By Rev Fr Gerald Nwafor
The government of Anambra state has mandated all the local governments and towns within them to purge their communities of bad people and bad things. I do not need to start naming them one after another but in our locals, we know what our problem is and what is not a problem. I have listened to the town crier from different towns and villages. Some were very impressed while some were overboard; not because I do not like their mode of announcement or the words.
Far from that. But the fact that it has to do with personal hygiene and morals, I took exception to it. How do you know a woman with or without undies? That is a very dangerous area to tread. It is not an area that the public would venture to because many people have different reasons to do what they do. I would not subscribe to that investigation because some guys too don’t wear undies which could disrupt their mode of dressing. Some people do not wear undies because they cannot afford it.
Some others could not because it is very uncomfortable. Many more do not because of some other reasons that could not be mentioned but are valid and legitimate. Enough of this personal discussion.Furthermore, some towns have added that tenants who have no job should vacate their town. An idle mind is indeed a devil’s workshop, but I lived and grew up in a city. My village is about 9 miles away from that city. My parents were teachers and middle class then, when Nigeria was still working.
Now I do not know what class teachers are. But that should be a story for another day. From time to time, we witness people coming from their village down to the city with hope only. Some would stay for months searching for a job. Some will start creating the job themselves. They were honest people; most of them succeeded and some did not and they went back to their village. So, the village head and the president general should not go with the blanket ban that anyone who has no job should leave their town. By the way, is it not the duty of the government to create jobs for the public? The unemployed citizens who show up in your town should not be a threat until they prove otherwise.
The community has many ways to dictate bad people. There are employed people in the community that are very bad. The community knew who they were.The community should place more emphasis on the real deal which is ravaging the state now. The thieves, murderers, kidnappers, yahoo-yahoo boys, and the unidentified native doctors.
The thieves do have jobs sometimes during the day and at night they turn to ekpelima (thieves). The bushes and uncompleted buildings sould be combed and reconnoiter by the villagers. In one of the confessions of the kidnapper, he said that they call their dan in the bush office.
As I listened to the interrogation from the people who apprehended the kidnappers, I discovered that questioning or interrogation is a big professional job. We would like to know whose car was used for the kidnapping job, especially that of the Ukwulu episode. How many people have they kidnapped since they started? The interrogation should not be made public until the investigation is completed and the government decides to declassify the interrogation for the public to see and have closure.
All these half-baked interrogations thrown out to the public have helped the real kidnappers and thieves. We do notice when other investigators would say, “That is the much we can say now.” Confidentiality is needed simply because the accomplices are also watching to see how they can cover their tracks.
The villagers know very well the native doctors who are real and those who are not.I recall that in one of the announcements by the president general of the town, he said that they know the people who give food to the shrines of our forefathers and the people who take care of them. While growing up I knew all the native doctors in my village.
When my brother had a scorpion sting, we visited one and he gave him the local concoction, and my brother was relieved of the pain immediately. We know such native doctors and they do not drive GLK, nor do they drive PRADO, nor do they drive HUMMER. They were very simple and honest.
One of them even reported a villager who came to him asking him to kill a fellow villager with juju (charm). We lived happily and peacefully with the real traditional native doctor because they bore with them the trado-socio-cultural anthropology of their people. Their ways remind us of our past and we cannot forget our past because of abuse and greed.
I support the domestication of rules by some villages, but we should look widely not to run contrary to the universal norms. There is nothing wrong if a village decides to add to the law a proper census of their community and occupation of all the people in the community citizens and immigrants alike.
This would help the community to know when one butelu ike (sudden ill-gotten wealth) and when one kpatalu ego (clean money). The ibute ike phenomenon is new in our culture. Our forefathers told us to acquire wealth slowly but steadily. You cannot become a rich man overnight. But the new generation is going against that old norm.
Today a person without a job can show up tomorrow with billions of Naira and no one asks a question. And if you choose to ask, the reply you would get would be that obutelu-ike. The community should report to the government when one of their kids who has no job starts spending money beyond his means.
The government should do its due diligence by investigating the message of the whistle-blower. I hope they should not collect money from the suspect and give away the identity of the whistle-blower as we have seen in the past. The government should stop ordinary citizens from employing government security agents as bodyguards because those who got rich through the back door abuse that privilege. How can you be chasing the bad guys and at the same time offer them protection. Nobi juju be dat? (Is that not a spell on us?)
