Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - No seven-year-old boy burnt in Lagos ­ Police

Many, thanks, Brother Michael, for placing this crucial discussion in a proper histo-political context, with witnessed (or naked) examples of "Operation Weetie" that you saw in the village five decades ago, not in the 21st century. Thank you also for the proper spelling of "weetie" (nor=t "wetty")!

 

Mentioning the days when the glorious Land called Nigeria flowed with milk and honey (as you indicated) did remind me personally of when (I) a gallon of rich (red) palm oil from Okitipupa Oil Refinery cost only about 2 Naira or even less; (2) a dozen of farm eggs at Awolowo Market in Ebutte Metta (Shomolu), near Palm Groves Estates, cost less than 1 Naira, hence Nigerian children and adults from all ethnic groups alike, were well fed and healthy looking; (3) a loaf of bread, used to eat ewa (cooked red beans) cost less than 1 Naira; etc., etc.  

 

In fact, there are also many contexts, when one seriously looks back (in Sankofa context) at the glorious past of Nigeria. For example, being only a Nigerian at heart -- but not a bona fide citizen of that great oil-rich Nation -- I was often puzzled by some crucial nationalistic nuances: It included the fact I saw a lot of greatness and promise in Chief M.K. O. Abiola as a hard-working businessman (in spite of Fella . Therefore, when I interviewed him as a Journalist in London for CONCORD INTERNATIONAL Magazine (owned by him but headed by Editor Fidel Odum, who passed away at 63 years old in 2010 and eulogized by Oxford-based Dr. Anthony Akinola in our USA-Africa Dialogue), I asked him why he was risking his business acumen and riches to do politics anywhere in Africa? His simple response to my query was about dabbling in partisan politics to make sure that through his extensive farming and political prowess,  his fellow Nigerians would have adequate food to eat. He added: "Look, today, at the price of bread, a staple food of most Nigerians. The poor cannot afford it."  

 

Now, we are not just looking at how to save children and the weak from starvation but, instead, from being burnt alive in that great Nation. How sad! Hopefully, the police authorities can be trusted to say that the child-burning story was a hoax! Really?

A.B. Assensoh.

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From: 'Michael Afolayan' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 23, 2016 1:21 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com; Toyin Falola
Cc: anthony.a.akinola@gmail.com; andohs1@southernct.edu; Doyin Coker-Kolo; Dawn; Philip Aka; titilopes41@gmail.com; Afoaku, Osita
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - No seven-year-old boy burnt in Lagos ­ Police

 

Thank you, Sir, Big Brother A.B. I appreciate your empathy on this matter. I wonder why anyone could look at the matter any other way. In my book, evil smells evil, regardless of the linen in which it is wrapped. Thanks for calling up the memory of "Operation Weetie." Two of my neighbors' homes in the village were set ablaze right in front of all of us in the village and one of them never survived. People were roasted alive all over the land, to the cheers of heartless crowds. BUT that was five decades ago; AND this is the 21st century. What we are witnessing is not a "Sankofa" model, where we learn from the past; but alas, our people are moon-walking back to our darkest past!  You wonder why a land that used to flow with milk and honey now flows with the blood of innocent lives. We have met our enemy, and alas, it is us – pure and simple. So sad indeed! May the tears of genuine people like you heal our land . . .

Michael O. Afolayan

On Tuesday, November 22, 2016 8:01 AM, "Assensoh, Akwasi B." <aassenso@indiana.edu> wrote:

Brother Michael:

 

All the points you have marshaled in your brief but potent response below are simply superb and majestic!

 

You see, many Nigerian brothers and sisters today forget that similar acts of lawlessness and human depravity led to the first Nigerian coup as well as the unfortunate subsequent civil war. In fact, I was very proud of the unbiased manner in which Brother Okey Ndibe, two nights ago, described the Nigeria-Biafra civil war in his brilliant C-Span interview with the legendary Brian Lamb.

 

As a young Journalist in Nigeria, working for WEST AFRICA Magazine and DAILY TIMES newspaper in Lagos, I still remember  that there was something callously called "Operation Wetty", which also involved dousing gasoline or petrol on a human being (a political opponent) and setting him or her ablaze in Nigeria. I also remember that Peter Pan, the indomitable Journalist, writing a column to caution his fellow Nigerians against lawlessness, titled "Before Darkness Falls". And truly, darkness did fall in Nigeria on January 15, 1966 as well as barely two years later when the "bloody" civil war erupted, in which hunger was prescribed by the Nigerian side as an effective weapon of war! Wow!!

 

This morning, Brother Michael, I cried like an innocent baby, as I read your potent sentence: "Any society where jungle justice is an acceptable form of sanction has a major problem." How true! Many thanks, indeed!!

 

A.B. Assensoh.

 

 

 

 

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From: 'Michael Afolayan' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2016 6:55 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - No seven-year-old boy burnt in Lagos ­ Police

 

BUT granted that the so-called 7-year old was not seven after all but seventy. Granted that it was not gari that he stole or attempted to steal but a car or even something more valuable, are we now so morally depraved to the extent that lynching, or any other form of extra-judicial punishment  to a human-being - son, brother, nephew, uncle, father, friend of someone is a normal judicial process in our culture? I still don't get it! Any society where jungle justice is an acceptable form of sanction has a major problem. We need to address that. We seriously do!

 

Michael O. Afolayan

 

On Tuesday, November 22, 2016 1:16 AM, Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:

No seven-year-old boy burnt in Lagos – Police

November 17, 2016

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Police have refuted the news of the lynching of a seven-year-old boy for stealing garri in the Badagry area of Lagos state.

Reports and videos making the rounds on the social media indicate that the boy was set ablaze after being beaten up.

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The reports caused outrage on the social media with many Nigerians calling for an investigation into the incident and an end to jungle justice.

However, the Lagos state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Fatai Owoseni has confirmed, according to a reliable source that the said lynching of the seven-year-old boy over garri theft is untrue.

Police complaint unit, headed by Mr Abayomi Shogunle, in its twitter handle @YomiShogunle, said there was no truth in the purported lynching.

Toyin Falola

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