ALUU 4: WE ARE ALL GUILTY.

When the news of the gruesome extra judicial killing of these four UNIPORT students broke out, I initially did not appreciate the intensity of the situation. When pictures and videos flooded the internet, then I knew that we were in trouble. All of us.

My initial thoughts were; who was the fool(s) holding the camera and filming the entire event, was he/she an accomplice or an investigative freelance journalist? Surely, the gory contents on the video will assist a serious Police force in cracking this case and bringing the culprits to book. But who are the real culprits; is it just the people at the scene throwing stones, beating and setting those young men on fire?  How about the person(s) catching the entire event on camera; was his/her motive to submit it as evidence to the Police or was it to gain cheap popularity on the electronic , print and social media? A normal human being would have put down that God forsaken camera and give those poor students a helping hand...at least beg on their behalf.

And the rest of us, those viewing and sharing this horrible video and pictures, shedding crocodile tears and blaming the Nigerian government for everything. Are we (the citizens) truly blameless? God forbid, if any of our loved ones was a victim, would we view this videos and pictures  from beginning to end and even share the link amongst our friends and ‘blog readers’ to view?

Right now, ALUU 4 is a hot topic on social media circles, people are commenting; claim to be crying (on text). Popular blogs and news sites are following up on ‘the responses of shock and disbelieve by family and friends of the victims’. Even as the video and pictures keep going viral.

No one has risen up to say, ENOUGH of this entire charade.

To those who blame the ‘Nigerian government’ for everything, is it not members of the ‘masses’ that ganged up to commit this heinous crime? Was it the government of Nigeria?  Was it NTA that filmed the whole thing and put it online?  If I must blame the government, I blame them for not being able to block such offensive materials from becoming viral on the internet.

I remember several years ago when Al Qaeda fighters were fond of capturing westerners and beheading them on video. American and western governments did everything they could to stop these videos from circulating, talkless of becoming viral. During 9/11 attacks over 3,000 Americans were killed at the World Trade center  How many mangled and burnt bodies of dead Americans were published for the whole world to see or wail about?

Have we lost our humanity?

Believe it or not, a lot of Nigerians have a morbid passion for viewing gory materials and shedding crocodile tears afterwards. Many struggling websites have now capitalized on it and are now using ‘ALUU 4’ to attract more viewers and ‘likes’ to their blogs. You may say 'I too' have become guilty of this,by blogging about it.

I have argued (still arguing) with a couple of my Nigerian Diaspora pals who also viewed and shared these videos while blaming the 'rot in Nigeria' for this occurrence. And I still tell them, if a westerner views this, all he sees and ends up believing is that YOUR PEOPLE ARE BARBARIANS. The westerners don’t want to know if you are not from that village or tribe, neither is he/she interested in knowing what Aso Rock is doing about the situation.

On my part, I SINCERELY call on all sane Nigerians to respect the dignity of these murdered UNIPORT students and their families. STOP circulating unclad bloody pictures of these young men to the rest of the world because this is not how their parents and loved ones want to remember them. 

STOP blaming Nigeria or Nigerian government for this incident, this crime was committed by ordinary Nigerian villagers who apparently know the value of blackberrys and laptops.

Let us instead concentrate on praying for their families and following up with the police authority in ensuring that those arrested for this crime and found guilty are punished severely according to the law.

My regards to the family and friends of the victims.

God bless you and God bless Nigeria.