Adeze Ojukwu
WITHOUT the benevolence of a Danish Charity worker, Anja Ringgren Loven, little Hope Uwem would have died two years ago in Akwa Ibom State. The survival and transformation of Hope, who was abandoned by his parents, over alleged witchcraft, resonate the demand to eradicate obnoxious cultural and religious practices that destroy and undermine human lives. In the name of culture, many people especially children, women and aged are killed, sexually violated, ostracized and dispossessed of their properties, due to useless ancient and quaint ideologies. He was in a critical condition, wrecked by severe malnutrition, weight loss and kwashiorkor, before he was graciously rescued by Loven, along with her Nigerian husband David Emmanuel Uwem and the team.
Today, he is a living miracle because a good Samaritan defied the heinous culture of killing suspected child witches. Loven recently shared online pictures of Hope and his miraculous progress in a stirring Face Book post: ‘On the 30th of January 2016, David Emmanuel Umem and I together with Nsidibe Orok and our team went on a rescue mission that would change our lives forever. On the 31st of January 2016, we showed pictures of the little boy we rescued the day before. We named him Hope. He survived. I celebrate Hope and the persons responsible for his survival and recovery. Words are not enough. Today the pictures tell his story,’ she added. Her benevolence is reminiscent of that of Mary Slessor, a Scottish missionary, who was frontal in stopping the practice of killing of twins in the defunct Eastern region.
This gruesome practice seems to have been replaced by other atrocities, such as the despicable merchandising of children, popularly called ‘baby factory.’ This diabolical business is perpetrated by greedy operators of fake orphanages and unscrupulous agents involved in purchasing infants from vulnerable teenage girls and selling them exorbitantly to desperate couples. This is sad considering the region’s notoriety for horrendous discriminations against widows and orphans.
Some of the cultural patterns in the South-West seem quite macabre, with fetish traditions and ritual killings from Badoo gang in Ikorodu to evil forests of Ibadan, ritual dens in Osun and cult clashes in Ogun states. For several months, Badoo cult members terrorized Ikorodu town killing and maiming many residents. Is it not preposterous to believe that human organs and cadaver can multiply money?
Sad to note that these horrendous acts in the view of many, mirror the philosophical milieu of the region. Few weeks after smashing a notorious fetish den in Ilesha Osun State, the police uncovered another criminal dungeon with multiple shrines and shallow graves in Ilobu area of the state. Recently, suspected ritualists gruesomely murdered Mr Sunday Ibo, a commercial motorcycle rider, Odogbolu area of Ogun State, even as they removed his vital organs, allegedly for money. The North has continued to attract international attention and financial support to tackle its numerous socio-cultural challenges, including the subjugation of women and children, which are not only reprehensible but defy human logic.
Terrorist groups such as Boko Haram, Fulani herdsmen and other armed bandits have turned the region into a theatre of war. Obviously, efforts by the global community and government to tackle these groups have been ineffective, due to ideological tenets of the people. These complexities are exacerbated by a culture of systemic inequities, illiteracy, poverty, child abuse, gender discriminations, street begging, overpopulation, drug abuse among others.
Senator Shehu Sani blamed the elites for the carnage in the region. ‘Most political elites from northern Nigeria are not loudly speaking out against the mass murder going on in northern Nigeria, perpetrated by bandits, armed herdsmen or organised criminal gangs out of fear that they may be labelled as anti-Federal Government or anti-president. The elites save their necks by their silence and the necks of the masses are continuously slaughtered.’ Successive governments have spent billions of naira on fighting terrorism, to no avail because the insurgents are driven by religious extremism radically opposed to westernization.
Emir of Kano, Lamido Sanusi, has severally denounced this disingenuous dogmatism saying: ‘Denying the right to pursue scientific and technological knowledge and restricting people to Islamic knowledge is the best means of ensuring that Muslims in Northern Nigeria will be remain economically backward. ‘I’m upset at the legion of beggars on the streets and is trying to bridge the gap between the backward North and South..
I believe that conservative Muslims are stuck in the 13th Century and their claim that children need no other knowledge than Islamic studies flies in the face of reality. ‘All the poverty, under-development and immense suffering in the North are a result of uneducated masses refusing to learn work or a trade. The majority of technicians in Kano are from the South while untrained indigenes beg? ‘Why is it that conservative Muslims who claim to be against scientific progress enter aeroplanes and fly to perform the Hajj in Mecca rather than using camels to cross the desert! Why do they watch sermons beamed by TV live from Mecca and read the Holy Quran on their laptops yet profess to abhor modern technology? There is no harm in copying from the West, if it brings succour to the masses of poverty stricken Muslims in Northern Nigeria,’ he added.
Former president Olusegun Obasanjo underscored this point at a public event recently. He said: ‘You cannot use the security methods that were used in the colonial times and assume that it would be effective in the 21st Century. Adopt modern security techniques and don’t say that it is not your culture. Culture is dynamic. It changes. When we ordered motorcycle riders to ensure they wear crash helmets for safety, the late Abubakar Rimi objected and said it was not their culture in the North to wear helmets. I responded by telling him that riding a motorcycle is not their culture, either. It is a western culture.
I also told him that if he wants to retain the cultural means of transportation in the North, then, everybody should be riding a donkey or a camel because motorcycles were invented by the West.’ Nigeria’s quagmire is largely due to untenable traditions, religious extremities, and flawed political structures. Indeed many citizens may remain disenfranchised politically, economically and educationally, unless this culture of impunity, nepotism, corruption and repugnant traditions are jettisoned.
The nation’s bourgeoning population, for instance, largely viewed, as a ticking bomb, has become a political tool by desperate politicians. The recent use of underage voters in elections is an embarrassment to government and (INEC). It is also perhaps, a foretaste of what’s ahead.
Ojukwu writes via [email protected]