This boy was beaten everywhere he was sighted in a country that has law and he even petitioned the police, yet the authorities did not do anything. The poor boy battled the underworld kingpins and their hirelings alone till he could no longer fight on, till his strength failed him. His mother country whose name he carried with pride also failed him.
There are still many Mohbad in the street there who are being beaten both physically and mentally everyday by similar forces and are dying silently and in instalment while the mother country, Nigeria is waiting by as a neutral onlooker till they too would no longer be able to fight on. It is saddened to know that a country so loved by her citizens cannot offer protection to the citizens that love her so much but only waits by for the obituary of her beloved citizens to surface before asking the police to investigate the death that took place before her very eyes, as a bystander.
Mohbad is gone! Sad as it is, the citizens must close rank to speak up now against kingpinship in all aspects of our social life, barons in music industry, in religion industry and all other industries. We must learn to offer protection to our vulnerable when the cry reach us. These world and underworld gangsters who are turned to celebrities everyday after showing the blood stain in their filthy hands are just a handful, they are not as many or as powerful as all of us combined. We must not leave our protection to the government alone when the need arises. We must protect our own. Our protest should not be limited everytime to government oppression alone but oppression of citizen by another citizen. All cult personality of the world and the underworld using their powers and connections to make the social space unlivable for fellow citizens should be seen not as a private affair but as issue of public concern and we must revolt against this trend now.
It is commonplace now for gangsters particularly in the social space like tiktok and Facebook to threaten each other and forbid each other not to be seen in one part of the city or the other. We see this everyday but laugh and look away. Any such apprehended incident should be taken serious by the citizens and we must not see these as fun to relieve tension but we must report these cases to the authorities whenever they are seen and follow them up. The citizens of the 2020 who rose against police brutality can still rise again against citizens brutality against fellow citizen. Any form of physical threat or battery of a lowly citizen by any group of citizens should be seen an a threat to life by the citizens and the authorities.
Everyone who has been fingered in the death-fall of this rising lone star should be investigated and the results of investigation be made public.
Rest on Imolé, which means light, as darkness descend now to cover the face of the earth where you were once the light.
Tope Temokun
Lawyer
September 15, 2023!