The screeching of tortured tyres, the frantic slamming of a car brake and the resounding thud of a body sent me racing towards the scene of the incident. A handful of people had also heard the deafening sound and had crammed around muttering curses under their breath. Laying in the pool of his blood, was a child of about eight years old. An old, chopped plastic tray lay close to his blood-soaked head and lying in clusters were five pieces of cake each tied in a transparent polythene bag. A glance at him told me he was dead. A woman forced her way through the sea of humans and let out an earsplitting, nerve shattering scream; she picked up the boy and shouted in a frenzied voice, "who did this? Amos you can't die, you are my only child." She rolled on the tarmac, slamming her hand on the blood stained tar. It took half dozen men to sedate and drag her away from the corpse of her only child. It was a pathetic sight, the child was a hawker, and he had been hawking cake and on that fateful day he had rushed off to sell to a motorist who had beckoned him and in the quest of trying to beat his colleagues to the sale had ventured into the main road oblivious of the vehicle that sent him to an untimely death. In Nigeria, a country blessed with numerous mineral resources, such sorry sights stare the citizens in the face squarely. This is called 'CHILD ABUSE'. Who was to blame for the untimely death of this promising little boy? He was promising as far as I know; every human being borne of a woman is significant and should be given the chance to prove their significance, but not as hawkers. Would one be wrong if they blamed the child for not being careful enough or should the blame go to his mother who allowed her only child go hawking albeit knowing the impending dangers the child was exposed to. But what chance does a single parent without a lucrative job have in raising her son the right way without upsetting or violating the laws governing child abuse; or should the government be blamed for plunging more than half the Nigerian population to poverty. Statistics show that half of the country's citizen lives below the poverty line. Only poverty could have made the woman commit child abuse ignorantly or nonchalantly. Nigeria had been shrouded in a misty, sulphuric haze of fear, uncertainty, insecurity, instability and impending loom of unprecedented disaster during the long military era. The dispensation had put the economy in a state of perpetual decay and decadence with military head of states embezzling and stacking the country's money in bank accounts outside the shores of the country, and rampant killings of opposition groups. In the year 1999 when the military era gave way to democracy controversially due to the death of General Sani Abacha there were broad smiles on the faces of all Nigerians. It was a crucial time for Nigerians, the chaotic disorder in the country made everyone pray for a change; a dramatic and if possible radical change. Two men contested for the hot seat but one was highly favoured; maybe because he was a former military head of state who handed over to a civilian in the year 1979 or maybe because he escaped death by the whiskers after being incarcerated by the Abacha government. He was released from prison and paraded as a presidential candidate on the PDP (Peoples Democratic Party) platform, when all and sundry thought he would be executed. This made Nigerians think he was the messiah; the one who could alleviate and ameliorate the sufferings and hibernated situations of the masses and the economy. Read the concluding part of this article in the next submission |
