Cry Of A Corper
Brutalized In Zamfara State
The entire corps
members serving in Kaura Namoda, Zamfara state are bleeding out purple blood.
Our hearts are thumping out: strong rhythms of pain. Our dignity has
been
trampled and mangled with reckless impunity. God!
Today a corps
member, Michael, serving his fatherland through sweat and bile; rough roads,
hunger, merciless weather; and the shame of N19,800 in the face of a smothering
economy -- serving in Nasara Standard Academy perceived as the shining light in
a tottering secondary education system in Kaura Namoda -- was today brutalised,
manhandled and reduced to nothingness by a brainless team comprising of the
richest man in Kaura Namoda and his equally wanton boys.
What was his crime?
Michael had punished
his student who happens to be this man's ward. A simple kneel down. Michael who
had nurtured these block heads with patience and love. Michael, who had taught
with empty stomach till letters on the chalkboard danced like rampant music
notes before his eyes. For all of us like Michael, who have stretched the
capacities of our strengths and sensibilities to serve a stifling system. For
all the ' under the sun and in the rain', what have we gotten as reward?
This notorious man,
clenching his cash ridden fists, recruits the help of the police and in that
shameless trotting of Zombies, storms Nasara Academy to crucify Michael like a
criminal. He was punched like a sack of millet and stripped of humanity. He was
beaten, beaten, and again beaten like he stole karats of gold in a jungle
market. O God! My fingers are itching, and it's like they will drip blood.
Michael was driven to the Police Station where the real torture awaited him.
They removed what
was left of his pride as a Man serving his country. Then, they flogged and
flogged him, and when their energy sapped out, the Evil of a man threw wads of
naira notes about, and refueled their animalism. Michael was a heap of sorrow
and a container of hot painful tears. As some of Michael's colleagues arrived
and tried to raise their voices against the escalating reign of heartlessness;
the Police men, some apparently drunk, threatened with pointed rifles, slapping
and pushing them....
Hear me if you are a
corps member in Kaura Namoda! We have been abused to our bones. We are now just
remnants of pride sliced into irredeemable pieces. Our hearts have been pierced
by hot pellets of searing pain. Our heads are now buried in shame. The little
essence of our ghostly existence has been thoroughly erased. We are now empty,
just plain empty.
Who will hear this
and not cry? How can we move about when our sinews are depleted? Who will walk
the long and dusty paths to schools to teach? Who will serve the masters under
a sun that burns through skin and fluid? Who will hear this and not cry?
Nothing has been
done. The engineer of this massive evil is an untouchable. A stinkingly rich
sacred goat. He has played ping pong with our dignity and thinks he will get
away with it because he is rich. Because our society is rotten and deceased of
sense. Because our policeman are a bunch of kitted area boys. Because 'money'
has shredded the spines of our moral make-up.
Michael is lying in
a police cell, writhing in raw pain---- a soul beaten beyond repair. He has
been physically wounded but more serious is the mental injury. But he is not
alone. We are all wounded like Michael and our soul is burning from strife. Who
will hear this and not cry?
We therefore call
on:
The state
Government;
The State
Coordinator NYSC;
The Emir of Kaura
Namoda;
The Commissioner of
Police;
Every Khaki and
Jungle boot in Zamfara state and Nigeria as a whole, let us roar and be heard.
Tell the next person to tell another. Let our tales of woe reach the peak where
justice crouches. The brutalisation of Michael in a land where he is vulnerable
and hapless will not go without notice. Justice must be done. Corps members
must be protected. Our dignity must be restored.
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