Literally, they wield the biblical first stone; without compunction they cast it, catching the hapless in a hail of stones and condemning them to the most horrific of deaths.
They colour outside the lines themselves and tucked into every Nigerian street especially the busiest and seediest, they await the cry of `Thief, thief, thief’ – like the chickadee`s mobbing call – to emerge and join the frenzy.
Welcome to Nigeria`s mob courts where mob justice mirrors injustice at its worst. Some years ago, the story broke of how in a busy Lagos market, a boy, barely in his teens, was lynched for allegedly stealing garri.
There was another story from Onitsha of a lady who was lynched for allegedly stealing a mobile phone. It later emerged that she was innocent after all.
Many Nigerian cities have borne witness to the horrors. The cast of participants is always divvied up into four groups: those who do the lynching; those who cheer those who do the lynching; those who stand by and watch, and in this age of social media, emergency videographers. So, the flames rage, condemning those it catches to the only fate possibly worse than death.
Away from the dignity of judicial proceedings which deigns to cover the nakedness of even the worst criminals with the fig leaves of judicial propriety and procedure, those caught out on the streets, by Nigeria`s angry mobs which enlist many rabid criminals, live a living hell before they are sentenced to the real hell by Nigeria`s religious retrogrades. They burn here before they are sent to the unquenchable flames.
Because many of those who have been lynched were only victims themselves of some of those who joined others to lynch them, flames which burn those sentenced to die by fire in Nigeria`s mob courts cast light into the many hearts destitute of any conscience.
The mobs, their macabre methodologies and their morbid fascination resoundingly rebuke the delivery of justice in Nigeria while mercilessly shoving into the dock the country`s access to justice for it is a fundamental fulcrum of justice that everyone deserves a fair trial no matter how egregious the allegations against them may be.
But tell that to the venue of vultures so quick with a match. In Nigeria, a strand of distrusts runs from most Nigerians through many of the country`s institutions. Many Nigerians view practically every Nigerian institution with grave suspicion.
Thus, it is common place to hear people ask: “Why should we hand criminals over to the police when the police will eventually let them go?” or “Is the judiciary not corrupt and compromised, they will let them go at the end of the day?”
So, in a country of shortcuts and quick-fixes, those publicly caught red-handed or alleged to have been caught red-handed in thievery soon feel fiery flames licking up every hair on their bodies.
Even in times of fuel scarcity, fuel materializes out of nowhere, tyres appear too and then matchsticks complete the inventory of incineration. The offender is drenched in petrol, a tyre hung around his neck and a fiery spectacle lit like the Olympic torch.
Just how do some Nigerians stomach the sight? Just how do the vultures who gather and participate take in everything? Just how do people descend into the depths of such dark depravity? Do they ever emerge? If they do, do they remain the same?
How do some Nigerians find the strength to nod their heads in approval of the antics of the lynch mobs which count many criminals in their ranks?
Should a people starved of empathy from their government also turn against themselves at the slightest opportunity? It should never be so. If Nigeria is to be safe, then the law will have to take its course every time and everywhere or at least be allowed opportunities to do so.
But in a country where lawlessness laps up a wide latitude, the rule of law is poised to remain an illusion, consigned to the margins by the insatiety of those for whom burning anything is the only solution to everything.
While they wield matchsticks and fuel, the long arms of the law in Nigeria must not fail to go after those who stoke the fires in a country already aflame.
Kene Obiezu,
keneobiezu@gmail.com
