Nelson Fashina
Again, this is a deep philosophy of a poem that speaks to the urgency of truth as we face Life Challenges in Nigeria of terrorism, at the moment. Toyin Falola’s treatise makes the situation to become really mesmerising, because he evinces that one cannot opt for forgiveness for one who lured one’s daughter for rape, and deceived one’s son into using him for ritual.
Yet, the common public mind and doctrine is unaccountably and unacceptably pleading for forgiveness. Toyin Falola’s ironies in this poem are of different layers. And they speak to the foundations of our African, yes African moral philosophy of penalty and legal justice. If our collective psyche is framed to believe that the one who deliberately commits a crime, not just a stranger, but a friend, a relation, a co-worker, could repent, then let us first hinge our moral and legal justice on a kind of repentance that would erase the effects of the crime committed. How does one forgive a son, a brother, a father, a mother, a wife, a husband who framed their own kidnapping in collusion with bandits in order to extort money from the victim and their loved ones.
How does one forgive apprehended and arrested bandits who have kidnapped so many, taken so much ransome, raped and murdered so many. Could we safely and rationally reconcile them, rehabilitate them and reabsorb them into our society?
In that context, the only healing balm for someone who had murdered one’s child is for him to bring him to life. For the one who has raped one’s daughter to restore her dignity to her whole chaste condition that restores her virginity and girlhood Innocence. Otherwise, any form of confession, forgiveness, and pardon that cannot lead into restoration of the crime effect is at best a licence to commit another crime. For, in Toyin Falola’s poem here, he proves that forgiveness would encourage the criminal to re-enact the crime act again. The same thing goes for a traitor friend who snatches one’s wife or lover. He cannot genuinely repent if forgiven. Since crime and betrayal are instincts, they are ungoverned by a sense of rational reversal of that drive. The instinct to betray is immanent and cannot possibly be exorcised.
Falola’s philosophy is deep and transcending for a people, a society whose moral and legal justice system is tough on detecting and arresting crime or policing crime but very weak on justice.
At this juncture, there seems to be a resonance of Sharia Law type of justice system in Toyin Falola’s philosophy in this poem. As a matter of fact, the Western system of justice which has been adopted and grafted on African government laws is weak, unlike our Indigenous legal system under the Monarchial Rule of African kings before the advent of colonialism. In that historical justice system a murderer is never pardoned. He has to be beheaded on the ritual grove on Ogun, the god of iron and metallurgy. Even a thief, a traitor is never pardoned. They were made to face the consequences of their action . As such, the crime rate was minimal.
Should we take Toyin Falola’s poetic logic in this poem as a call to maximum justice for criminals? Within that spectrum, and the immediate subject of criminalities – abduction, kidnappings, rape, request for high ransom, gruesome murder of innocent victims of Fulani terrorism in Nigeria today, should the Nigerian Government adopt the Sharia Philosophy of no pardon for the bandits and other criminals in our nation?
This is a million dollar question. We need to speak to history. We need to lay a foundation for posterity. What’s our philosophy, our epistemology – nature of knowledge on crime and justice in our generation? How does Toyin Falola want our generation to “engage life … with its more vulnerabilities”?