By Bayo Fasunwon

|

Looking back now, some of the things in our history are making sense now. Many of those words spoken, sang or written in the past, though seemed relevant then were in fact a description of the future wherein we now live. Many events brought one to this conclusion.

When Fela sang about United Nations Organisation being a bed of strange fellows, nobody imagined the Russia-Ukraine war; when Ras Kimono was asking ‘What a gwan?’, we never knew that his song was released just too early; and when Chinua Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’ and ‘No longer at ease’, hit the bookstores, little did we realize that that those classics would climax into ‘there was a country’. Reminiscence brought back an incident that occurred at the later part of my secondary days at Mayflower School, Ikenne.

Tai Solarin had procured the services of a retired Principal and Mathematician, Uncle (so we called him)  H.O Oduneye to assist in running the ‘Student Second Home’, a hostel that serviced three schools. The incident occurred around 7:10pm on the assembly ground. Certain issues had aggravated the students, and Uncle H.O was trying to pacify fraying nerves.

All of a sudden, from amongst the students, an angry voice rang out “Oduneye, o safe o”, meaning Oduneye you are not safe. All efforts to get the culprit failed, and a visibly shaken Uncle H.O replied, ‘you said I am not safe, at seventy years of age, you said I am not safe. If I am not safe, then who is safe? Tell me, who is safe in this country, if at seventy, I am not safe?”

That is the question we should ask ourselves now in this bloodletting, and blood thirsty Nigeria.  The brutal murder of Bamise still leaves  bitter taste in one’s mouth. She had thought that the safest means of transportation in an unsafe political system would be the government owned means of transport, only for the trusted to send her on a journey of no return.

Her case reminds one of a stranded traveler who sought to spend a night in a ‘safe’ Police Station only to be killed by those who should have saved his life. The possible rape and brutal killing of Bamise could be likened to the death of Ikemefuna in the hands of Okonkwo and the execution of Julius Caesar by Brutus – killed by the hands of whom they trusted. Bamise is just one of the many abductees who have been killed and dismembered in the country.

Only few days ago, a young girl was killed and her body dumped behind her mother’s shop, while a presumed cultist had his head severed and hung on a pole for all to see. The stories of those who escaped from this devil incarnates revealed that assailants, kidnappers or their accomplices are in many times than expected closely related or connected with the victims. So it was often a case of the trusted killing those who sought shelter from them.

Many have alluded that these killings were handiworks of ritualists. At a discussion, a well read and respected ‘father’  was emphatically convinced that there was nothing like money rituals. His  opinion based on his investigations that ritual for easy money does not exist. If it does not, why does it continue? If it does not, why do people testify of its efficacy?

Personal findings revealed that ritual monies had existed long before now, but in different dimensions, and different levels of returns. However, apart from ritual money, interactions have also revealed that human rituals are executed in order to gain political ascendancy. It was this opinion that suggests that Political Office Holders (POH) may not be in the best position to stop this barbaric act. Others have opined that even men in uniforms and other security seeking Homo sapiens engage in these rituals for self-protection. Unfortunately, some clerics and clergymen have also been identified as engaging in the heinous crime in order to attract patronage that would lead to financial enthronement.

However, a new dimension to this terrible crime against humanity is the issue of organs harvest. Those in this school of thought have educated that often time, vital missing internal organs are the handiwork of organ merchants, who ‘harvest’ these parts from their victims in order to sell them to ‘customers’ who in turn sell it to dying rich clients who are in dire need of organ donors. Within these categories of ritual killings, who is safe?

The news about killer herdsmen is not as rampant as before, but there are pockets of stories of their activities in the South-West and South East; for the people of Benue, Kaduna, and Zamfara, it is the story of daily cries of woe. Boko Haram has not ceased its onslaughts and economic hardships bite harder. In these places, top ranking and members of the rank and file have been felled by the criminals’ bullets. All these coupled with high costs of farm inputs threaten the food production and in event the food security of this nation. Whether we like to admit it or not, food shortages, famine and increased criminality stare us hard in the face. Who would be safe in these horrifying situations.

In the issues that border on rape and ritual killings, many Nigerians lack the necessary security education that can nip this thing in the bud. Nigerians are mostly unaware of many little things that can save lives, and yours truly is convinced that the National Orientation Agency and the Communication Ministry should deliberately address this issue. A lot of information that could put an end to these acts is withheld, thereby making the evil to continue. If you ask me, Bamise’s death was not the doings of ‘Mr. Nice”, whose other name sounds like the Omicron variant of the deadly COVID-19. Rather it was the outcome of the negligence of other woman who revealed that the same man had previously raped her in the same bus; and many other victims who survived and kept mute. If only she had reported. Possibly, too, a responsive emergency number could have saved many victims of these dastard acts.

However, many of the few who are aware of its existence have told how the number 122 has not helped them in dangerous situations in time past. Had Bamise not alerted a friend, who unfortunately lacked security education despite all the information given, all Nigerians would have called the unfortunate lady a gold digger who got what she deserved in the hands of a ‘yahoo yahoo’ lover. Many cases of suicide in Nigeria, if further investigated would reveal a lot criminals living amongst sane men.  Bamise has taught all, not to jump to hasty conclusions, as no one is safe.

In order to stem the barbaric acts of ritual killings, there is the need for Government to consciously recognize the adherents of this third religion (which POH patronize anyway), interact with them to fish out the bad eggs amongst them. Apart from the introduction of dressing codes, which do not in any, prohibit crime, but may encourage prebendalism, trust that promotes intelligence gathering and conclusive non-preferential investigations must be promoted in the Nigeria Police Force.

Truth be told, no one is safe in this country. The earlier we realize this and take proactive steps, living in Nigeria becomes a risk of negative probabilities.