Punch Editorial Board
PARENTAL rejection of a child as
young as two, who was dumped at a refuse heap to fend for himself,
sounds like a fairy tale. But it is not! It is a heart-searing, inhuman
chronicle of a little Nigerian boy known as Hope. He was demonised by
his parents as a “witch” and cast away. He scavenged for food for eight
months to survive. This is a most barbaric act and irresponsible
parenting.
As his parents abandoned him,
so did the society. Not even the Akwa Ibom State Government could come
to his rescue. He looked so anaemic that he could barely stand on his
feet. With a body seemingly charred, he could have been mistaken for a
victim of a fuel inferno, or a malnourished child at a time of war,
starving to death.
But the ennobling value of human
kindness ultimately prevailed over this savagery, thanks to Anja
Ringgren Loven, a young charity worker from Denmark. After reading about
Hope’s horrific abuse, she came to Nigeria to rescue him; cleaned him
up and put him through a cocktail of medical and psychological
rehabilitation, as one newspaper reported recently. He is now in a care
centre run by the African Children’s Aid Education and Development
Foundation, a charity founded by Loven, and her husband, David. Through
the foundation, a total of 34 children are being helped to overcome
their worst nightmares early in life.
The traumatic narrative went
viral on the internet when Hope’s benefactor exposed it as she solicited
global assistance. It provoked instant sympathy and empathy, which
climaxed in the $1 million that has been raised for his upkeep. “With
all the money, we can, besides giving Hope the very best treatment, now
also build a doctor (medical) clinic… and save more children out of
torture,” Loven says. Amazingly, the boy’s condition has changed; one
year after, he currently exudes the warmth that deserted him under his
parents. He has just started schooling this month.
To imagine that the boy passed
through this ordeal in a state that claimed “uncommon transformation” in
governance between 2007 and 2015 is sickening. It diminished all, who,
either by commission or omission made the boy’s suffering to escape
public attention. Labelling children as wizards is a primitive cultural
belief that is common in the state. It underscores the need for
transformation of the mind. It is primordial for such a practice to
remain part of a people’s belief system in the 21st century.
Besides the demented parents,
the state government shares much of the blame. The Child Rights Act,
which the state assembly passed and was assented to in 2008 by the then
governor, Godswill Akpabio, provides enough protection for the
traumatised toddler. As this case has exposed, the law, for all
practical purposes, is ineffectual. Who are the biological parents of
Hope? Their identities seem to have been lost. The state should locate
them and cause the full weight of the law to be visited on them. It is
the bounden duty of government to protect children, especially the
underage, as the most vulnerable in the society, through the enforcement
of its writs and public policies that safeguard their lives.
Apart from parents and local
spiritualists, this perverse cultural practice in the state is being
spread by some religious groups with their “witches and wizards”
gospel. One of them, led by a woman, states in its pamphlet: “If a
child under the age of two screams in the night…and is always feverish
with deteriorating health, he or she is a servant of Satan.” Many
parents have been led astray; and this may well be the provenance of
Hope’s trauma. Such fallacious evangelism is deep-rooted there. In 2008,
a self-styled bishop allegedly confessed to killing 110 children
stigmatised as witches and wizards. As the shameful incident went
global, the state government filed criminal charges against him.
A toddler could be sick, just
like an adult. Teething in a child is a growth process that goes with
pains, which could provoke him/her to cry. Hunger could also induce
unease or pain in a child at night. Therefore, it is wrong and criminal
to demonise a child that cries in the night. No child is safe in this
environment if this warped understanding of the Holy Writ is not
checked.
But Hope is just one out of the
growing legion of children who have become victims of the benumbing
narrative of sorcery; and the attacks and killings that come in its
wake. More cases are unreported, which means likely death for the
victims. In November 2014, a 10-year-old orphan, Usen Okon, from Ikot
Abasi area of the same state, was forced by his step-mother to confess
to being a wizard. To get rid of him, his uncle threw him into the Imo
River with the hope that he would drown. But he was rescued; on
returning home, he was told that his uncle had relocated.
Undoubtedly, Akwa Ibom is not
the only state involved in this retrogression of civilisation. Almost
every state is as guilty. The Igbo of the South-East, for instance, are
mired in the Osu caste system, which demonises some individuals as
outcasts on account of their forebears having allegedly been sacrificed
to the gods. Last week, Oluwaseye Ayoola, aged 51, axed his 81-year-old
mother to death in the Ajah area of Lagos State, for allegedly being a
witch, claiming that she caused his failure in life.
Existential challenges are
sometimes a springboard of delirium or mental disorder, which could
mislead some people to see their abnormal situations only from the prism
of evil afflictions. UNICEF corroborated this in its 2009 report
entitled: “Children Accused of Witchcraft.” It emphasised that social
and economic pressures like poverty, conflict, urbanisation and HIV/AIDS
appear to have increased the rate of witchcraft charge against minors.
Therefore, this presents a
serious challenge to orthodox religious and non-profit organisations to
mount a serious campaign to wean those involved off the belief. Social
Welfare departments in all states should stop their indolence and play
active role in saving children caught in this labyrinth. Again, Child
Rights Act should cease from being a docile writ. As a people, it
challenges our humanity to be our brother’s keeper and expose the
devotees of this archaic, unlawful practice to law enforcement agencies
for necessary action.
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