Benin Violence: Looking Beyond the Surface

By Ohikhuare Isuku

Hoodlums have hijacked the peaceful protest in Benin-Ciy. Robbery, arsons, rapes, intimidations, etc have been reported across the city. On Monday 19th, the worst yet happened: there was a jailbreak, and from the videos circulating the online space, thousands of inmates may have been let into the wild. 

But my curiosity is: how did a peaceful protest meant to press home key demands for the betterment of our country degenerate to such a shameful anarchy? How did a federal correction facility meant to be fortified by humans and technology become so exposed to be broken into?

There is a painful irony that bares itself in all these occurrences, and it points to the fact that our systems which gulp billions of our budgets to maintain on a yearly basis are in real sense wobbly fortresses which break down when a little quake occurs. 

It should be noted that pockets of violence are normalities of purposeful and genuine struggles in every clime and time. Sure, we'll have anarchists among us who will lend themselves to be used by the oppressors to foil the struggle for a better life. But this won't deter us. We must run this race to the finishing line and touch the tape with our torsos. We move! 

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Police Reform is Long Overdue

 by Ohikhuare Isuku

In April 2013, right before my eyes, some policemen opened fire on a group of defenseless youths in front of a shed. The policemen didn’t point their guns upward when they fired neither did they aim at the legs of their victims. The firing was direct. It could have hit their heads or chests if they had not miraculously escaped. Later on, when the vicious policemen had gone with the victims they were able to arrest – bonded away like animals to be slaughtered – I began to ask what the root of the provocation was. Were they criminals? Have they been condemned by a reputable law court? The revelations I got from those around shocked me. It happened that the only crime of these young men was showing grievance against the local election which had been rigged with impunity by the incumbent government. A local leader in the area who was pro-government had ordered policemen to open fire on these youths in order to stem the agitations which may arise as a result of the ruined election. This is just one of the thousands of cases where the NPF have been used by the powerful people to oppress, maim and kill defenseless Nigerians.

            It’s not uncommon for a wealthy man to call the police on a poor man just because the later is packing his keke close to his camry. These things happen on daily basis. Take a ride around the busy routes of Lagos especially in still traffic and see how the wealthy threaten commuters with the statement: “I’ll beat you up and lock you up! You won’t be released until I ask the police to do so.” And most times, this threat is followed by action. A little scratch on his car because of his own recklessness and the big man jumps out from his car, dishes some blows on his poor victim while dialing a police contact he knows to come and whisk the common man away. And as you’d guess, the police will only work for those with fat pockets.

            Like all public institutions in this collapsing republic, the rich have hijacked the police for their own salvation. From the suppression of justice to the oppression and extortion of the masses, the police have deviated from their core responsibility of enforcing the law to breaking it, inflicting untold hardship on poor Nigerians. The time to overhaul the entire police structure is now. There’s no going back. Police brutality, injustice and extortion against poor Nigerians must end. Time for an utter police reform has come.

 

Ohikhuare Isuku

 

 

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Looking Again at How Achebe’s Works Are Interpreted

 by Ohikhuare Isuku

I recently reread Chinua Achebe’s masterpiece – Arrow of God – after about a decade. The revelations from the novel were by far more nuance and clearer than they were a decade ago. As I finished the last word, a notion about Achebe’s work I had held for over a decade based on reviews by foreign and local reviewers alike suddenly fell apart. The truth is that Achebe’s work didn’t actually elevate the Igbo cultural norms. Instead, it portrayed the inefficacies and inferiority of the Igbo customs and traditions and then clashed these customs and traditions together with that of the Whiteman.

In every scenario in Achebe’s works, the Whiteman’s ways triumphed above the indigenous culture. For instance in Things Fall Apart, Achebe portrays how the Whiteman first enters Umuofia and conquers the stubborn clan, making Okonkwo – the book’s hero – to hang himself. In Arrow of God also, Achebe portrays a weakened system already subdued by the colonial government of the early twentieth century. The people of Umuaro do not resist the authority of Captain Winterbottom. Not even Ezeulu, the great Chief Priest of Ulu, dares resists on a second thought when Captain Winterbottom summons him. But there is one thing Umuaro do not let go of their culture– their regard for their deities and festivities. In a way, Achebe finds way to picture these deities and festivities ineffective, and thus proclaims the triumph of the European religion – Christianity.  

            I bear no ill against Achebe for writing things the way he saw them. I respect the literally icon immensely for the great wits in his books. Somehow, I do bear some hidden resentments against some retrogressive African customs and traditions still in existence today. But my confusion is this: why did Western critics of Achebe’s Trilogy feel he was upholding the culture of his Igbo people in his work? Why didn’t they interpret the books the way they had read them?

            I have found one answer to this puzzle. They were simply hiding away the obvious. The Western critics loved Achebe’s trilogy because they spoke in their favor. In a way that Achebe perhaps didn’t realize, these books add credence to how mighty and reverend the Whiteman’s power was in the days of African conquest.

The question now is: Why did the western critic fail to review these books as they were starkly? Achebe’s books appeared in an era of mass protests against racism across Africa, America and elsewhere. Book critics who were feigning liberal views at that time may not have wanted to interpret the books as they were. Yet they wanted the books to be popular even though they didn’t want it to look as if they were portraying Western culture above African culture. Thus, they may have decided to praise Achebe’s work for its rich African language content rather the message it actually passed. Once this interpretation was popular, it became the definitive interpretation that even African critics bought into. In any case, the popularity of Achebe’s trilogy became a triumph for Western culture in disguise.

 

 

Ohikhuare Isuku.

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The Good Effect of War: Ohikhuare Isuku

No sane human would long for war. Its devastating effects far outweigh any meaningful achievement we can derive from it. But more often in time past, war has served as bedrocks for ravishing developments. It has driven serious innovations and established strong economic growth spread across time and space. The world wars brought their achievements, as well as many wars before them. So also the cold war.

The cold war was on one hand, between the United States, Europe, and the Western Bloc of Germany and on the other hand the Soviet Union and the eastern bloc of Germany. It wasn't a direct fight, and it lasted from 1947 to 1991 when the Berlin wall collapsed. This cold war in some ways laid foundation for man's first landing on the moon. 

On April 12th, 1961, Soviet's cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space when he orbited the earth in 89 minutes, He was aboard his space capsule, Vostok 1. To America, this advancement by the Soviet Union was a source of huge concern. Not only did it stab America's pride that its greatest rival had reached space first, it was worrisome then that the Soviet Union would soon begin to shift nuclear weapons into space. America was so enraged that President J.F. Kennedy banned Yuri Gagarin from visiting America after he became an instant celebrity following his return from space. 

In 1962, JFK founded NASA with a major aspiration to put man in space before the end of that decade. It was a greater challenge which would surpass the Soviet's achievement of putting the first man in space, and thereby bringing pride back to the United States in the face of the cold war. So in the unfolding years, America dedicated so much investment - human and capital - towards  achieving this aim. It worked towards the end of that decade.

On 20th July, 1969, Apollo 11 - The Eagle -  landed the first men on the moon surface. Neil Armstrong - the three-man crew commandant - was the first to land, declaring famously, "One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." Nineteen minutes later, Lunar Module Pilot,  Buzz Aldrin stepped his foot on the moon becoming the second man in that regard. The third crew member, Micheal Collins, who was the Command Module Pilot, didn't land on the moon surface, rather he was hovering around the moon atmosphere. 

Through this, a giant leap was made by mankind, and it was because of the cold war. 

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Vexing Sky: A Poem by Miracle Folorunso

Humans, hear the silver stripes
roaming to and fro,
running round and loud,
touching earth’s barren lips!
Humans, hear our cry!

We take earth walkers
indoors to stay by fire side
telling tales, dreaming dreams;
we are the harvest that fill their banks

We are sweet
and we are insipid,
we give taste to fading meadows
and we are the workaday cottage,
we are the vexing rain

Both the moon and the sun
join us to whip humans
and as we strike
we join them in tears;
we burst out
letting go our tears

We are countless tears
which rip the road apart;
our tears swallow the
properties of many
yet humans ignore our cries

And what do humans do?
They strike us down with buckets
washing their dirt with our innocence
so that we cry the more

© Miracle Folorunso

[Edited by Chidinma Ahika]

About the Writer

Miracle Folorunso is a chip off the sun shining radiantly in the morning of her time. She is an S. S. 1 scholar of Eagles Educational Centre, Uselu Benin City. "Vexing Sky" is her first published work and she is saying a big thank you to her sister; Victoria, big brother, and teachers Mr. Ahika and Mr. Ibe who helped her discover her talent at the dawn of her years. At the present time, she is working on an anthology that centres on the ecology that keeps us alive.

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River Niger: Poem by Gift Miracle Ogbole

Beloved River Niger,
colourless and pure,
as wide as the desert sand,
when the wind blows,
you fold into waves like ploughed ridges

When the sun
paints your wet bosom
with his golden straws
you are as pretty
as a blind man's sight

True, the stars
are watching, lending
their lights while your limbs sleep walk
through and through the silent nights

You give life too
to mammals, to reptiles,
to the first of times,
to the time we see
and to the times that will be

© Ogbole Miracle Gift

[As edited by Chidinma Ahika]

About the Writer

Ogbole Miracle is a young steward of the pen. She is currently a J.S.S 2 student of Eagles Educational Centre, Uselu, Benin City. She is a poet and playwright. And she is working on the manuscript of her play titled "Making Hay."

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I Think I'm a Ghost: Poem by Ohikhuare Isuku

I think I am a ghost;
my disposition, the whole of my being
churns up this claim
like an earth troubled by a plow,

For alone in the void,
attended by birds’ chirps and plants’ rustlings,
I mine greater warmth in my company
than in a gathering of laughter,
of warmth and brotherhood.

Discordant sounds wear me out
like an eroded earth;
even the ticking of my footsteps
turns rapture from my holding.

And when injustice thrusts out
its hideous fist like a volcano,
It’s a heavy pang I feel on my chest
like a blacksmith’s blow,
because like ghosts,
I idealize a utopian world.

Thus, if this claim
of me being a ghost
survives truth’s stringent test,
then there are more ghosts on our streets
who are oblivious of their state.

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