By Kayode Emola

Last week, I read an article about an innocent man who was killed by a mob for an offence he did not commit, and it reminded me of when I lived in Lagos. I don’t know if it is a Yoruba-wide phenomenon, but mob justice is very common in Lagos, where the crime rate is high. The following account of what happened is graphic and may be upsetting for some readers.

This innocent boy was killed just because he was accused of stealing a woman’s ₦20,000 which she was hoping to take to the market. When asked about the money, the boy whispered through trembling lips, “I didn’t do it,” begging for his life.

However, his plea went unheeded as the first blow landed, coming from behind, followed by a stick that cracked across his shoulder. Another hit followed, with stones flying at him from unseen hands. His blood splattered on the ground, and the taste of iron filled his mouth. He cried “Mama,” whimpering, barely audible, but his mother wasn’t there. Only the angry crowd whose eyes were glazed with bloodlust, whose voices fed and were in turn fed from each other’s hate.

Within moments, a tyre was brought from nowhere, then came gasoline and the strike of a match. The boy was in flames, and the smell of the fire made the mob scamper a little. The boy’s hand reached out weakly, but to no avail; he cried for help, but none came. His breath became shallow, and his heart slowed. Even as he wanted to run, a two-by-two stick was used to force him back to the blazing tyre until he was burnt to ashes.

A few minutes later, someone ran into the square with the shattering news: the boy was not the one who took it. The accuser’s daughter had seen the money on the counter and taken it when no one was around. That is when it dawned on the crowd that an innocent young man had been killed for an offence he did not commit. The mob stood frozen, staring at the burnt body they had just destroyed; the grey sky wept for an innocent child killed because of false accusations in a society where the justice system has failed everyone.

One could try to write this off as an isolated story of one innocent boy killed because of a false testimony, but this pattern frequently repeats itself, time and time again, with no one doing anything to address the ugly situation. We have seen so many innocent people killed on the streets because of false accusations, both in Lagos and elsewhere in Nigeria, on some occasions with even the police standing by, and doing nothing.

This is what happens when society is broken, when justice is served only if you have money to pay for it. If even just one sensible person had advocated for the innocent boy to be handed over to the police so that the proper judicial process could take its course, how different might the outcome have been? However, we all know that the justice system in Nigeria doesn’t work that way.

Many genuinely guilty parties need do nothing more than bribe the police and are released without any charges. This is the reason that many people resort to mob action to get the justice they long for, and, as a result, in Nigeria, and especially in Lagos, it has become the norm. Every person feels that street justice is the only way to get restitution for any perceived breach of their rights, rather than appealing to the formal judicial process.

The problem is, when the accuser becomes the judge overseeing their own case, you cannot expect to see real justice reign. That is why we have lost too many innocent people in our land to crimes they did not commit.

And yet, I witnessed a case around 2010 when I was doing my National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Nasarawa. A young man who was serving in my local government, in the same Community Development Service (CDS) as I didn’t turn up for almost two months. I wondered what had happened to him, as he was always punctual for the weekly meeting.

A close mutual friend of ours informed me that he had experienced a trauma: he had driven into a pedestrian who lost his life. My first thought upon hearing that he had killed someone was, how can he still be alive, and not even in prison? Our friend explained to me that in Northern Nigeria, when such things occur, they term it as “kadara,” meaning destiny.

She explained that since it was destiny for the pedestrian to lose his life in that way, the jungle justice system cannot be applied to our friend who was driving. Instead, he was asked to make restitution to the family of the victim by means of covering the cost of the burial, and, having done so, he was let go.

I was amazed that this could happen in Nigeria. I told my friend that had this happened in Lagos, the driver would have fled the scene because, if caught, he would most definitely be lynched by an angry mob.

This story taught me a valuable lesson: that just because something has been normalised in our society, that doesn’t make it the proper practice. Some things can and should change, especially if it is costing the lives of innocents.

I cannot say that the extrajudicial killings going on in Lagos will stop overnight – or, indeed, will ever stop whilst the Yoruba remain in Nigeria. However, it is a menace that cannot be permitted within our society when we get our independent Yoruba nation.

However, the only way to prevent people from resorting to street justice is to strengthen our judicial process such that justice is guaranteed no matter who must be held accountable. If not, this may be only one of many problems of Nigeria that will become our nightmare when we declare our sovereign Yoruba nation.

By Kayode Emola

As the Iran-Israel conflict enters its second week, most commentators are analysing the implications for the region and the wider world. At first glance, the fighting may have been limited to just between Israel and Iran, but the way events are progressing, it seems that it may escalate to become a global affair.

With Hamas and Hezbollah, who previously appeared to pose the most immediate threat to their national security, now stricken, the Israeli government seems to believe there is no better time to attack Iran than now. Israel has adopted the “strike whilst the iron is hot” approach, and, so far, it seems to be paying off.

Whether Israel will be able to sustain the war in the long run is another question entirely. However, the level of precision with which the Israeli government has carried out its operations in the first few days of the conflict has given it an edge over the Iranians.

As the world watches on, it is worth noting that the calmness experienced over the past few days should not be mistaken for peace. The US has given Iran two weeks to negotiate, after which they warned they would join the Israelis in the conflict.

The US unexpected bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities this morning brings a new twist to the conflict. If history has taught us anything, it is that war provides no resolution to the real problem on the ground, and that there are never any real winners.

Both sides will always come out worse off, having expended huge numbers of resources during the war’s execution. Whilst war may be inevitable in some circumstances, it is nonetheless difficult to predict the outcome from the onset.

Israel, no doubt, had hoped that it would be able to complete its operations in Iran within days. However, the fact that the Ayatollah is still standing gives the Israeli government something to worry about.

Whilst we Yoruba may learn from the Israeli government’s handling of the killing of innocent Jews on October 7, 2023, we should also be aware that the world faces the potential of World War 3 if the situation is not handled properly.

The Israeli government did not hesitate to make known that it will do everything within its power to protect every one of its citizens. It demanded that all the civilian hostages be released unconditionally, and failure to do so would lead to the elimination of Hamas leadership and the destruction of the activist group.

Likewise, those of us leading the Yoruba self-determination struggle now need to begin taking concrete decisions towards the actualisation of our independent Yoruba nation. As the world is arming itself for a potential war, we cannot stand idle for those weapons to be used to unleash fear and terror on us.

The time for wishing and hoping is over. The Israeli government didn’t dilly-dally around, hoping and praying that heaven would give them their people back. They took the action to the enemy’s camp to free their citizens held captive there.

We need to begin to view each other within our nation as family, and family means no one gets left behind. Nigeria does not hold this philosophy, as it is now openly embracing terrorists as respected citizens of the country. The time is ripe for us to treat our struggle with the seriousness it deserves, so that we may free our people from the shackles of slavery.

By Kayode Emola

If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small meaning if you give up or lose heart when facing difficulties, then there is a lack of resilience. Many people had hoped that there will be one big mega rally where we will keep ourselves and our people vulnerable to the brutal forces of Nigeria.

However, in our wisdom, we thought the time is not ripe for that not because we are not ready but because we didn’t want to endanger lives. Rightly so, the rally was meant to draw attention to a lot of our people who cared to listen to our message but are still not bothered about the plight of our Yoruba people.

The clear message now is that we will continue to sensitize our people concerning the dangers that’s staring us in the face. What we face is an existential threat, not just to our way of life but to our very existence.

This is the reason we cannot afford to give up now, not especially when this is a matter of life and death. We cannot afford to throw the lifeline millions of our people are looking up to for the sovereignty of the Yoruba nation.

The present government of Nigeria knows fully well the plight of our people but they themselves are helpless in proffering solutions. That is why they have resulted in mass looting of the treasury for their own personal benefit. We cannot fold our hands and allow these uncontrollable stealing of our children’s future by a few Nigerian government officials.

The situation at our homeland has become worse that nearly everyone in Yorubaland is now seeking to travel out of the country. Not minding the perils of the journey or what they will encounter when they get there. This is why we all have to act now to save our children from the ruins that will become of Yoruba land if we do nothing.

So, I beseech our people to support the ongoing efforts in creating the much-needed awareness required for the liberation of our Yoruba nation. This is not the time to buckle but a time to reflect and to act. This is the time to spread the gospel of the Yoruba nation to those who are yet to catch the fire and together we can make a difference for the coming generation.