and later cut in his skull and body where he sat with his friends around 6:45pm.

And immediately this was done, they hurriedly left the scene. People who saw this said they can’t easily recognize them. Some of the people around the scene the killing took place around 8:00pm said the boys were between the ages of 19 to 26. One example also that scared people was the one at Tolu Bustop where the boy was axe and stab terribly in the afternoon; kilometer away from his mother going to the boundary market after valedictory greetings.

In different neighbourhood where this incident has taken place and those it hasn’t. The option of “Vigilante Group” becomes the nearest way out of this crisis that currently is put forward by leaders in the community. Following past antecedent when this has been initiated where traditional leaders and undemocratic constituted vigilante group imposed themselves on the poor to collect money in the name of “Security” has met its failure after 3 to 4 month it was initiated.

Sometimes, this initiative is an alliance with the police echelons in the community in order to force people to pay without any democratic deliberation on how this will be executed. And because of the absence of government being pro-active in implementing program to address this emerge phenomena to eliminate the disease responsible to this problem: lack of social welfare. Opportunity is now paving way for such initiative to revive itself again. It is like putting on beautiful clean lace in dirty thigh and wait for appreciation.

This opportunity is what the Community Development Associations (CDA) is seizing to make itself relevant once more again, with the acclaim intention they want to scrap crime and arrest violence in the neighbourhood. But from the method and tactics it adopt it’s questionable as history documents for a lot of people especially the rank and file. Like in the past where the CDA leaders allied with traditional leaders and feudal lords in the community to victimize people wrongly.

They will agree on the resolution of imposing Vigilante or Security Watch in the neighbourhood without first consulting the residents. For them, things must be done with urgency in order to avoid the spread of it. Yet from the stream of past events and the mass reaction towards this undemocratic method, the repercussion of such action end with the episode of them cuts their share away from the community and also further victimize residential buildings who resist payment. 

In some occasion, the local government politicians pretend to be ignorance about this kangaroo initiative, however, behind the screen, they support it by using state fund to run the package in the name of securing lives and property that doesn’t represent the common interest of people or impact directly and positively into the welfare of people.

For example, attending to the core issues like provision of clean drinkable water, proper adequate funding of public education, health, affordable jobs with better minimum wage etc and because of lack of all these provision to augment the erupting violence eroding peoples’ condition of living, continual growth of this phenomena still cloud a lot of areas grasp with fear.

For years, this has been the attitude of the government from day one parading with excuses like drunken talker. Despite the claim by the government that the council lacks fund to execute public amenities, they hardly do. The last election is an erosion of fact where politicians and contestants spend public treasury for the 22 July, 2017 Local Government Election to rig back themselves to power.

Beside this, it was reported that the Karmal Bayewu administration left office with the sum of N8300 in the Ajeromi Ifelodun Local Government public treasury and deficit of more than N200million including heap of unpaid salary to workers in the council; which the present APC regime intend to use not to implement policies that will guarantee better live for the poor at the immediate.

Fundamentally, the thuggery phenomena attached to the violence in the community and the rise of psychological breakdown caused by unemployment, disenfranchisement of access to social welfare will continue to re-arm itself no matter the barbaric measure put forward by the undemocratic method of the leaders of Community Development Association (CDA) as alternative; whose primary agenda is to exploit the present objective condition. The crisis will continue to unfold itself like scroll.

What is at stake is for the government to begin to address this crisis through implementing welfare program that are pro-mass oriented so it will curb this erosive crisis tearing the society to psychological disarray. This for many people will revive confidence in the community and guarantee better future for many of the destitute who have fallen to pile up frustration.

However, the mistrust of people towards this method will continue until the necessary things to improve social welfare in the neighbourhood are restored. If not, thuggery shall mustard itself harder and become full blown thug war in the community in addition to the social unrest witness by people in the neighbourhood. Read more in: http://www.lifeinslum.blogspot.com like, comment, and share our page.

By

Fidel Davynovich

Freelance Reporter