Barbarity and survival

Also published in Daily Trust  

Though, the general stereotype about the Sub-Saharan Africans that they are inherently barbaric cannot be scientifically or academically justified, the amount of sheer cruelty that characterizes their acts of violence against one another supports and indeed makes it hard to refute this stereotype. After all, the alarming prevalence of this savage attitude among Nigerians can easily be manipulated to purportedly support it, because being a country with the largest Black people population in the world; Nigeria represents the most reliable yardstick to arrive at any conclusion about the Black people.

Obviously, Nigerians have for long lived and resiliently coped with the sense of constant horror imposed upon them by the prevalence of barbaric crimes in the society, which also influences and dictates their subconscious attitudes towards their day-to-day schedules and lifestyles. Unfortunately also, as the situation persists and continues to deteriorate further, many forms of violent acts of crime as grievous as assassination, armed robbery, ritual killing and gruesome lynching, have virtually ceased to provoke any considerable public shock anymore due to the high rate of their prevalence in the society.

By the way, the fact that the occurrence of crimes of this nature is extremely rare here in the United Arab Emirates, the sheer amount of shock it evokes in people, whenever it occurs, and the magnitude of the outcry it provokes surprise me a lot, because I often recall how in my own country, even extremely shocking and nerve-wracking acts of fatal cruelty have literally become too common to attract appropriate media coverage, which unfortunately reflects the impression of the general public that has resigned to its fate. For example, lynching in our streets where alleged criminals are mercilessly and summarily burnt to death has become a common phenomenon.

In the meantime, many more forms of atrocious brutality and mercilessness continue to emerge while the general public wallows under the attendant horror. Yet, of all such forms of horrible acts of barbarism, the growing trend of throat-slitting, which was introduced by Boko Haram insurgents, is certainly the cruellest form of inhumanity to inflict on a fellow human being. The particular barbarism of this form of murder is not only the decapitation of the victim; it is also in the act of laying him down and slaughtering him like a ram. For instance, a widely circulated short video clip that showed how some Boko Haram insurgents slaughtered a woman, allegedly an undercover security agent was particularly gruesome.

Shekau apparently realizes the sheer amount of terror this form of murder casts into the hearts of people, which explains why he repeatedly threatens to slaughter whoever rejects his delusion or opposes him; a threat his followers actually carry out and sometimes videotape and publish unapologetically.

Worse still, even though Nigeria’s security agents have for long been involved in extrajudicial killings of suspects in their custody, their growing involvement in indiscriminate and barbaric acts of violence against defenceless people is particularly alarming, because it confirms how the country increasingly turns, or rather being turned into an uninhabitable jungle of a sort where not only anarchy prevails but also barbarism with impunity as well.

Moreover, though the Defence Headquarters denied soldiers’ involvement in the recently circulated video in which some Nigerian soldiers were seen slaughtering some unarmed and clearly subdued civilians, all indications, clues and circumstances of the video clip content confirm that the perpetrators of such unimaginable barbarism were indeed government soldiers. After all, since the eruption of the current insurgency, so many people particularly in the Northeast have actually fallen victims of such extrajudicial killings by the security forces, and many more others have witnessed it.

Besides, in 2009 Nigerian security forces engaged in systematic extrajudicial killings of many captured alleged Boko Haram insurgents in broad daylight in the streets of Maiduguri and within the premises of various security facilities there, which were also videotaped and shown on all major international television channels. Nevertheless, the culture of impunity inherent in the country’s body system shielded the perpetrators and enabled them to go away with it.

Obviously in this barbaric culture where rule of law steadily losses ground to impunity, which in turn breeds anarchy, and even though nobody, including the microscopic elite, is immune from the implications of the worsening security crisis in the country, the growing vulnerability of the less privileged, who have been literally abandoned to their fate by the very system that is supposed to protect their lives, dignities and properties, remains particularly worrisome.

Completely and innocently oblivious of what danger might be lurking around, the already largely economically disadvantaged and toiling average Nigerian is also increasingly and constantly exposed to the risk of being caught up in bomb attack in markets, bus stations, mosques, churches, schools etc. or be summarily executed in cold blood by the country’s increasingly barbaric security personnel or Boko Haram terrorists.

People should therefore be extremely cautious and also take all necessary and even extra security and safety precautionary measures to avoid flashpoints and other vulnerable spots while in the meantime constantly supplicating God the Almighty for protection. Yet, while the situation continues to deteriorate under the watch of the ruling elite, the prospect of turning things around in the country depends on the masses’ determination to take their destiny into their hands by identifying their common interests and working concertedly to ensure that only the right people emerge as leaders at various levels of government throughout the country.