There is palpable outrage and condemnation currently in Nigeria and around the world arising from the pitiable pictures of drained, emaciated, hungry and traumatized children dragging their feet in a courtroom after being arraigned and charged for alleged treason.
The dehumanizing scenario was, to say the least, an outrage, a sickening reflection of a nation with a dying conscience. A nation gradually losing its humanity.
Those minors and juveniles, 32 of them, are aged between 14 and 17. What were they doing in the dock charged for treason? Treason, for crying out loud!
Who allowed such travesty? What goal was such a morbid decision meant to serve? You take children to court for treason. To prove what? Show of State power? Can’t the State take on people its size? Bandits ravage the country. Those in high offices, elected and appointed, pillage the country. Those entrusted with power make the the nation dysfunctional. What could be more treasonable than than that?
Granted, those juveniles were caught allegedly in a civil and legitimate act of protest that turned violent with vandalism, theft and assault.
Granted, these acts also caused disturbance and breach of public order. However, treason was clearly an overkill charge to have been slammed on them, and for the State to have debased and de-humanized them to the point of fpur of them fainting right in the courtroom and before the Judge and the world, in a show of shame and disgrace of monumental nature.
The law is clear. Age of maturity in Nigeria is 18; and young offenders aged 16 to 22 can be tried either as a juvenile or as an adult under the adolescent criminal law, while children under the age of 12 cannot be prosecuted. If a child commits a minor offense, for instance theft or vandalism, the Police will talk to the parent.
That is what the laws says. So, where and how did the treason charge come in?
Without defending the unacceptable alleged criminal conduct of some of those involved in the #EndBadGovernance protest that went wrong, the pictures of children in the dock was a shameful sight of high-handedness taken too far, and suggests that there is something awfully wrong and absurd with our sense of justice, especially in the context of balancing the law with justice, given that not all laws are just.
We can be quick to chastise the minors for their misconduct. We can also be quick to insinuate and play politics with the whole incident on the basis of the existing destructive dichotomy of regions, as is already emerging.
The scenario again re-echoes, and calls to question the nation’s justice system; one the worst expressions of which is a morbid Correctional or Custodian Center which is no better than an unjust disease-infested dungeon that tends to debase and turn persons in its custody into criminals. Inmates go in and come worse-off and end up becoming bigger liabilities to the society.
However, that only amounts to grand-standing with admitting a collective failure that has created a large army of idle, irate, uneducated and unemployable young people left with no direction into the future.
This nation must come to terms with its glaring reality that it is neglecting its younger population, and that it is doing at its own peril.
For the North in particular, the incident is a wake-up call to get its acts together, as there are increasing indications that the current state of dysfunctional and inept leadership is creating a large band of casualties among the youth bracket, a situation that manifestly portends a clear and present danger.
First thing to do is grant them unconditionally, and if you must prosecute, follow the law; take them to a juvenile court, or family court as provided by the law. This is not a question of leniency or mercy; it is fairness and justice, which these youngsters have a right to.
This brigandage and high handedness is a misplaced State rage that serves no good.