A nation that ignores consequences

BY OPATOLA VICTOR

Recently, Nigeria witnessed a shameful episode where children were arraigned for treason after protesting. But as the saying goes, shame is a feeling reserved for those with an active conscience.

Treason, an offence punishable by death, was absurdly levied against minors for something as simple as waving a flag. In court, some of these children collapsed under the stress and inhumanity of the system indifferent to their suffering. Yet, in a country where action rarely faces consequences, this situation will likely pass without any major consequences.

In a saner society, this incident would spark national outrage. Every institution involved—from the police who arrested the children, to the legal department that approved their arraignment, to the correctional service that locked them in medium-security prisons alongside hardened criminals, to the attorney-general’s office that stood by—should be held accountable.

Query letters ought to be flying in every direction, demanding explanations for how such a gross miscarriage of justice occurred – how it conveniently skipped the mind of everyone involved that children should not be treated and arraigned in such a manner. Beyond a mere one-day outrage, the public should demand answers.

But it won’t happen.

Why? Because Nigeria is not a nation of consequence. We do not allow actions to have consequences, particularly for those in power. Instead, we politicise everything—even issues that should never be politicised. We defend both the indefensible and the highly ludicrous, in the name of non-concern, party affiliation or individual loyalty.

Make no mistake, what happened to those children is not new, it happens often in states across Nigeria. Records of various prisons will show how children are tried, convicted and imprisoned as adults without the benefit of the Child Rights Act.

By detaining these children for nearly 90 days without proper arraignment, we haven’t just failed them—we’ve hardened them. Exposed to a brutal system, they were treated as criminals for something as mundane as flying a flag. We’ve placed them in the same correctional centres as convicted adults, traumatising them for life.

And yet, when banditry or unrest emerges in the future, we will wonder how it all started. We fail to see how these children, mistreated and discarded by the system, are pushed towards resentment and rebellion. By our own hands, we hardened them.

The attorney-general’s office and the inspector-general of police ought to put a system in place to make sure this never happens again throughout the country. But they won’t do this, the focus of the outrage will solely be on this singular incident.

The lack of consequences in Nigeria is not just a governance failure; it is a national tragedy, one that we all pay for in the long run.

Opatola Victor is a legal practitioner and can be reached at [email protected]