Nigeria and its culture of oddities

ADEZE OJUKWU

Without the benevolence of a Danish Charity worker, Anja Ringgren Loven, little Hope Uwem would have died two years ago in Akwa Ibom State.

The survival and transformation of Hope, who was abandoned by his parents, over alleged witchcraft, resonate the demand to eradicate obnoxious cultural and religious practices that destroy and undermine human lives.

In the name of culture, many people especially children, women and aged are killed, sexually violated, ostracized and  dispossessed of their properties, due to useless ancient and quaint ideologies.

Hope was in a critical condition, wrecked by severe malnutrition, weight loss and kwashiorkor, before he was graciously rescued by Loven, along with her Nigerian husband David Emmanuel Uwem and the team.

Today Hope is a living miracle because a good Samaritan defied the heinous culture of killing suspected child witches and wizards.

Loven recently shared online pictures of Hope and his miraculous progress in a heart-rending Face book post: ‘On the 30th of January 2016, David Emmanuel Uwem and I together with Nsidibe Orok and our team went on a rescue mission that would change our lives forever. On the 31st of January 2016, we showed pictures of the little boy we rescued the day before. We named him Hope. He survived. I want to celebrate Hope. I celebrate the persons responsible for his survival and his outstanding recovery. The pictures show the incredible transformation of Hope from the day of the rescue to today. Words are not enough. The pictures,  one by one, tell his story,’ she added.

Her benevolence is reminiscent of that of Mary Slessor, a Scottish missionary, who was frontal in stopping the practice of killing of twins in the defunct Eastern region.

This gruesome practice seems to have been replaced by other atrocities, such as the despicable merchandising of children, popularly called ‘baby factory.’

This diabolical business is perpetrated by greedy operators of fake orphanages and unscrupulous agents involved in purchasing  infants from vulnerable teenage girls and selling them exorbitantly to desperate couples. This is sad considering the region’s notoriety for horrendous discriminations against widows and orphans.

Some of the cultural patterns in the South West seem quite macabre, with fetish traditions and ritual killings from Badoo gang in Ikorodu to evil forests of Ibadan, ritual  dens in Osun and cult clashes in Ogun States.

For several months Badoo cult members terrorized Ikorodu town killing and maiming many residents.

Is it not preposterous to believe that  human organs and cadaver can produce money?

Sad to note that these horrendous acts in the view of many, mirror the philosophical milieu of the region.

Few weeks after smashing a notorious fetish den in Ilesha Osun State, the police uncovered another criminal dungeon with multiple shrines and shallow graves in Ilobu area of the state.

Before then, Mr. Sunday Ibo, a commercial motorcycle rider, was gruesomely allegedly murdered for  ritual purposes in Odogbolu Local Government Area(LGA) in Ogun State. The killers also removed some of his vital organs, allegedly for money.

The North has continued to attract international attention and financial support to tackle its numerous socio-cultural challenges, including the subjugation of women and children, which are not only reprehensible but defy human logic.

Terrorist groups such as Boko Haram, Fulani herdsmen and other armed bandits have turned the region into a theatre of war.

Obviously efforts by the global community and  government to tackle these groups have been ineffective, due to ideological tenets of the people.

These  complexities are exacerbated by a culture of systemic inequities, illiteracy, poverty, child abuse, gender discriminations, street begging, overpopulation, drug abuse among others.

Successive governments have spent  billions of naira  on fighting terrorism, to no avail because the insurgents are driven by religious extremism radically opposed to westernization.

Emir of Kano Lamido Sanusi has severally campaigned against this disingenuous dogmatism.

His words: “I condemned refusal to expand their knowledge outside their own religion and failure to realise that knowledge is power. Denying the right to pursue scientific and technological knowledge and restricting people to Islamic knowledge is the best means of ensuring that Muslims in Northern Nigeria will be remain economically backward.

“I’m upset at the legion of beggars on the streets and is trying to bridge the gap between the backward North and the Southern parts of the nation. I still believe that conservative Muslims are still stuck in the 13th Century and their claim that children need no other knowledge than Islamic studies flies in the face of reality.

‘All the poverty, under-development and immense suffering in the North are a result of uneducated masses refusing to learn work or a trade. The majority of technicians in Kano are from the South while untrained indigenes beg. How does that make sense?

‘Why is it that conservative Muslims who claim to be against scientific progress enter aeroplanes and fly to perform the Hajj in Mecca rather than using camels to cross the desert! Why do they watch sermons beamed by TV live from Mecca and read the Holy Quran on their laptops yet profess to abhor modern technology? There is no harm in copying from the West if it brings succour to the masses of poverty stricken Muslims in Northern Nigeria,’ he added.

 Former president Olusegun Obasanjo underscored this point at a public event recently.

He said: 'You cannot use the security methods that were used in the colonial times and assume that it would be effective in the 21st century. Adopt modern security techniques and don’t say that it is not your culture. Culture is dynamic. It changes. When we ordered motorcycle riders to ensure they wear crash helmets for safety, the late Abubakar Rimi objected and said it was not their culture in the North to wear helmets. I responded by telling him that riding a motorcycle is not their culture, either. It is a western culture. I also told him that if he wants to retain the cultural means of transportation in the North, then, everybody should be riding a donkey or a camel because motorcycles were invented by the West.'

Nigeria is at crossroads on several fronts, largely due to some untenable traditional and religious patterns.

Indeed many citizens may remain disenfranchised politically, economically and educationally, unless this culture of impunity, nepotism, corruption and repugnant traditions are jettisoned.

The nation’s bourgeoning population, for instance, largely viewed, as a ticking bomb, has become  a political tool  by desperate politicians.

The recent use of under- aged voters in elections is not only an embarrassment to government and Independent National Election Commission (INEC), but perhaps a foretaste of what’s ahead.

The choice before Nigerians is grave.

Now is the time to rise against all forms of retrogressive cultures as well as political absurdities that breed election malpractice, violence, massive rigging, vote buying and use of child voters.

Citizens will do well to take a cue from Zimbabwe, South Africa and Ethiopia, by rejecting politicians bereft of plans to restructure the country, as the panacea for peace and socio-economic growth.