Good evening.
Before leaving the office this evening, I decided to do a once over on the front page of the forum (as I mostly just keep refreshing the politics section for updates) and saw a news item that caught my interest: Newtelegraph reported a case of a girl that died of injuries she sustained after being gang raped by six boys.
From the report, there were two victims but so far, only one has died. I Hope and pray the other makes it to full recovery.
The unfortunate and barbaric incident took place in Onicha Igboeze in Onicha LGA of Ebonyi state, South East Nigeria
Four suspects were said to have been remanded at the federal prison, Abakaliki; while the other two were granted bail at the behest of one Chief Ogbonnaya Okereke.
For convenience purposes, let's call the victim Amaka. (apologies to all the Amakas in the house).
Digest the preamble above as I introduce miss Ese Oruru.
The person Ese Oruru actually needs no introduction on this forum, and perhaps, across Nigeria. Governors, traditional rulers, ministers, police chiefs, senators, civil rights activists, political party bigwigs, mainstream media, religious leaders, legal luminaries, Nobel prize winners, educational heavyweights, and the ordinary man on the street are all familiar with the name Ese Rita Oruru. She rivals the famous Olajumoke in (un)popularity and had what she was associated with a thing of pride, perhaps she would have been the brand ambassador of countless brands across the country today.
Hers was a story of an alleged 13 year old Bayelsan kidnapped and forcefully married and converted to Islam by one Yunusa Yellow, a NORTHERNER
The story of Ese Oruru took the media by storm and literally BROKE THE INTERNET!! The social media, from facebook to twitter, was on fire for days on end as Nigerians were held spellbound by the unbelievably barbaric act of Yunusa Yellow, Ese's alleged boyfriend.
Nairaland of course wasn't left out of the Fun!! Google the words "ese oruru nairaland" and you'd be awe struck at the sheer number of threads that were created on account of that incident! Of course that was expected as nothing gets the forum in a frenzy more than a story of an alleged abuse of a Southerner by a Northerner, or a Christian by a Muslim!
Threads about the incident hurriedly made the front page and run several pages before losing steam- all after commentators must have taken turns to abuse Muslims and Northerners generally. These group of people seem defenceless on the forum and perhaps social media generally since they are not as internet savvy and social media inclined as people from other parts of the country.
At the receiving end of the relentless attacks were:
1. Mr President; his crime being that he's also a Northerner and a Muslim.
2. Emir of Kano whose offence is same as that of Mr President.
Some stretched their hate to their elastic limits as the accuse the president of personally sanctioning the incident since he's a "paedophile" as he also married Aisha "at the age of 13!!"
The attacks went on for days unabated culminating in a threat by Senator Ben Bruce to sue the IGP to the ICC! Abati also arrived the scene to take his own pound of flesh!! Femi Fani Kayode of course also took his share as he could not be left out of the fist fest, moreso, it was right down his alley!!!
Now folks, fast forward a week after, news breaks of a SOUTHERN teenager raped to death by SOUTHERNERS and social media and Nairaland is as quiet as a King Tut's Tomb!!
Why is this so Nigerians??!!
1. Is Ese's life worth more than that of the girl that was brutally raped to death??
2. Are the dramatis personae involved in a crime of this nature supposed to determine the level of press/general coverage/attention it receives?? Would the offence have been more criminal had the rapists come from another region or belong to another religion??
3. Is this the first time a crime of this nature is happening in this part of the country?? Why are they usually undereported?? Whose purpose is the press serving??
4. Following from the logic of the Ese Oruru's commentators, would it be appropriate if one tagged Christians or South Easterners as child rapists and murderers owing to the crime of six folks out of millions??
5. Was the case for Ese borne out of altruism and sheer concern for her welfare or was it more about POLITICS??
6. Would things stand where they are as regards the Ebonyi incident had it been reported the name of one of the culprits is Adamu??
Mull over these while I take a sip of water... Brb.
Back..
Now, as much as we can, we always try to pass ourselves off as modern, civilised and intelligent folks with unrivalled knowledge about the essence of humanity, and more often than not, in the course of doing so, the underbelly of our disdain for civility is revealed; ironic one would say.
Here's what I'm talking about: what Yunusa did was unacceptable in all ramifications and ought to be condemned by any right thinking human- but in doing this, some people, a good number, revealed their potential to do a lot worse than Yunusa could ever dream of doing. They literally forgot about the culprit and aimed the barrel of their cannons right at the heart of Northerners and Muslims generally! Some said they should be nuked and completely vaporised off the surface of the earth, that it is the panacea to world peace- these astonishing propositions put forward by supposed Christians who should know better!
Ese lives, Amaka is dead, but Yunusa's crime seems to surpass that of the Ebonyi Six. How convenient!
This type of scenario has been playing out since God-knows-when.
Let me digress a little at this point to share another nauseating instance of this double standard/hypocrisy.
Few hours ago, someone created a thread regarding the Senators who killed the Women's Rights Bill in the Senate. I don't know how reliable the news is but the op mentioned some Senators that supported the bill and three who didn't. Out of the three, two were presumably Muslims (from their names) while one was a Christian who sited a verse in the Bible to justify his stance against the bill.
Predictably when some people arrived the scene to comment, they completely ignored the Christian Senator and the reason put forward by him for his position and attacked the "almajiri Senators", inundating the thread with just about enough insults to knock the lights out a heavyweight boxer.
They became selectively oblivious to events of the recent past involving the Enugu state house of assembly where a similar bill was killed just the same way leaving one to ask: how many Northern almajiri honourables are present in Enugu SHoA that they succeeded in killing such a wonderful bill??
Mull over that for a moment reader...
Now tell us fellas, why have we chosen to turn the Northerners/Muslims into our preferred bogeymen and e-punching bags?? Exactly what crime did the North commit?? Since when did we jettison our democratic level tolerance for ethnoreligious diversity??
Politics is a game, and as such, must always have winners and losers. A people have an inalienable prerogative to vote whoever they think could best advance their course and interests; the Northerners saw that man in Buhari and the South Easterners and South Southerners saw the person in Jonathan. Each people threw their weight behind their preferred candidate and fate smiled on the former- how difficult is that to accept
Many a great democracy were built on such incidences of shift of power from a political party with time as it addresses mediocrity and dictatorship. It is in the best interest of those who lost to go back to the drawing board and realign their strategy. Take your defeat in your stride, learn from your mistakes, and take another shot at your goal- what comes of it would be anybody's guess.
As it stands today, Ese and Amaka's cases would, for a long time to come, remain a dark reminder of our hypocrisy as a people. They would remind us of how morally depraved we've become all in the name of politics.
The Abatis, FFKs and Muray Bruces of this world would remain completely mute over this as talking about it and condemning the culprits and the region from whence they come wouldn't do their political base any good. They all thrive on the hatred and mundane prejudices they've sown in our hearts, through their utterances, which we sometimes express indeliberately- meaning they've become a part of our character!
We must strive to exorcise that spirit of hate and kill it, lest it kills us all.
Remember:
Religious wars are not caused by the fact that there is more than one religion, but by the spirit of intolerance... the spread of which can only be regarded as the total eclipse of human reason.- Charles de Secondat.
Good night.
Before leaving the office this evening, I decided to do a once over on the front page of the forum (as I mostly just keep refreshing the politics section for updates) and saw a news item that caught my interest: Newtelegraph reported a case of a girl that died of injuries she sustained after being gang raped by six boys.
From the report, there were two victims but so far, only one has died. I Hope and pray the other makes it to full recovery.
The unfortunate and barbaric incident took place in Onicha Igboeze in Onicha LGA of Ebonyi state, South East Nigeria
Four suspects were said to have been remanded at the federal prison, Abakaliki; while the other two were granted bail at the behest of one Chief Ogbonnaya Okereke.
For convenience purposes, let's call the victim Amaka. (apologies to all the Amakas in the house).
Digest the preamble above as I introduce miss Ese Oruru.
The person Ese Oruru actually needs no introduction on this forum, and perhaps, across Nigeria. Governors, traditional rulers, ministers, police chiefs, senators, civil rights activists, political party bigwigs, mainstream media, religious leaders, legal luminaries, Nobel prize winners, educational heavyweights, and the ordinary man on the street are all familiar with the name Ese Rita Oruru. She rivals the famous Olajumoke in (un)popularity and had what she was associated with a thing of pride, perhaps she would have been the brand ambassador of countless brands across the country today.
Hers was a story of an alleged 13 year old Bayelsan kidnapped and forcefully married and converted to Islam by one Yunusa Yellow, a NORTHERNER
The story of Ese Oruru took the media by storm and literally BROKE THE INTERNET!! The social media, from facebook to twitter, was on fire for days on end as Nigerians were held spellbound by the unbelievably barbaric act of Yunusa Yellow, Ese's alleged boyfriend.
Nairaland of course wasn't left out of the Fun!! Google the words "ese oruru nairaland" and you'd be awe struck at the sheer number of threads that were created on account of that incident! Of course that was expected as nothing gets the forum in a frenzy more than a story of an alleged abuse of a Southerner by a Northerner, or a Christian by a Muslim!
Threads about the incident hurriedly made the front page and run several pages before losing steam- all after commentators must have taken turns to abuse Muslims and Northerners generally. These group of people seem defenceless on the forum and perhaps social media generally since they are not as internet savvy and social media inclined as people from other parts of the country.
At the receiving end of the relentless attacks were:
1. Mr President; his crime being that he's also a Northerner and a Muslim.
2. Emir of Kano whose offence is same as that of Mr President.
Some stretched their hate to their elastic limits as the accuse the president of personally sanctioning the incident since he's a "paedophile" as he also married Aisha "at the age of 13!!"
The attacks went on for days unabated culminating in a threat by Senator Ben Bruce to sue the IGP to the ICC! Abati also arrived the scene to take his own pound of flesh!! Femi Fani Kayode of course also took his share as he could not be left out of the fist fest, moreso, it was right down his alley!!!
Now folks, fast forward a week after, news breaks of a SOUTHERN teenager raped to death by SOUTHERNERS and social media and Nairaland is as quiet as a King Tut's Tomb!!
Why is this so Nigerians??!!
1. Is Ese's life worth more than that of the girl that was brutally raped to death??
2. Are the dramatis personae involved in a crime of this nature supposed to determine the level of press/general coverage/attention it receives?? Would the offence have been more criminal had the rapists come from another region or belong to another religion??
3. Is this the first time a crime of this nature is happening in this part of the country?? Why are they usually undereported?? Whose purpose is the press serving??
4. Following from the logic of the Ese Oruru's commentators, would it be appropriate if one tagged Christians or South Easterners as child rapists and murderers owing to the crime of six folks out of millions??
5. Was the case for Ese borne out of altruism and sheer concern for her welfare or was it more about POLITICS??
6. Would things stand where they are as regards the Ebonyi incident had it been reported the name of one of the culprits is Adamu??
Mull over these while I take a sip of water... Brb.
Back..
Now, as much as we can, we always try to pass ourselves off as modern, civilised and intelligent folks with unrivalled knowledge about the essence of humanity, and more often than not, in the course of doing so, the underbelly of our disdain for civility is revealed; ironic one would say.
Here's what I'm talking about: what Yunusa did was unacceptable in all ramifications and ought to be condemned by any right thinking human- but in doing this, some people, a good number, revealed their potential to do a lot worse than Yunusa could ever dream of doing. They literally forgot about the culprit and aimed the barrel of their cannons right at the heart of Northerners and Muslims generally! Some said they should be nuked and completely vaporised off the surface of the earth, that it is the panacea to world peace- these astonishing propositions put forward by supposed Christians who should know better!
Ese lives, Amaka is dead, but Yunusa's crime seems to surpass that of the Ebonyi Six. How convenient!
This type of scenario has been playing out since God-knows-when.
Let me digress a little at this point to share another nauseating instance of this double standard/hypocrisy.
Few hours ago, someone created a thread regarding the Senators who killed the Women's Rights Bill in the Senate. I don't know how reliable the news is but the op mentioned some Senators that supported the bill and three who didn't. Out of the three, two were presumably Muslims (from their names) while one was a Christian who sited a verse in the Bible to justify his stance against the bill.
Predictably when some people arrived the scene to comment, they completely ignored the Christian Senator and the reason put forward by him for his position and attacked the "almajiri Senators", inundating the thread with just about enough insults to knock the lights out a heavyweight boxer.
They became selectively oblivious to events of the recent past involving the Enugu state house of assembly where a similar bill was killed just the same way leaving one to ask: how many Northern almajiri honourables are present in Enugu SHoA that they succeeded in killing such a wonderful bill??
Mull over that for a moment reader...
Now tell us fellas, why have we chosen to turn the Northerners/Muslims into our preferred bogeymen and e-punching bags?? Exactly what crime did the North commit?? Since when did we jettison our democratic level tolerance for ethnoreligious diversity??
Politics is a game, and as such, must always have winners and losers. A people have an inalienable prerogative to vote whoever they think could best advance their course and interests; the Northerners saw that man in Buhari and the South Easterners and South Southerners saw the person in Jonathan. Each people threw their weight behind their preferred candidate and fate smiled on the former- how difficult is that to accept
Many a great democracy were built on such incidences of shift of power from a political party with time as it addresses mediocrity and dictatorship. It is in the best interest of those who lost to go back to the drawing board and realign their strategy. Take your defeat in your stride, learn from your mistakes, and take another shot at your goal- what comes of it would be anybody's guess.
As it stands today, Ese and Amaka's cases would, for a long time to come, remain a dark reminder of our hypocrisy as a people. They would remind us of how morally depraved we've become all in the name of politics.
The Abatis, FFKs and Muray Bruces of this world would remain completely mute over this as talking about it and condemning the culprits and the region from whence they come wouldn't do their political base any good. They all thrive on the hatred and mundane prejudices they've sown in our hearts, through their utterances, which we sometimes express indeliberately- meaning they've become a part of our character!
We must strive to exorcise that spirit of hate and kill it, lest it kills us all.
Remember:
Religious wars are not caused by the fact that there is more than one religion, but by the spirit of intolerance... the spread of which can only be regarded as the total eclipse of human reason.- Charles de Secondat.
Good night.
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