I was shocked, and even shed tears, when I saw a video trending on Facebook of an 11-year-old boy that was allegedly chained by his family members and kept in an animal stall for two years in Kebbi State.
Subsequently, other videos went viral of similar cases in Kano and last week in Maiduguri.
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About two years ago, news of related cases were reported in Nigeria, especially in the northern part of the country where parents send their children to ‘Torture Houses’ in the name of rehabilitation.
In September 2019, hundreds of people were freed by the police in a single house in Kaduna.
The captives are seen with chains around their ankles and some were as young as five years old, according to police.
Unfortunately, some were allegedly sexually abused and tortured.
Where’s the humanity if you can detain, chain or jail your fellow human in a restricted area without providing him/her enough food and water as well as keeping him/her in a dirty condition?
Can we say the detainers are doing it for ritual purposes or just for punishment?
If it’s for punishment, why not follow the legal process while taking actions?
Humanity is the human race, which includes everyone on earth.
It’s also a word for the qualities that make us human, such as the ability to love and have compassion; being creative, and not being a robot or alien.
When people ask for money to help feed starving children, they’re appealing to your sense of humanity.
Regrettably, most of the detainees are Muslims and from Muslims family despite the fact that Islam condemns the practice of maltreating human beings.
The Qur’an itself is concerned with establishing boundaries that Muslims are prohibited from transgressing.
Within these boundaries, the Quran treats human beings as equally valuable and endowed with certain rights by virtue of simply being human, hence human rights.
The rights bestowed upon humans in the Quran include the right to life and peaceful living, as well as the right to own, protect, and have property protected, according to Islamic economic jurisprudence.
The Quran also contains rights for minority groups and women, as well as regulations of human interactions between one another to the extent of dictating how Prisoners of War ought to be treated.
Sadly, it’s in the same North that under-age children are sent to informal schools in the name of seeking Islamic knowledge and they roam in the street, begging for livelihood without considering the dangers associated with the practice.
I totally blame the parents of the children for not helping the teachers in taking care of their children whenever they send them to the schools.
It’s hoped that we will treat our fellow humans with politeness and kindness.
Abdulmumin Kolo Gulani, writes from Damaturu
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