It should not have happened. The fact that it happened points to the degree of collapse of the Nigerian society. The narrative is that he stole a phone and got this as punishment somewhere in Akko Local Government Area of Bauchi State. The story is all over in the media.
It is not a moral issue of a thief. Nor is it a legal issue. It is a citizenship issue. At 12, Adamu is not yet a citizen. He cannot be held accountable for his actions, certainly not at this level of severity.
There must be another republic within the Republic of Nigeria for a 12- year old boy to be given a very severe punishment on the basis of what some self-satisfied individuals in one corner of the country believes. The rest of the society should be horrified by this.
But complicity in Adamu’s fate is beyond the fellows who decided and then administered the punishment on Adamu. Our complicity lies in neither the parents, community elders, religious leaders, the local police authorities, the local area officers of the law, the legislator representing the constitutency in the local, state and national legislative houses or the Chairman of his local government area rising to stop it before it happened. ‘They’ who carried out this act could contemplate it because ‘they’ could prevail at all these levels. That is where ‘our’ complicity lies – the death of this social order.
Of course, ‘they’ would never have tried it if Adamu’s father were a legislator, top federal civil servant, businessman, party chieftain or juggernaut of whichever sphere. So, we are dealing with the class dimension of judicial violence.
So, where do we go from here?
