By Francis Ewherido

Let me state ab initio that I am pro-life (born and unborn). God is the giver of life and nobody has the right to take it. Whatever views I express subsequently are without prejudice to my pro-life stance. Last week, the traditional and social media were filled with images of a boy of “seven” years, who was lynched for stealing garri.

A subsequent version of the story, which did not gain as much traction as the initial story, said he was far older than seven years and was actually a member of a four-man gang that specialised in attacking and robbing people. He was caught in the process of robbing a woman of her bag, its contents and her phone. The story said the gang stabbed the woman severally for refusing to peacefully part with her phone.

Predictably, there was a lot of indignation about the barbaric act of lynching; killing a “seven-year-old” for stealing garri, etc. For analysis, I am going to run with the initial story, whether it is true or false. To start with the boy is not seven years. Fortunately, I have an overgrown seven-year-old child, so I know a seven-year-old when I see one.

Second beyond the size, I also know the mental capacity of a seven-year-old. Only an extra-hardened seven-year-old, and I still have my doubts, would go stealing outside his immediate environment and comfort zone. Even the streetwise seven-year-old looks inherently vulnerable. Third, some Lagosians might take to lynching, but very few Lagosians would have the heart to lynch a seven-year-old, and there are many more that will oppose and stop them.

When the story started trending, a lot of venom was spewed at government and relevant government agencies for being unable to protect Nigerians, especially the most vulnerable. In truth, protection of life and property is a primary responsibility of government and it is very difficult to excuse any government that fails in this regard.

But as Professor Pat Utomi rightly observed at our Jacksonite Forum (Alumni and Alumnae of Mass Communication Department, University of Nigeria) last Saturday, there is a collapse of leadership across all strata of the society? What is a seven-year-old doing in the streets? Where are his parents? If anybody should be stealing (that is, if they decided to take to crime), it should be the parents to feed the boy.

The collapse of leadership in the society partly started on the home front from very crooked parents and parents without parenting skills. The only skill some people have about parenting is copulating to bring forth children. Since you do not give what you do not have, they wobble and fumble with the upbringing of their children and deposit these badly finished products on the outer society. What we have in the larger society today is a preponderance of these badly finished products polluting all sectors and strata of the society.

I was asking people on social media last week, how did the photos and video of the lynching get out? Some people were taking the photos and recording the event. Couldn’t these people have used that time to intervene and save the “boy’s”? Of course like the young man, Saul, who kept the clothes of the people who stoned Stephen to death (Acts 7:58) while supervising his execution, they are just as guilty. If they were not taking photos, they would probably have participated in the lynching.

The next question is how we got to this sorry state. A school of thought believes it is an African thing. They draw attention to the xenophobic killings in South Africa, where the black South Africans butcher and burn their fellow Black Africans for no justifiable cause. They remind you of the killings and brutality in South Sudan, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

They also take you back to the election dispute in Kenya some years back when Sky, CNN and other international networks showed live photos of Kenyans butchering their fellow citizens of different ethnicity in the streets. We also have our own share of such killings here.

Another school of thought believes that the general hardship has hardened Nigerians and made them very intolerant. Also, another school of thought blames the police and the judiciary. They tell you that corruption and poor handling of cases by these two institutions make it very easy for murderers and criminals to evade justice. People have lost confidence in these institutions and so take laws into their hands.

Yet another school of thought blames the perpetrators of these crimes. They tell you that these criminals are very vicious and merciless and so deserve no mercy, if they are caught. In truth these criminals have sent many family members and breadwinners to their graves and those lucky to survive the ordeal are physically and/or psychologically maimed, sometimes forever.

Whatever be the case, we cannot go back to Hobsean state of nature. We must wrestle our society back from barbarism. Utomi says we need a new agenda for the regeneration of our society. Who sets this agenda? I have always believed that for Nigeria to be clean, everybody needs to keep his corner clean. There is no use blaming those entrusted with billions when you are not faithful over the few thousands put in your care.

Put in another way, you cannot blame those who oversee millions of people when you cannot competently run your household, comprising your spouse and sometimes one-quarter child. Sometimes parents bring children under ten years old to church and cannot control them. We need to remove the speck from our eyes so that we might see well to clear what we consider logs in other people’s eyes. Put your home front in order. After all, we say charity begins at home.

Notwithstanding, some people believe that whether their hands are filthy or clean, they should hold those in government accountable because they are overseeing our commonwealth. Even if grudgingly, you have to concede that they have a point. Those entrusted with our commonwealth must be a cut above the led, because once the head of the fish is good, the rest of it will be okay.

Specifically, the police and the judiciary must do a lot more to earn the trust of Nigerians. I personally believe that distrust of these two institutions, especially the police, is the main reason fueling the increasing cases of jungle justice.