Nationwide violence, blame not the victim
Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s 1965 work: The Negro Family: The Case for National Action, usually simply referred to as the Moynihan Report, had pathetically concluded that, three centuries of oppression of black people, and in particular with what he calls, the uniquely cruel structure of American slavery and its attendant effect on familial outcomes, were the proximate cause of the prevalence of poorer rates of employment, educational achievement, and financial success found among the black population.
Psychologist William Ryan then wrote a book in 1971, titled “Blaming The Victim” to refute the pathetic conclusions of the Moynihan report. In the book, Ryan described victim blaming as an ideology used to justify social injustice against victims of an unjust system. Ryan’s critique cast the Moynihan report as an attempt to divert responsibility for poverty from social structural factors to the behaviors and cultural patterns of the poor. Before Ryan, Theodor W. Adorno, in 1947, had also defined what would be later called “blaming the victim,” as “one of the most sinister features of the Fascist character”.
Victim blaming occurs when the victim of a crime or any wrongful act is held entirely or partially at fault for the harm that befell them and fomenting the perception that victims are in any way responsible for the actions of offenders. A typical expression of victim blaming is the “asking for it” idiom, e.g. “she was asking for it” said of a victim of violence or sexual assault.
This has become even more pronounced following the nationwide violence that has erupted after the #EndSARS protests. In a bid to sound politically correct, there is an ominous chorus of condemnation of the violence and a futile attempt by a section of the ruling class and their apparachiks to blame the victims of the violence as though they are the perpetrators.
The #EndSARS protests held sway nationwide for 12 days without any reported incident of violence. In some states, Commissioners of Police even appeared on the streets to march along with the protesters urging them to remain peaceful. Some thieving politicians also tried to take some shine and photo ops.
The ruling class lost their patience after their pretentious concessions were turned down by the protesters. They resorted to spending cash to procure thugs to disperse the protesters since it was scandalous to use the police. They have them in abundance since they have refused to educate us. They began from Ikeja. They came armed, in government branded buses. They were resisted by the protesters. Protesters mobilized resources among themselves to hire private security companies to provide cover since the police had refused to protect the protesters from the marauding government sponsored thugs. The violent attacks continued in different protest venues for days, across the country.
In Abuja, the police came with water cannons. Scorching hot water was sprayed on peaceful protesters from police tanks for hours. Poised to take their country back, the youths held their forte. Official security vehicles including crested police vans, secret service SUVs, were deployed to chauffeur drive thugs and vandals, armed with machetes and cudgels to different protest venues to disrupt youths that were only carrying Nigerian flags and asking for a better life. In the heart of the FCT, security officials were spotted marshalling orders to armed thugs and pointing their areas of target for them.
This continued unabated for days. Still, the youths held on. When some business interests became seriously threatened, artillery was moved into Lekki. Soldiers marched on bloody civilians and the isles were cleared. Terror arrived in the dark of the night. The protesters left the streets, leaving behind blood, tears, military bullet shells and relics of our blood stained flag.
Now the same thugs and vandals that government unleashed on the protesters have refused to vacate the streets. Their kind and ilk have joined them on the streets. Looting a-la-carte. They have even left the streets and entered the mansions and palaces and boulevards, and barracks and business premises. They are on rampage, striking both the guilty and the innocent, the strong and the weak, the poor and the rich, the commons and the royals, the armed and the unarmed and rather than ask those who let the thugs out to the streets to return them to where they brought them from, some section of the society is reading us verses from the Moynihan report. They are blaming the victims of the violence that those who are supposed to protect us procured and unleashed on us.
The #EndSARS protests have clearly nothing to do with the nationwide carnage. Rather, #EndSARS is a victim of the nationwide violence.
The yellow light for a revolution in this country has been clocking for God knows how long. No one should pretend they did not see it. The poor saw it. The rich did see it too. The politicians saw it. The clergy saw it. The light has turned green. Mouthing condemnation of the violence will not turn the light red, arrests, detentions and prosecutions will not turn it red, increasing the brut force will not turn it red. I am optimistic that the violence will stop when those who spent money to garnish our space with it wants it to, but that will only be a hiatus, in the end, what will etiolate this raging madness is if the politicians can hear the resounding message in the air that things are no longer the same, the youths are tired…..CURTAIL YOUR GREED AND FIX THIS COUNTRY WITH IMMEDIATE ALACRITY OR….
This opinion is strictly mine!
