WITH neither party being perfect, it is normal, even expected, for couples to engage in arguments. However, given their reluctance to let go of the patriarchal outlook on life that seems to confine women to a lower rung of life, certain men in the Nigerian society seem to fly off the handle at the slightest prompting. They subject women to physical and emotional torture following the slightest perceived dissent. To such men, it is not just an affront for a woman to have a contrary opinion to her husband’s, it is something close to treachery. This warped outlook on life seems to have underlined the terrible case of a man who, in a fit of madness, clubbed his own baby to death in Abeokuta, Ogun State, recently. According to reports, a heated argument between a couple resident in the Elega area of Abeokuta turned tragic when the husband, identified as Olamide, mistakenly struck his one-year-old son with an iron rod intended for his wife, leading to the child’s death!
As indicated in a video from the scene, the man fled immediately after the incident. Residents of the community said that they were alerted to the incident after they heard noise from the couple’s apartment. A co-tenant identified as Bolatito said that she was alerted by the wife that her husband had killed her son and when she got to the scene, she learnt that the couple had engaged in a fight. As it turned out, the suspect had reportedly picked an iron rod attached to the weight he often lifted during exercises and attempted to smash it on his wife but the rod hit the son on the head. She said: “At about midnight, I heard the lady calling out to me that I should come to her aid and that Ola (husband) had killed Ayinde (the son). I was surprised, and I asked what happened. She said I should help them get a vehicle. I went outside and I couldn’t see anybody, so while I was returning home, I saw some people with a vehicle, so I said that we should take the child to Trinity because it is the nearby hospital in the area.
“When we got to Trinity, we were informed that the child was dead. Upon returning home, we realised that the child was making sounds, so we decided to take him to the hospital again, where we were told that he had died the second time. What I learnt was that the husband took an iron rod from a weight he often carried and attempted to smash it on the wife, but instead hit the baby on the head. He had always beaten his wife, as the previous pregnancy the wife had was lost due to the beating she received from the husband.”
The story was corroborated by the chairman of the community, Ramoni Adegbola. Adegbola said: “I heard the noise of ‘help, help, they have started fighting!’, and I ran to the scene. On getting there, I saw them with the child, and I was informed that the child had been hit with an iron rod on the head. I called out to other residents to assist in taking the child to hospital, and when they returned from the hospital, I was informed that the child had died. The couple engaged in a fight frequently, and I feel it’s because the husband often takes illicit drugs. There was a day he took something and fainted, and I had to call on neighbours to assist in taking care of him. He has absconded since yesterday, but I was informed not too long ago that he reported to a police station.” The spokesperson for the Ogun State Police Command, Omolola Odutola, confirmed the incident, saying that an investigation was ongoing into the incident.
It is distressing that an innocent child lies in his grave at the moment due to the dysfunctionality of his family and the depravity of his father. What makes this case so sad is that the tragedy could have gone either way, with either the hapless child or his mother getting killed following the suspect’s fit of anger. It is probably true that the woman in this story isn’t a saint, but the point is that precipitate violence is not the solution to any problem. Anger, as a proverb says, does not beget good offspring. Anger is patently dangerous and no one who means to live a peaceful life can allow himself/herself to be ruled by it. Even if your wife had been deliberately offensive, why seek to batter her with a rod? Even if issues cannot immediately be resolved diplomatically, there is the option of leaving the homestead for a while and allowing the angry emotions to die down. It is unfortunate that an innocent child who looked up to his father and mother for care and nourishment is dead now, and will never be heard from again. And in all probability, the suspect, who no doubt will be mourning the dead child at the moment, now faces a hard time in the court of law. That is double jeopardy, and it is self-crafted.
If human beings are unable to control their anger, then there is little sense in rating them above animals. The suspect in this case will never forget that he killed his own child, and neither will the government and the larger society, all because he allowed perverse emotions to gain control, being ruled by his muscles rather than his brain. Again, as we have said time and again, crime can only fester when there are no consequences. Had the suspect faced the wrath of the law before now for his alleged wife battery, perhaps he would not now be facing a murder charge. Wife batterers need a reset of their brains through the justice system, not a smile and forgiveness without guarantees of changed behaviour.
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