It perturbs me when i think despite the countless and near impossible feats man has accomplished, feats that have man flying (assisted flight mind you, though rumor has it un-assisted flight has been going down in Edo state since the early 80's) and orbiting outer space, despite these feats and many more, jungle justice is still prevalent in my country. Even more perturbing is the fact that these people who have been lynching petty criminals since the 1900, are everyday people like you and i. I lay emphasis on petty because for the life of me, I have never heard of a corrupt politician being lynched in Nigeria, and i have been hearing of the Jungle brand of Justice since Senior Secondary and corrupt politicians since Junior. First case was that of a boy who was caught stealing NGN 20. Your eyes do not deceive you, yes, TWENTY NAIRA, and since then, not a year goes by that one does not stumble across a case or five of public lynching.
So recently, i got to thinking; (a) how have these lynchers survived centuries without opening their hearts to the civil way of doing things? Is there an SJJ (School of Jungle Justice) somewhere where they send their kids and the kids in time send their kids and so on and that's how they have kept up the family profession? and (b) in the case of stealing, thievery is thievery and there is no excuse for it, but why target just the petty criminals? They do realize they are not doing the Justice department any favors by taking care of petty thieves? and (c) You have to be very broken inside to lynch someone and go about your business later on like it was another day at the park.
Sadly, I am acquainted with a lot of people who give Jungle Justice a nod. E.g Joan from work, who says we need to nip them in the bud before they grow into notorious criminals (i suspect Joan to be an alumni of the SJJ despite her Lasu acquired Bsc ). When i argue against such form of justice, the usual defense is "if only you know what these men are capable of doing or if you have ever been robbed or afraid for your life then you'll understand why it is necessary".
Not so fun fact: i have been robbed before. My sister has been robbed and thrown out of a moving car. My brother has been threatened with a gun and robbed. My mom has been attacked and robbed yet we all maintain, public lynching is a little overkill (pun intended), especially not from people that have no moral right to carry them out.
Like I always tell people like her, even if i agree with that justification, that only accounts for 30% of lynch cases.
Not so tiny fact and something even much more perturbing, 70% of lynches are carried out on non criminals in Nigeria.
There have been cases where innocent individuals were lynched and their innocence only determined after the fact, were it either turned out to be a case of mistaken identity, individuals relying on the ignorance of many to square off a personal vendetta like in the case of that woman in Kano, an act of kindness gone wrong, dumb luck or bad case of pushing the envelope fashion-wise like the case of the girl that was lynched in a market place because she was dressed indecent like. Lets not forget the Alu 4 (God rest their souls).
I remember seeing two little girls one day picking up their processed millet (Akamu) that had fallen by the side of the road and were dusting off sand that had stuck on it to place back on their trays and sell, I approached and asked them why not just throw away the bad batches and they said if they don't sell it their mum was going to beat them. I asked them how much it cost, paid them and insisted they throw them away and go home. I am not trying to sell my self off as a saint, but i shudder to think that under different circumstances, some overzealous youth watching the conversation from afar and assumes I wanted to make away with those girls because I was giving them money and screams for the lynch party.I think of the pains those blows and sticks inflicted on these men, the torture of being burnt when you still have life in you, how we can't even stand the pain of accidentally holding a hot kettle. Think about it.
People need to learn to value human life. We need to empathize with people. We shouldn't condemn people to die by cruel and unjust means because they got caught in the act or are deemed unholy or unrighteous. What sets we that steal public funds, steal the petty cash entrusted in our care at work, lie, cheat, rape, oppress, bully etc apart from they who jungle justice is meted out to? Everyone accused of a crime deserves a fair legal hearing and all guilty of jungle justice must be made to bear the consequences. Because if they can look themselves in the mirror after carrying out such a heinous brand of justice on another human being, then believe it or not these men and women are potential threats to the public safety. Cheers.
