The recent massacre of four University of PortHarcourt (UNIPORT) students and tagged criminals by the people of Aluu inRivers State who became the prosecutor and the judge overnight in their own courtof law has left many Nigerians and foreigners in a stupor of surprise and pangsof anger and righteous indignation. It had been shock, grief and lamentationsince the judicial killings took place. Before the unfortunate incidence atAluu, forty students were allegedly killed at the Federal Polytechnic, Mubi inAdamawa State. Why killing innocent souls for no just cause especially futureenlightened leaders? The action of the killers is embarrassing, degrading andhas not only dented but denigrated our image nationally and internationally. Itportrays red and black image in the practice of public relations.
Now that the Aluu community massacred four studentsfor an unconfirmed allegation, which was not substantiated by a court ofcompetent jurisdiction but the people of Aluu, who are now the real criminals,is it the Aluu community or the students? The jungle justice exhibited by Aluupeople without following the appropriate procedure is condemnable,unprogressive, wicked and clear demonstration of not wanting or encouraging anygood thing. To me, the people of Aluu are the criminals for going into wantondestruction of students by taking the law into their hands. What a dangerousdichotomy indeed!
Furthermore, the Federal and Rivers State governmentsshould rise to the challenge of unmasking the real culprits behind the cowardlyand dastardly act no matter how highly or lowly placed in the society andcrushed them in a most exemplary manner to serve as deterrent to others whowould ever think of engaging in such act. This is because the act is not onlycondemnable as it is despicable and regrettable putting Nigeria in bad lightwhich is the very depth of abomination. Consequently, there is need for allNigerians to always be religiously and jealously guided by the word of anelderstatesman, octogenarian and first executive president of Nigeria, AlhajiAliyu Shehu Shagari, a professional teacher, and career politician when he saidand I quote “This moment of our history demands of all of us the spirit oftolerance and cooperation rather than the things that divide us, we will havesucceeded in bequeathing a fitting legacy to the coming generation”.
However, let this be a time of sober reflection for usall. As Nigerians and international communities condemn the wicked act, leteverybody look inward and reappraise what happened. Injustice and oppression cannot but ultimately producea desire for revenge and or rebellion but the law of the land should beadequately applied. Let our deep sympathy go to all who lost their lives,persons and sense of security. Nigeria needs to be made safe for all; and thefederal government should lead and show the way to this, purposefully anddecisively especially through its security agencies.
In my opinion, all progressive and articulateNigerians irrespective of religion, tribe and status must dislodge the idea ofbeing agents of darkness and destruction. In this connection therefore, it isabsolutely necessary with due respect, humility and sense of responsibility toappeal to all Nigerians to remain steadfast, focused on the path of truth,honour, fairness and justice so that Nigeria can make meaningful progresseconomically and politically in our current democratic structure under theleadership of Dr. Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan, GCFR, popularly referred toas “GEJ”.
With these recent killing of students in Port Harcourtand Mubi, one may say that Nigeria’s democracy is therefore dangerous if themassacre is not properly investigated and the perpetrators brought to face themusic. If not it might lead to a stage that the falcon can no longer hear thefalconer and that things will fall apart. This is not the best for Nigeria’s democraticstructure. In the words of Desmond Mpilo Tutu, “Justice must be done to thepoor and oppressed and if the present system does not serve the purpose, thepublic conscience must be roused to demand another”. In other words, thefederal government needs to investigate thoroughly if there was crassa negligentia, that is, gross negligence by any person or group ofpersons that would have helped to stop the killings and then follow dueprocess. Let us not make Nigeria a sick country by our actions.
CharlesIkedikwa Soeze, fhnr, fcida, fcai, cpae, son, emba, ksq.
isa Mass Communication Scholar from first degree to doctoral level, publicaffairs analyst and Assistant Director (Administration)/Head, Academic andPhysical Planning (A&PP) at the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI),Effurun, Delta State, Nigeria. (08036724193) charlessoeze@yahoo.ca
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