Sad, As Owo Massacre Further Depicts How Human Life Is Becoming So Cheap In Nigeria -By Sandra Ijeoma Okoye

There is no denying the fact that the massacre that befell a Catholic church in Owo, St. Francis Catholic Church, located within the headquarters of Owo Local Government Area on Sunday has further depicted how human life is becoming so cheap in Nigeria so much that virtually everyone across the country is worried except the committers of the grisly act.

The massacre which reportedly left on its trail the death of over 50 persons has been rated to be barbaric and considered to be wickedness of the highest order.

Now the question that has continue to beg for answer. “Why is human life becoming so cheap in the country since the last few years? Without mincing words, it is expedient to remind killers that are roaring across the length and breadth of the country to understand the words of Napz Cherub Pellazo that says, “When a bird is alive, it eats ants, when bird is dead, ants eat the bird. Time and circumstances can change at any time. Don’t devalue or hurt anyone in life. You may be powerful today. But remember, time is more powerful than you!!! One tree makes a million match sticks, but only one match stick needed to burn a million Trees.”

To straightforwardly put it in this context, values explains why diamonds are more precious than coal. Therefore, it is high time human life was valued across the country.

Without over flogging the issue, one may not be wrong to say that if there is any evil that has literarily come to stay in Nigeria in the last few years that it is undeniably the unprecedented and heartless routine in which innocent lives of Nigerians are being wasted by killers that have either been dubbed to be bandits or unknown gunmen.

It is sad that in a country where many find it difficult to slaughter Chickens that relatively few individuals have resorted to slaughtering their fellow citizens by each passing day without blinking their eyelids.
Given the rate at which the lives of Nigerians are been wasted, it is expedient to ask, “Is it that because we are so many, therefore, a loss of one or two lives becomes immaterial? While this questions may sound illogical to some misanthropists among us who believe that human life is as cheap as 50 kobo.

Besides the massacre that occurred in Owo on Sunday, three recent cases point to the denigration of human lives in Nigeria.

The first case is of the grisly murder of a defenseless student, Deborah Samuel of Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto by her irate school mates. The killing, unarguably yet another of the barbaric, unlawful and unconstitutional acts committed by some citizens using religion as a cover remain historic in the country. In particular, Deborah is another victim in a long line of religiously motivated mob actions that have led to many deaths in the Northern part of Nigeria. But it is one murder too many.

The second relates to the killing of a member of a vigilante group in the Lugbe area of Abuja for allegedly being blasphemous against Islamic religion. It was gathered that the mob killing occurred at the Timber market section of Fruit Market in Federal Housing Estate, Lugbe.

Against the foregoing backdrop, there is no denying the fact that there is nothing more important than human life. While the foregoing view is unarguably an embodiment of the dignity of human life, the reality remains that a significant number of the common citizens are denied this very basic dignity of human life.

Without doubt, these cases point to a deeper malaise on our part as a society. The first case resonates in the words of Ozzy Osbourne which says, “My idea of what God should be is a good guy. I don’t think there’s any good in killing people in the name of your God.” While it also in the same vein brings to mind the words of Jose Saramago that says, “Doesn’t anybody understand that killing in the name of God only makes Him a murderer?”

In fact, manifold security threats across the country leave civilians at looming risk of mass killings, including growing attacks by armed groups commonly referred to as “bandits” and by the armed extremist groups Boko Haram. It would be recalled that since 2011 that inter-communal violence, rooted in competition over scarce resources, worsened in central and north-west Nigeria. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the deteriorating security situation has resulted in a humanitarian emergency, with more than 8.4 million people requiring urgent assistance.

Alongside tenacious ferocity between herding and farming communities, armed banditry has expanded in north-west Nigeria. According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, armed bandit groups killed more than 2,600 civilians in 2021, an increase of over 250 percent compared with 2020. Since January 2022 more than 250 people have been killed in attacks by armed bandits in Zamfara State. On 10 April more than 100 people were killed in attacks on several communities in the Kanam Local Government Area of Plateau State. The violence has displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

Responding to the multiple security crises, in September 2021 the Nigerian government launched renewed campaigns in the north-west to curb armed banditry, including deploying large numbers of troops, cutting off communication networks and imposing restrictions on movement. Increased military operations against extremist hideouts have reportedly killed hundreds of fighters. In January 2022, under the Terrorism Prevention Act, the government of Nigeria designated bandit groups as “terrorists.”

While it is expedient to in this context caution those that are not Christians that God abhor killing of anyone in its all ramifications, it is equally pragmatic to let those in the Christendom know that “After God made a covenant with Noah never to destroy mankind by a flood, he set up a system to protect human life. Any man who unlawfully took the life of another would have his own life taken, “for God made man in his own image” (Genesis 9:6).

Against the foregoing backdrop, how precious and valuable human life is to God is unarguably crystal clear. To murder another human being is to murder what is most like God in creation. It is tantamount to an attack on the Creator of all life.