As a country, Nigeria feels strange in so many ways. These feelings of strangeness are no doubt largely supplied by the aching possibility that anything can happen at any time.
To reckon with the strangeness that bites them like serpents, Nigerians treat each other like strangers in competition for strangled resources. There is a kind of brutal and bludgeoning aggression that many Nigerians bring to bear in their relationship with each other.
On March 25, 2025, about sixteen hunters travelling from Port Harcourt to Kano for the Eid celebrations were fed to the flames in Uromi, Edo state, on flimsy but fatal accusations of being kidnappers. It was not the first time.
Three years earlier, precisely on May 12, 2022, the hallowed grounds of the Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto State served up a stage for one of the most chilling crimes ever to rock Nigeria. In the glare of the midday sun, Deborah Samuel, a 22-year-old student, was lynched on allegations of blasphemy.
One of the greatest indicators that Nigeria is not yet ready for the understated civilization which underpins developed countries is found in the number of those who participate in dishing out mob justice, or enjoy the spectacle from afar.
It is damningly bizarre that some Nigerians prefer to supply fuel, car tyres, and matchsticks to burn suspected criminals rather than ask pertinent questions and hand them over to the appropriate law enforcement agencies.
It is even more telling that many Nigerians who happen to stumble on such scenes prefer to whip out their mobile phones and take pictures and videos while people burn. This indicts their humanity to no end.
Nigerians who often form these killer mobs, whether as killers or witnesses, are often criminals themselves.
Cracks cover Nigeria’s criminal justice system. There is hardly ever justice for the many crimes committed against Nigerians. Nigerians fall victim to the worst crimes and their perpetrators slip through the yawning cracks of the system, re-strategise and reappear elsewhere to perpetrate more chilling crimes.
A weak criminal justice system has ensured that Nigeria has continued to recycle criminals who refine the art of unleashing terror on Nigerians.
Knowing this is Nigeria, knowing what has come to be known about Nigeria, it is safe to say that this will happen again. It is only a matter of time before helpless and hapless Nigerians run into the mob, for whom justice is murder with maximum agony.
There will be yet more incidents of these outrageous crimes against Nigeria. Because the system and those who supervise it are pathetically reactionary, more Nigerian citizens will be butchered and burned alive for doing nothing before law enforcement personnel can make it to the scene.
When it happens again, Nigerians will be caught in yet more rounds of hand-wringing and horror.
It is good to see lightening fast actions being taking to serve justice in the case of the sixteen hunters. Swift justice should be the template whenever there is a crime. It should be what is served no matter the victim or the volume of outcry. Those who do these things must be left in no doubt that their actions will provoke the gravest consequences.
Again, the police and other security personnel must improve their capacity to pick up intel and nip these crimes in the bud even before they occur. They must retool their communication channels to ensure that they can receive information about these crimes as early as possible.
They must also be able to mobilize to arrest such crimes at the shortest possible notice.
If these crucial steps are taken, Nigeria may just move from being a jungle without justice to a jury where justice is undeniable.
Kene Obiezu,
