Florence Umoetuk
I read somewhere that some youths in the country are angry. So angry
that they wish to carry placards in sympathy with The most talked about
Nigerian today, CHUKWUDI DUMEME ONUAMADIKE AKA EVANS, an alleged
criminal recently arrested for mega million naira kidnapping.
At the surface, the prospect of seeing protesting to "free Evans" placard carrying youths appear like nothing but a laughable antic, most probably sponsored by gang members, relations and beneficiaries of Evans ill gotten wealth, who choose to hide under the guise of protesting youths to try to whip up public
sentiments in the favour of their benefactor. But then, on the other hand, one will sense that this is most probably not the case.
What if the youths of the country genuinely feel sympathy for the kidnapping gangster? What if the youths genuinely empathise with the man whose trade in my opinion, was far worse than that of the criminal who dispossesses his victims of property and material valuables? What could the Nigerian Youths want? Why would he want to publicly identify with an alleged Criminal? What is the cause of the empathy with this darkness and this wielder of terror who steals human beings at gun point as if the robbers who steal material valuables had not done enough wreck on the peoples psyche?
My simple deduction is this. That the Nigerian youths have seen worse crimes by the leaders and seen that no punishment were meted to them who stole the country's wealth dry. Those ones in leadership chosen by ballot or by appointment with the mandate to represent the people but who by some methods gathered millions and billions of dollars, naira and other currencies and left the country and the people hungry, poor and broke.
The youths are probably wondering what part of the constitution gave their leaders the right to raid the treasury and bargain to secretly return part or all of the loot, their identities protected with anonymity and their persons shielded from the arms of the law, while Evans a member of the struggling masses is bounded hands and foot and dragged off in chains with signs of brutality in his swollen eyes and broken spirit?
Please get them right, you who is tempted to call the youths to order. I don't think that the youths agitation is to endorse this mans web of crimes or to pardon the sheer brutality, wickedness, violence or cruelty and death he and his gang have woven around their victims and the trauma to the peoples psyche across the length and breath of the Country. No. I think that the youths may be perplexed that different constitutions seem to govern the people as the people move up in the society. I think that the youths are saying that this ought not to be so. They are saying that if all are governed by same constitution, then the same rules must be applied to all.
Therefore, though Nigerians across the Country breath deep sighs of relief with the hope that the Nigerian Police has cut off the major head and artery of the kidnapping malady in the country, nevertheless, there are profound thoughts of wonder at the back of the mind. Thoughts like now we jubilate with our security agencies, we salute their courage and their personal sacrifices to protect and defend us, but who will defend us from those who have stolen our present blind and left us needy and wanting and scattered all over the globe seeking for what is abundantly present in our country, but stolen and controlled by a few who are still poised to continue to steal the future from the children.
This is question at the back of the minds of the youths. This hypocrisy which has become a culture is what I believe that the youths would have wished us to address before we can with a clear conscience address the issue of the opportunist diseases like the Evans who only misguidedly want to ape an ostentatious lifestyle that they have no business copying but wrongfully edged on by the foolish desire to prove that they have the intelligence and the taste too to live life in a "big" way.
Therefore, would we say that the youths ought not to carry placards calling for those who have brought out the Evans in them? Those who have caused masses of youths to flee into danger in various other countries where they are shot, slaughtered, shipwrecked, starved, turned into prostitutes and exposed to all manners of indignity. Should the perpetrators of these heinous crimes not also be arrested and bounded and made to face the law? This I believe is the reason for that reaction which seemed to make no sense. Until Nigeria addresses all crimes and punishes all criminals with the same rules and laws, youths will find misguided, sad ways to prove the point that they are not unintelligent but merely lacking opportunities to "succeed". I rest my case.
Florence is A Nigerian journalist based in Uyo Akwa Ibom State
At the surface, the prospect of seeing protesting to "free Evans" placard carrying youths appear like nothing but a laughable antic, most probably sponsored by gang members, relations and beneficiaries of Evans ill gotten wealth, who choose to hide under the guise of protesting youths to try to whip up public
sentiments in the favour of their benefactor. But then, on the other hand, one will sense that this is most probably not the case.
What if the youths of the country genuinely feel sympathy for the kidnapping gangster? What if the youths genuinely empathise with the man whose trade in my opinion, was far worse than that of the criminal who dispossesses his victims of property and material valuables? What could the Nigerian Youths want? Why would he want to publicly identify with an alleged Criminal? What is the cause of the empathy with this darkness and this wielder of terror who steals human beings at gun point as if the robbers who steal material valuables had not done enough wreck on the peoples psyche?
My simple deduction is this. That the Nigerian youths have seen worse crimes by the leaders and seen that no punishment were meted to them who stole the country's wealth dry. Those ones in leadership chosen by ballot or by appointment with the mandate to represent the people but who by some methods gathered millions and billions of dollars, naira and other currencies and left the country and the people hungry, poor and broke.
The youths are probably wondering what part of the constitution gave their leaders the right to raid the treasury and bargain to secretly return part or all of the loot, their identities protected with anonymity and their persons shielded from the arms of the law, while Evans a member of the struggling masses is bounded hands and foot and dragged off in chains with signs of brutality in his swollen eyes and broken spirit?
Please get them right, you who is tempted to call the youths to order. I don't think that the youths agitation is to endorse this mans web of crimes or to pardon the sheer brutality, wickedness, violence or cruelty and death he and his gang have woven around their victims and the trauma to the peoples psyche across the length and breath of the Country. No. I think that the youths may be perplexed that different constitutions seem to govern the people as the people move up in the society. I think that the youths are saying that this ought not to be so. They are saying that if all are governed by same constitution, then the same rules must be applied to all.
Therefore, though Nigerians across the Country breath deep sighs of relief with the hope that the Nigerian Police has cut off the major head and artery of the kidnapping malady in the country, nevertheless, there are profound thoughts of wonder at the back of the mind. Thoughts like now we jubilate with our security agencies, we salute their courage and their personal sacrifices to protect and defend us, but who will defend us from those who have stolen our present blind and left us needy and wanting and scattered all over the globe seeking for what is abundantly present in our country, but stolen and controlled by a few who are still poised to continue to steal the future from the children.
This is question at the back of the minds of the youths. This hypocrisy which has become a culture is what I believe that the youths would have wished us to address before we can with a clear conscience address the issue of the opportunist diseases like the Evans who only misguidedly want to ape an ostentatious lifestyle that they have no business copying but wrongfully edged on by the foolish desire to prove that they have the intelligence and the taste too to live life in a "big" way.
Therefore, would we say that the youths ought not to carry placards calling for those who have brought out the Evans in them? Those who have caused masses of youths to flee into danger in various other countries where they are shot, slaughtered, shipwrecked, starved, turned into prostitutes and exposed to all manners of indignity. Should the perpetrators of these heinous crimes not also be arrested and bounded and made to face the law? This I believe is the reason for that reaction which seemed to make no sense. Until Nigeria addresses all crimes and punishes all criminals with the same rules and laws, youths will find misguided, sad ways to prove the point that they are not unintelligent but merely lacking opportunities to "succeed". I rest my case.
Florence is A Nigerian journalist based in Uyo Akwa Ibom State
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