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

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

Department of History

The University of Texas at Austin

104 Inner Campus Drive

Austin, TX 78712-0220

USA

512 475 7224

512 475 7222 (fax)

http://sites.utexas.edu/yoruba-studies-review/

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http://groups.google.com/group/yorubaaffairs 

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