A Jungle Without justice

As a country, Nigeria feels strange in so many ways. These feelings of strangeness are no doubt largely supplied by the aching possibility that anything can happen at any time.

To reckon with the strangeness that bites them like serpents, Nigerians treat each other like strangers in competition for strangled resources. There is a kind of brutal and bludgeoning aggression that many Nigerians bring to bear in their relationship with each other.

On March 25, 2025, about 16 hunters travelling from Port Harcourt to Kano for the Eid celebrations were fed to the flames in Uromi, Edo state on flimsy but fatal accusations of being kidnappers. It was not the first time.

Three years earlier, precisely on May 12, 2022, the hallowed grounds of the Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto State served up a stage for one of the most chilling crimes ever to rock Nigeria. In the glare of the midday sun, Deborah Samuel, a 22-year-old student was lynched on allegations of blasphemy.

One of the greatest indicators that Nigeria is not yet ready for the understated civilization which underpins developed countries is found in the number of those who participate in dishing out mob justice, or enjoy the spectacle from afar.

It is damningly bizarre that some Nigerians prefer to supply fuel, car tyres and match sticks to burn suspected criminals rather than ask pertinent questions, and hand them over to the appropriate law enforcement agencies.

It is even more telling that many Nigerians who happen to stumble on such scenes prefer to whip out their mobile phones and take pictures and videos while people burn. This indicts their humanity to no end.

Nigerians who often form these killer mobs, whether as killers or witnesses, are often  criminals themselves.

Kene Obiezu,

keneobiezu@gmail.com