Re- THE DETENTION OF MINORS IN #ENDBADGOVERNANCE PROTESTS
Cornelius Hamelberg
“It’s a shadowy world, skies are slippery grey
A woman just gave birth to a prince today and dressed him in scarlet
He’ll put the priest in his pocket, put the blade to the heat
Take the motherless children off the street and place them at the feet of a harlot”
(Jokerman)
“I see abuse, what's the use?
Time must let my people loose
'Cause we tryin', I don't know”
I remember on live TV, Ted Heath stamping his feet (literally) and braying in the British House of Commons, “This is not the Gaza Strip !”
In the meantime, whilst minors are being unlawfully brutalised, in NigeriaWorld , the main entertainment news today is about one Bobrisky, a Nigerian transgender personality
But, more seriously, NIGERIA, mother earth’s most populous Black nation, and suddenly, today, it’s headlines everywhere : DETENTION OF MINORS IN #ENDBADGOVERNANCE PROTESTS
“In a statement signed by CISLAC’s Executive Director, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, the organization called on First Lady Senator Oluremi Tinubu to intervene, urging her to see these young detainees as “her own children.”
We are to imagine that in similar circumstances, over there in the United States where poverty is endemic, it is the common denominator for the poor white and the poor black alike, and the plight of underprivileged children is not very different from the plight of underprivileged children in Nigeria, a similar Human Rights organisation would be calling on Jill Biden or the wannabe First Black Woman President Kamala Harris “to intervene, urging her to see these young detainees as “her own children.”
(Once again takes us back to to this Ishmael Reed sentence “He (Bill Clinton) refused to intervene to rescue thousands of Rwandans from genocide. (Did Mrs. Clinton tearfully beseech her husband to intervene on behalf of her African sisters?”)
“It is disturbing and damaging to Nigeria’s global image to witness such treatment of young citizens who were only exercising their constitutional rights,” Rafsanjani stated. ( I almost wrote, “Rafsanjani cried”)
Musa Rafsanjani would like to see international outrage and condemnation by a sensitised world, and sure enough, once duly informed and alerted about what's going on in that part of darkest Africa, the condemnation will swiftly and surely come, but where are the witnesses, photographs, video footage? Has there been any sustained media outrage, protest poetry by Chidi , about such a sacrilege?
Has Bishop Oyedepo only been preaching “suffer suffer suffer for world, enjoy for heaven”?
And the powerful voice of Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah , usually strong on the plight of the Almajiri children , has he been weighing in on the plight of the marginalised and oppressed Nigerian children whose only crime has been that they were standing up for their rights?
Since Nigeria is also a signatory of the Convention on the Rights of the Child what are the mechanisms to ensure the country’s compliance?
This is deeply concerning and the usual stock-in-trade, kneejerk Nigerian reaction of “ Nah wah o!” and looking the other way, simply won’t do
This is deeply concerning and unfortunately, it would seem to be more so to the diasporans living in what proud or not so proud postcolonial Nigerians habitually refer to as more “civilised” democracies such as Sweden, where the Convention on the Rights of the Child is in force - and by implication unlike the less civilised, the uncivilised, the primitive and barbaric. Jungle barbarity, such as the detention, imprisonment , starvation, malnutrition and other maltreatment of minors ever occurring in today's Sweden would not only be an impossible anomaly but an extreme instance of Human Rights transgressions that would have government , opposition, parents, grandparents, teachers, The Red Cross, Save the Children International and the rest of humanity which in Nigeria is often referred to as “civil society” - up in arms and in the name of crime and punishment, and in the name of justice calling for the blood and long-term imprisonment of the transgressors. And of course we would see heads rolling…
However, atrocities that are much much worse than what Musa Rafsanjani has described as currently occurring in Nigeria are currently happening and have been happening for a very long time in the Occupied Territories , check it out :
The detention, imprisonment and maltreatment of minors in the occupied territories
But what does the world care? Does the world care?
Maybe, since Nigeria to some extent aspires to be following the American model, Brer Rafsanjani would like to see the following preamble etched in the Nigerian Constitution and taught at all the mosques, schools, shrines, temples and churches:
Everybody agrees and it is agreed that Nigeria's Children are Nigeria's Future that their education, wellbeing and right to happiness are not negotiable these are some of the questions arising from this latest tragic episode:
Were the minors throwing stones at the law enforcement officers?
If the minors were taken into custody in August ( when in August?) and why has it taken so long for Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, Executive Director, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) & Head of Transparency International-Nigeria And chairman Amnesty International Nigeria 🇳🇬 TO COME OUT WITH THE CONDEMNATION that CISLAC CONDEMNS DETENTION OF MINORS IN #END BAD GOVERNANCE PROTESTS, URGES IMMEDIATE RELEASE?