I have been praying that the next update I would receive about the incident will be one in which the perpetrator is in handcuffs, already!
It’s about the young boy that has what’s claimed to be razor cuts on his body.
He was bleeding profusely from various parts of his body and it was his cry of pain that attracted passers-by.
In her defence, the woman ( a widow!) he lives with claimed that he was stealing meat from her pot of soup – a pot of soup that she goes through so much to make for the family.
The second video that got to my stables (thanks to the ‘share-share’ culture on WhatsApp) was that of a teenage girl (most likely below age 16) and that man that she identified as “my father’’ in a hotel room.
Both were half-naked.
On further interrogation, the girl claimed that her mother was dead but the man had been having sexual intercourse with her for as long as she could remember.
Apparently, those who know them suspected that something “disturbing” had been going on between daughter and father, and laid a siege to their apartment and actually caught them red-handed! They had hardly undressed to start their SICK play…when they were busted.
The next disturbing video that I watched and also followed up on the story was that of a toddler that eventually died of head injuries. It boggles my mind till this day that those injuries were said to be from the strokes of cane that her teacher gave to her. I have not stopped wondering what could be so grievous about a toddler’s misconduct that would warrant a sane adult to raise their hands against the child.
Sending an active toddler to the good old ‘naughty corner’ is more than enough punishment. Why aren’t we making a psychological evaluation a MUST in the handlers of our children?
I mean, that should be part of the recruitment requirements for intending handlers of children, in any capacity.
That should even extend to prospective domestic minders. It’s dawned on me that people’s mental health is at an all-time low right now. And vulnerable children seem to be at the receiving end of a lot of the undesirable outcomes.
When it’s not in the hands of sexual predators, it’s in the form of DOMESTIC INHUMANITY!
Hauwa (the Hausa lady that does my cornrow hair style) is yet to understand my unease each time the household sends her toddler to go and buy this and that from a “nearby” shop.
And I see a lot of such kids toddling (unguarded) about in their community. It’s hard to get over the trauma from the kind of fate that befell five-year-old Hanifa Abubakar!
What I am NOT aware of is what the medical community is doing about these mental health issues, as part of their social responsibility. Even if it’s “sponsored” community-based therapy/counselling project of sorts! Not everyone that needs to know better is on the social media.
Wondering why I am rather leaving the government out of this? We have since taken our destiny in our own hands o.
There’s a need for us as citizens of the country to embrace social development practices on individual levels. What can you do to make your immediate environment better?
I must not forget to appreciate the effort of Nigerians who are creating awareness about these oddities.
If everyone ‘faced front’…a lot of these atrocities would keep going unnoticed.
I pray the child in the video and many others in similar (unfortunate) circumstances receive healing of both the body and mind.
I also pray that the perpetrators of such crimes continue to be caught and for JUSTICE to prevail at the end of the day!
Credit: Chukwuneta Oby