It was Saturday morning 6 January, 2018 in the very hour of 5:45am at Ojo Road, when people were going to work. I heard a sound that got me distracted and shovel off my feet from where I was. "Kill him! Kill him! He is a thief!". Immediately I heard this, I left home in a hurry to witnessed what I just heard. When I went outside to pick up the information that led to the shout. I saw a lady whose name is 'Ego' (a resident in the neighborhood) who witnessed the incident.
According to her she said. "I saw a boy (no name mentioned) seriously injured. Blood all over his body. He has been mercilessly beaten to death". "I pitied him". Hearing this, I asked her what happened. She continued. "the boy stole an Android Phone from a man going to work". She afore-mentioned the man's reaction when his phone was stolen. "He shouted, my phone! My phone! That boy running stole my phone!". According to her, he pursued the boy with full speed like missile after a flea, running after him while still shouting to get the neighborhood attention to rescue his stolen phone from the boy.
Ego continue the narration and said. "People in the neighborhood came out to stop the boy from further running with the phone". With the pile up anger and what the neighborhood had experienced month before January during the festive period. They all came out in their numbers to avenge their anger on the boy, nearly beat him to death. Ego, who witnessed the whole scene said. "They started beating the boy to the point of burning him alive". "The Baale.....she continued...."came to his rescue after someone who knows the boy went to informed the Dad about what is to be done to his son".
She told me that the police had once arrested the boy and not long ago he returned from the Kirikiri Prison. She went on to say. "Immediately, this boy was released from the Prison. He stole a sowing machine from a locked shop in the neighborhood". In fact, she continued. "when people who knows the father went to call him. The Dad denied the son". The same thing he did when the son stole an Android phone. "I think arresting them won't solve the problem", she said. Emphatically, Ego went on to say, "they don't want to work. They don't want to learn any artisan skill. They just like stealing peoples belonging in the neighborhood and putting themselves in danger",
While she made mentioned of all these teenage boys in the community who had embarked upon into such. She never consider the causes responsible to this emerged crisis, what a lot of these poor communities are passing through (partly her analysis can't be used against her). Due to the fear of what surround people in an economy that is not working. Virtually everything has been shipwreck by the government not interested in implementing welfare program for the people. This now has resulted to Jungle Justice for many, becoming a deadly way to reduce crime in many poor rural and urban communities in Nigeria.
It is also an opportunity for some elites in the community who now uses it to extort the poor and form their own undemocratic militia in the name of curbing crime in the neighborhood. One fundamental thing to note is that, in many poor communities in the world especially backward countries like Nigeria, where poverty is on the brink and anger is ranging for explosion. The percentage of teenagers especially boys going into crime between 15 to 20 years of age met death at the grasp of Jungle Justice. In the past, it had been a terrible experience for most families who have lost sons and daughters into this due to failed policies.
Jungle Justice as something people appraises for reducing social crime in the community, don't fundamentally addresses the problem. It has always been used to create tension, living a big wound in people's heart where the ruling elites uses it to excuse themselves from directly resolving the contradiction their system creates. It has in the past led to clashed between the vigilantes and the boys, where some of the guard hired to safeguard the area have been killed. Some still alive have to run for their life after threat from the boys. An example is in Ajegunle, Mushin, Ikorodu, Shomolu, Agege etc. Besides, this is not a justification to what had happened. It is a confirmation of the failure of government to provide hope for the growing tension and frustrated teenagers who are unemployed.
One fearful news Punch (Nigeria) recently published on Sunday 7 January, 2018 confirmed that between January and September 2017, about 4.07 million Nigerians became unemployed. The reports also added that the "issue of youth unemployment (must be taken) seriously, adding that if serious action was not taken, the problem would further escalate going by projection that by 2050, Nigeria’s population would have grown to about 500 million". This is a clear warning about the ranging storm ahead of us in a country where poverty is realistically dealing with millions of people across Nigeria.
With the fear of people trying to safeguard the nothing they don't have in addition with the sunk economy that is creating tension around. Jungle justice will be seen as available option to curb crime while for others it will be means of extorting the poor. Without government providing hope for the millions of unemployed soldiers who hangs around every street corner morning till the dust goes to bed. These youths will have to look for an alternative to resolve their immediate contradiction. Not until, government orientated towards providing the basic needs of people, gainful employment with living minimum wage, free quality education etc; the worst will continue. In fact, it will get terribly worst for people to bear.
By
Fidel Davy
SlumPhotos
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