The gods are to blame, by Clem Oluwole
This piece is not intended to be a rejoinder to Ola Rotimi’s play entitled, “The Gods Are Not To Blame”. In fact, there is no correlation whatsoever between the complexion of the drama and what will unfold before your eyes in this write-up.
While Ola Rotimi’s 72-page play, first published in 1971, is an adaptation of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex from where the Oedipus Complex sprang up, this piece is anchored on the survival of humanity in Nigeria regarded as the world’s poverty headquarters. The rating of Nigeria as 94th out of 113 nations by Global Food Security Index (GFSI), falling behind Ethiopia, Cameroon and even Niger is unthinkable.
What is more, Nigeria has overtaken India as the world’s most impoverished country.
This is a sad commentary for a nation that harbours virtually all the mineral resources available under the sun coupled with arable land and active human resources.
In “The Gods Are Not To Blame”, which I do not have the luxury of space to re-dramatise, a story is told of a prince who is fated to kill his father and marry his mother. A man afflicted by Oedipus Complex is consumed by rabid hatred for his father and penetrating love for his mother. On the other hand, Electra Complex is the other side of Oedipus Complex where a daughter is in love with her father while nursing profound hatred for her mother. In both instances, the tendency to commit parricide becomes strong.
This piece was inspired by the recent lynching of a First-Class graduate of the University of Ibadan, Opuofoni Freeborn Ebimotimi. His offence? He was caught stealing a loaf of bread! Freeborn, who hailed from Korokorosi community in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa state, was caught with a loaf of bread stolen from a business owner.
An alarm was sounded which attracted an angry mob that instantly
served jungle justice to him. Opuofoni’s younger sister, Idisemi
Opuofoni, narrated how neighbours and friends that
witnessed the incident rushed to the scene and pleaded for his life, promising to pay twice the value of the loaf but the mob refused their pleas and pummeled him to death.
Idisemi said life has been unfair to them since the passing of their father, believing that starvation must have driven him to steal the loaf. Meanwhile, the Bayelsa State Police Command has arrested three suspects in connection with the murder and they are undergoing interrogation.
Lynching petty thieves in this part of the world is a common phenomenon. I am against stealing in any form but not the one that is propelled by hunger. The Holy Writ supports my position in Proverbs 6: 30-31… and I quote: “People, do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy himself when he is starving.” But Nigerians hate thieves with a passion. Once an announcement of the presence of a thief is made in any community or neighbourhood, the hearers would be possessed by the murderous spirit. You would see people running in all directions, looking for used tyres, petrol or any combustible liquid and matches to set the victims ablaze, regardless of the objects of larceny… as though none of them has ever stolen in their entire lives.
Opuofoni did not steal things other than the loaf of bread in the shop. Here was a young First-Class graduate, a product of Nigeria’s premier university, who was immolated on the altar of unemployment. In the halcyon days, fresh graduates had employment, accommodation and car loans waiting for them. Some would even have more than one job to choose from. Had Opuofoni secured a job after graduating, he would not have been pushed by the god of throat that demands sacrifices thrice or more times daily to do what he did.
There have been instances where people got slain for stealing cell phones. A case in point was a final year student of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Okoli Ahize, who was allegedly beaten to death by a mob in the institution over alleged phone theft in April, this year. Okoli was said to have protested, insisting that he was innocent but his accusers and judges did not listen to him. They killed him! All his parents’ labour on him was swept away in a moment of madness by fellow students.
On July 5, 2019, a thieving old woman broke down in tears in appreciation of the rare gesture by three policemen who were expected to arrest her for shoplifting at a supermarket in New York City. Security officers at the mall caught her in the act and the ensuing commotion attracted the trio. But instead of cuffing the woman for larceny, the policemen paid for the grocery items she slipped into her shopping bag. The police officers assessed the situation and saw it fit to help out the woman whose action was propelled by hunger.
So, who is to blame for Opuofoni’s dispatch to his early grave? The gods of throats, of course! When the gods make demands for sacrifices to be made, you have a choice: it is either you submit to them or die of starvation. They are the deities who must be obeyed!
I remember an encounter I had with my old man in my kidhood days in Kumasi, Ghana. A piece of meat had vanished from the pot of soup rich with assorted chewables. There were stockfish, beef, bushmeat, whiffy goat meat. My dad, who had zero tolerance for stealing, was livid with anger upon discovering the disappearance of the meat. It was easy to notice the disappearance because the oil on the surface had coagulated, leaving an evidence of meat theft. I denied the accusation but my dad did not believe me since I was the only kid at home. He dragged me between his legs using them as a vice to hold me down and gave me a thorough spanking with his stronger hand. He was an ambidexter but his left hand was stronger and more punishing if you came under it.
Later in the evening, I had a hunch. Smelling a rat, I got a flashlight and decided to conduct an investigation. I crawled under the bed and traced the telltale oil that dripped from the stolen meat to a hole in an obscure corner of the room. I crawled back to inform my dad about my finding. Initially, he dismissed me with a wave of his hand. But I insisted. Why should I be punished for an offence committed by a house rat? He yielded to my demand when he saw that I stood my ground even as a kid.
Eventually, I was vindicated. When my mum returned home after a visit to a neighbourhood friend and was informed about the theft of meat by a rat, she decided to treat the soup. At dinner time, she gave me a double ration of meat as a restitution and extracted an apology from my dad for wrongly accusing me. He grudgingly did but the pain from the pummeling registered on me for days to come.
All told, I will like to appeal to Nigerians to desist from criminalising poverty brought on the masses through failure of leadership at all levels of governance. If the passage in the Book of Proverbs quoted above does not sit well with them, all they should do is to hand over victims of food theft to law enforcement agents for prosecution. Jungle justice by those who themselves are not clean is inhuman… to say the least.
Clem Oluwole is the Managing Editor of Blueprint Newspapers in Abuja.