These conscienceless fathers

THE burgeoning incidence of aberrant behaviour and conduct by some citizens in this country is fast assuming the status of regularity, and that is quite worrisome. Yes, there is hardly any society that is totally bereft of outliers who would rather conduct their affairs in breach of the law than stay within its confines, but the difference is that in saner climes, cases of  outright criminality, especially those that call into question the core values and morality of offenders, are few and far between. On the other hand, in this country, reported cases of crime against humanity and acts of criminality that turn the moral value system on its head are preponderant and have continued to burgeon in a disturbing fashion.  Perhaps more worrying are indications that the reported cases actually pale into insignificance compared to those that are being suppressed and/or outside the radar of the security agencies.

Two horrible incidents were reported recently in different parts of the country that point in the direction of the dysfunctionality of the societal value system. In Rivers State, the police arrested an evidently conscienceless father,  Charles Michael, who sold his three children for N1.5 million. He committed the crime with six other accomplices who have also been apprehended by the police. As usual in instances like this, he came up with the familiar platitudes of misery and economic hardship to explain away his patently unfeeling and criminal act.  Also in Ogun State, another unconscionable father, one Poni Bada, a Beninese, reportedly took his nine-year-old son to a herbalist in the Owode area of the state and offered him for money rituals. Like Charles Michael, he had accomplices and he also claimed to have been propelled by the need to rein in the parlous state of his family’s economy.

Specifically, he said that he planned to use the uncertain proceeds from the ritual to take care of his remaining nine children and improve his living conditions. His son, Agbe, would have been sacrificed but for the police who, acting on credible intelligence, swooped in, stormed the herbalist’s shrine, and effected the arrest of all the suspects. These are evidently parents without conscience: they do not care to dispose of/dispense with their own blood. Both incidents are  strange, deplorable, and inexplicable. They  exemplify the height of callousness and absence of parental love. For instance, Charles who claimed to have sold the three children at intervals did not have a rethink after he sold the first one. He also claimed to have applied the proceeds to open a salon for his wife. What is yet unclear is whether or not his wife is the mother of the children he chose to commoditise. It would add another dimension to the bizarre conduct if a mother is actually complicit in the sale of her three children.

Poni Bada was willing to forcefully make his son pay the supreme sacrifice, ostensibly to secure his family’s economic future. It is unthinkable. Nigeria is a well known poor nation-state, reputed for harbouring millions of citizens who suffer from  multidimensional poverty, and there is very little on the horizon to suggest that the situation  will change positively in the near future. Even at that, there can be no justification for criminal and bestial actions by citizens under the pretext of survival. Pray, what would  become of the society if everyone that suffers some form of lack chooses to resort to desperate, precipitate and criminal actions in order to survive?

The level of depravity and consciencelessness that is on display by these two parents should be disturbing to all. It is as if the society has been thrown to the dogs morally, with many acting without regard to decency and morality.  In both incidents, it is difficult to understand where the natural feeling of fatherhood must have gone for these conscienceless fathers to trade off their children for pecuniary gain. Evidently, their sordid act reflects the depth of the breakdown of values in the society. And it is imperative that everyone works towards reining in this harmful tendency in order to save the society from the certain destruction awaiting it in the absence of sustaining and stabilising values.

There should, therefore, be concerted efforts to re-establish the importance of values and morality in the society. The society should frown on actions that are outside the precincts of requisite standards. And definitely, that has to start by visiting these conscienceless parents with the full recompense of their sordid acts within the ambit of the law.

 

 

READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE 

• Tinubu’s ministerial list: Disqualify Stella Okotete now, lawyer writes Senate

• Oil refinery: ‘They call us lazy youths but won’t give us jobs,’ Nigerians berate Dangote’s plan to hire 11,000 Indians

• Tinubu’s ministerial nominees’ profiles: Politicians, technocrats, party loyalists

• #BBNaijaAllStars: Housemates win season’s first wager presentation

• Increased federal allocations and public welfare

• [PHOTOS] Shirt removal: ‘My dad not happy with my choice of celebration’, Asisat Oshoala reveals