Ibifila Asks: What Is Justice In Lynching A 7-year Old Boy For Stealing?
Today, our nation is outraged at the news of a 7-year old who was lynched for stealing garri somewhere in the Badagry area of Lagos. On
some other part of the media, there are allegations that he was part of a team
of robbers who specialise in stabbing people and carting off with their phones,
and had even killed a 20-year old boy in January.
Such news comes with so much painful feelings when we take
our eyes off the moment, and attempt to think through the path that must have
led to such a destination for that child.
Who are his parents? Where is his family? Where does he
live? Who does he stay with? Where are those who are supposed to take care of
him?
If truly he was among a gang of robbers, how did he get in?
What led him in? Did he have enough food and comfort, and still got into such
mess at a very tender age? How could he have known so much evil at seven?
And unto the exercise of jungle justice, couldn’t there have
been a better way? Have the law enforcement agents not been aware of the
alleged crimes going on in the area to do something legal to stop it? Couldn’t it
have been prevented before it got to the point where the people thought taking
justice into their hands was the best option?
And to the moment; do we think any problem has been solved
so far by the lynching? Do we even know the root of the matter? Have the people
really exercised justice?
What really is justice in killing a child involved in crime,
in a country where corruption thrives, and the older and elite folks are
committing atrocities in high places, which end up sending the lower people
into poverty and crime?
What is justice when we haven’t thought of those who must
have led the child into the path of evil, taught him to steal, stab and hurt
others (if the accusations are true)?
I still maintain a strong stand on my opinion that children
are innocent, until our world makes them not to be. They are like chameleons, reflecting
what the world puts in front of them (and we do that in many ways).
For everyone who is hurt by this event, I dare say it should
stir up a passion inside of us for children, to, at least, play our part in
making the world safe for them to grow up healthily and learn the right things
so they could be better people.
Those who judge the little boy should also think about how
they are helping to stop this kind of evil from eating up our children. If you
are pained, you can do something to make sure another hungry child doesn’t get
to the point where crime becomes his only solution.
If you’ve been a victim of these young criminals, I feel
your pain. But the only true consolation you can have is when you can boast of
helping to prevent it from happening to another person, by helping to take a
child out of the pit. That should be your vengeance.
As I write this, the lyrics of Shania Twain’s God Bless TheChild still rings in my heart; I’ve been listening to it severally this
morning. And I join her to say,
Hallelujah, hallelujah
God bless the child who suffers.
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