IF and when the Nigerian society prioritises the restoration of family values, then a conversation about proper upbringing of the country’s young generation can begin. Increasingly, it appears that amid the contradictions and immiseration in which the country is mired, such ideas as civility, decency and the sanctity of human life have lost appeal. Some of Nigeria’s young are demonstrably depraved individuals. Or how does anyone process the story of Francis Palowei, a final year student of the Niger Delta University (NDU), Amasoma, who was on July 15 clubbered to death by hoodlums over an illegal N500 levy? The police command in Bayelsa State has begun a manhunt for the killers of the hapless student. According to the command’s spokesperson, ASP Musa Mohammed, some youths killed the student following his alleged refusal to pay a N500 levy to climb a sand dump in Amasoma. The deceased, a student of Social Science Education and a native of Obrigbene in Ekeremor Local Council of the state, was said to have visited the sand dump, which serves as a relaxation spot for most youths in the area with some of his friends and was heading to the top of the dump when he got into an argument with some miscreants in the area.
Seeing that students had formed a habit of mounting the dump for the sheer fun of it, the miscreants had decided to make quick money from the spot, charging each user of the ‘facility’ N150. On the fateful day, however, large number of students around the dump gave them further ideas: they increased their illegal fees to N500. But the victim insisted on paying the old rate and, brooking no dissidence, they were said to have mobilised against him, calling for reinforcements among certain youths in the community. The outcome was fatal.
Reacting to the incident, the Public Relations Officer of the NDU, Mr Ndoni Igezi, described it as unfortunate, stating that police were already on top of the situation. He said that the owner of the sand dump located at the end of the community did not charge any fees on it, but certain youths in the community had monetised it.
This story certainly illustrates the criminal proclivity of jobless and criminally minded youths with a patently defective upbringing. It is galling that the suspects in this story not only monetised private property with which they had no proprietary relationship but also indiscriminately increased their levies without any challenge whatsoever. Now, because of their criminal action, the relationship between students of the NDU, located at the Wilberforce Island axis of the Amasoma community, and their hosts has become strained. It is saddening that the miscreants, who should have been stopped in their tracks by members of the community acting in conjunction with law enforcement, particularly as the owner of the site in question had not authorised them to collect any levies on his behalf, were allowed to carry out criminal activities until they eventually caused the loss of an innocent life, putting his family and friends in deep anguish. That demonstrates clearly that crime festers when the perpetrators face no consequences whatsoever. The community and the authorities should not have allowed the miscreants to turn that place into a money collection site. At any rate, they should have stopped the practice once they discovered it. The practice is eerily similar to the Omo Onile criminality in the South-West, defined by the activities of miscreants forcing people building homes to pay all kinds of illegal fees or face death or grievous injury. The Omo Onile are part of the criminals presiding over the ungoverned spaces in the country.
Assuming but not conceding that the slain student had indeed breached a code, was mob action the reasonable step to take? How could a promising youth be cut down in cold blood through such an extreme version of jungle justice? How could anyone simply decide to beat and kill a person for not agreeing to pay an illegal levy on a recreational site? What were they expecting to happen to them after committing murder? Indeed, what has life become in Nigeria with nobody caring a hoot about snuffing life out of others for no reason at all? What value and respect do people have for the authorities if they could decide to act with such reckless abandon as to kill others without expecting any consequences?
These and other questions will continue to come up as the society grapples with the gradual descent into anarchy. Increasingly, nobody respects the available structures of order due to the incompetence and corruption that have pervaded the social order for quite some time in the country. The police must fish out the perpetrators. Murder is not justified under any guise. The police should redeem the situation by treating the current case with diligence and ensuring the apprehension of all those involved in the brutal killing of the hapless victim. Perhaps seeing a viable sign of the good work of the police in this particular case could help to ginger renewed public interest and confidence in them as the country strives to restore a semblance of real and functional order.
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