I read a special report by Ayomide Owonibi Odekanyin titled: The child-inmates of Badagry and I cried (I would suggest you read the report before you continue reading this article). I wept like a baby. I cried not because I had so much water in my eyes but because I could literally imagine the gory pictures painted in the article and I know no one should ever go through such “a” situation in life. Sadly, this is no fiction and little children are the ones suffering this heartbreaking and degrading fate. Children who ought to be in the care of their parent, in the absence of which they should be taken care of by the Government in an ideal and sane country. A country that has no value for the least of its citizen has failed and I fear that is the path we are NOW on as a nation as far as our leadership is concerned.

I remember a friend coming home to (Nigeria) from the USA, in the course of our friendly banter, he mentioned that not stopping one’s vehicle when the school bus signal goes red is seen as such a big deal in the USA, so much so that it is punishable by law. Why? Because it is strongly believed that in the children lie the future. The value placed on the individual lives of citizen is high in the USA. More importantly, it is premium where it concerns children who are seen as helpless and dependent on others to get by. This blog post in not a discussion on the USA’s school bus laws and/or sanctions. It is to question what value (if any) our lives as citizens of this nations Nigeria is to our leaders.

Why would under aged children be locked up in prison in a civilized nation? Why would a government have a facility and not cater for the needs of these helpless children? Why would children die like chickens, unaccounted for under government facilities due to negligence, failure and inaction of said government. Even the warders said the children were always better off when they just came into the cell but became living corpses right under the noses of our government. When would our lives mean something to these heartless politicians?

Vivian Osuinyi, Bithia Itulua and Praise Sodipo; three of “Nigeria’s future” died. Their death was not due to natural causes but because of the gross wickedness and largely uncompassionate leadership. The cause is glaring enough even for the blind to see but what do we have? Till date not a single arrest, not a single sanction, no punishments have been carried out, no person has been held responsible for not doing their job right. Yet, we boast of senators, we say we have leaders in this country?

I’d asked a question and I’ll ask again. If any of the three girls who had died was a daughter of one of the highly revered and placed politicians, would this be the same yardstick this case of death would have been measured by? When some lives matter more than some others, then the value placed on the life of the ‘common man’ is indeed measurable. (A petition has been raised on this case here, please do well and sign it).

This inhumane treatment of those not related to those in power has got to stop, it is eating me up, making me want to go crazy, to shout at the top of my voice till someone there gets it in their thick skulls that Nigerians are all humans. That just like the politicians and their families, the average Nigerian should not be treated less nor denied justice based on connections to powerful people or a lack of it. Many times I ask myself, ‘how can this stop?’ The answer that keeps ringing in my ears is, we have to get involved. When I say ‘we’, I mean if you feel the same way I feel or even worse at the level of impunity and total disregard for human lives and welfare being constantly communicated to us by our “leaders” then I am referring to you. I asked a friend to read the article about the child-inmates of Badagry and she replied that she was angry while reading it with frustration towards Nigeria as a whole. I asked further if she would get involved in politics in any capacity and she said she would not but would continually be a voice and also write to that effect. I love that she is going to act towards it but my fear toward that is are we not having too many voices talking, mouths singing and hands writing about all this decadence? Would our solutions come from these? Yes, awareness and mindsets are being re-oriented but until we have these backed with actions, we are not ready to take back power from those who do not deserve to rule. I am not talking about “Occupy Nigeria” kind of action or the Tu-face Idibia kind of marching which are always too wide apart and really are not sustainable in the long term in causing radical changes in the lives of ordinary people.

I am talking about young people with compassion for fellow humans, young people who cry daily, seeing what the ordinary Nigerian goes through, situations that can be avoided under the right leadership. These are the persons who should be our leaders. In addition, I have figured an answer to the question I asked much earlier; our lives would not mean anything to these ‘leaders’ unless we are directly related to them. Think about it, it has not meant anything to them since 1999 and it is not about to change, at least not from the way I see it.

A voting session is on its way again.  Can we break through the status quo of PDP and APC and really get credible vibrant real humans in there? Can we show these people that it is not Obasanjo nor any big names that win elections for them (as PDP wants to start wooing big shots back to their party to win 2019). We hear of disruptive innovations on a daily basis, can we please experience disruptive politics?

I write this from my heart to you please and please, awareness is good but action is better, engagement is key and participating cannot be over-emphasized. Let the lives of those who have gone untimely be a constant reminder that “the person you are waiting to fix this is YOU.” ACT NOW! GET INVOLVED!

 

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