It could have been me. What about you?

11 year old boy burnt alive in Lagos!

(Please click the link above to read the full, pathetic story of an 11 year old boy that was burnt alive in Lagos.)

It is a known fact now that all it takes to get anybody killed on the street of Lagos now is just for somebody to shout, 'thief, thief'. And before you know it, hundreds of people (probably those who are more 'criminal' than the suspect) will surround you, give you the beating of your life, give you a 'necklace' ( that's a used tyre on your neck) , pour petrol on you and then... just a strike and ...(you can imagine the rest)

Such was the case of the the young boy above. I don't want to bother writing about it again as Edward has done a good job on that. The striking thing about the incident to me is what could have been termed 'a child theft'. There are lots of instances where many things happen and we just don't get the correct picture. Then anybody gives it a different meaning.

In 2004, I did my internship with an ISP in Victoria Island, Lagos. You know those kind of V/I jobs that you have to leave your house by 5.30 am so you can make the 8.00 am resumption time. And you close 'officially' at 5.30 pm (more often than not, there are things that will keep you in office till 6.30 pm). On this day, I closed early and joined other tired workers in struggling to catch an early bus back home in Obalende. And just as we were struggling to board the bus, my hands touched the breast pocket of a man who was also struggling to board the bus and what next? The man turned back and started cursing me that I wanted to steal the money in his breast pocket and mentioned that people like that get burnt. Hear him,

"Shege, barawo, dem dey burn people like you" ( Thief, they burn people like you)

I was very tired that I just didn't have enough strength to argue with the man. I tried explaining but he just continued his abuses. Then the miracle happened. HE JUST LEFT.

You don't believe that's a miracle? Ok, what if the man had gathered people around me like they did for Samuel? All they will just want me to say is that I touched his pocket and that will suffice an evidence of 'stealing'. But a miracle happened.

Anytime I remember the case of Samuel, I am forced to think it could have been me. And I know it could have been you. You don't have to be guilty.