Promise Adiele

DO you remember Fugees, the American musical group made up of Wyclef Jean, Lauryn Hill, and Pras Michel? Through a combination of hip hop and reggae, they dominated the global music scene in the mid-1990s with songs that caressed the sensibilities. Their stand-out track, ‘Killing me Softly’ recounts the experience of a female persona who is overcome with emotions while watching another male artist perform. 

Although it is not explained if ‘killing’ in the song consists of joy, sadness, lust, gradual death or a synthesis of all, we agree that the artistic dexterity of the male performer had a seductive effect on the female persona. However, the ‘killing’ recounted in the song is the direct opposite of the kind of ‘killing’ pervading the Nigerian landscape, most recently, the killing of about ten ladies by an alleged serial  killer, Mr. Gracious West, in Nigeria’s famed oil city, Port Harcourt.

‘Killing’ connotes multiple meanings depending on the context of usage. First, there is the emotional/romantic killing which is not seen, there is the physical killing which means instant death, and there is the gradual, subliminal killing which is not also seen, but is sustained, premeditated, and unleashed on a people. The two later kinds of killings have turned our country into a ringing echo chamber of nightmarish languor.

Emotional killing is experienced by those who get involved in the misadventures of the soul, the kind recounted in the Fugees’ track. Once in a lifetime, the intimate boudoirs of our private lives have been conquered by the thoughts of another person, the desire to share life with someone else. Many times, we hear such statements like ‘the girl is killing me softly, the boy is killing softly’. Emotional killing can also occur outside the frontiers of romance and love. It could be mere admiration which softens the soul. Lionel Messi, the soccer maestro, can kill us softly with his magical display on the pitch.

Celine Dion can kill us softly with the resonance of her sonorous voice, and Michael Jackson’s electric dance steps can also kill us softly. In this way, killing is viewed as a disarming trope on our emotions which does not necessarily imply tragedy.

The second kind of killing is murder. It could be done instantly through such instruments as guns and cudgels. It is this murderous kind of killing that the alleged Port Harcourt serial killer is believed to have carried out, terminating the lives of ten ladies in the process. Perhaps, if the police had not apprehended the alleged killer, he would have killed hundreds. We must give kudos to the Nigerian police for their timely arrest of the alleged killer. Such a response from the men in uniform is needed more in a country where the lives of citizens have lost all iota of sacredness.

Some people have argued that the police should have responded earlier than they did immediately the case of the alleged serial killer was reported. Indeed, it is unfortunate that a Deputy Commissioner of police in River State initially responded to the killing by dismissing the victims as prostitutes. It is insensitive that a senior police officer would make such comments as if prostitutes are not human beings, as if prostitutes are not a creation of our pervasive reality, as if prostitutes are not a part of our thwarted idealism in this country. Even if they are prostitutes, they are Nigerian ladies patronized by Nigerian men and through such patronage, the industry of prostitution flourishes.

Prostitution reigns supreme in our tertiary institutions and in the corporate world too, in fact, prostitution seems to be the order of the day in a society enmeshed in an immoral cesspool. If the police must look away because a prostitute is an immoral person and therefore deserves to die, I wonder the number of people, politicians, business persons, civil servants and other professionals who deserve to stay alive in our immorally benighted society on account of morality. It is therefore important that the police respond quickly to any loss of life irrespective of those involved.

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We must encourage the police to arrest more people who kill Nigerians softly through kidnap, rape, and robbery. Till date, the death of Pa Reuben Fasoranti’s daughter is still unresolved after she was kidnapped and killed softly by men suspected to be Fulani herdsmen. After the initial rancour generated by her death, the matter seems to be consigned to the country’s armoury of amnesia as if it never happened.

If the police were so quick and efficient to arrest Mr. Gracious West, the alleged Port Harcourt killer, why have they not been able to arrest the killers of Pa Fasoronti’s daughter? The police must arrest killers who populate our forests and bushes. We need many arrests along the Kaduna-Abuja road, we need many arrests along the Benin-Ore road. We need many arrests along the Abuja-Okene road. We need to arrest and bring to book killers who have made our highways unsafe.

Finally, let us turn to the last category of killing, the gradual, subliminal killing. This kind of killing is inflicted on the citizens by the state, call it official killing, if you like. In this category, a country kills its citizens through economic policies and political manipulations. We understand that poverty is an inevitable part of human existence but it becomes murder when it is deliberately inflicted on the people by the state. The inauguration the National Economic Council is a positive development although many people believe it was long overdue. Nigerians hope that the council will immediately go to work to ameliorate the excruciating poverty in the land which is killing Nigerians softly.

Nigerians are also killed softly through long hours spent in traffic due to bad roads especially in Lagos state. Individuals also kill fellow citizens through the importation of fake medication and drugs. At the end, the buck stops on the government’s table. Nigerians are killed softly by unreasonable electricity charges through estimated billings. It is incomprehensible that a huge bill will be issued when there was hardly any supply of electricity. This kind of soft killing is deliberate and calculated.

The increase in taxes and VAT is killing Nigerians softly too. Also, the banking sector has not been left out in the soft killing of Nigerians. In addition to the mysterious deductions on bank accounts, the CBN has invidiously introduced a penalty for cash withdrawals or deposits of certain amounts of money in pursuance of the cashless policy.  Nigerians deserve pity.

We must not have an additional burden on our fragile lives seeing that the soft killing in the land graduates daily. We are daily confronted by the power of wickedness, callousness, and inconsiderate policies which do not take into account the pulse of the people.

Greed, gluttony and a compulsive craving for profit are at the heart of several public and private establishments much to the soft killing of the people. If these soft killing of Nigerians continues, a day of violent rejection of further killings is imminent.

Dr. Adiele writes from Lagos via [email protected]