Korede Taiwo – A plight too familiar

His own father manacled him to the church’s lectern, according to the reports. A rustic pendant, actually a chain dangled down his frail neck and rested around his crotch; a king-size padlock clutched the chain around his tiny chest. He was like an item safely sequestered from burglars’ prowl. Korede sat, shirtless, weighted by the brownish metals, one hand placed on a feeble thigh, the other rested on the floor.

He had on his waist some miserable trouser, too miserly to go below his knees, his dry legs exposed. He looked frail and dusty, drained of energy and forlorn. He could not offer himself any help, because he was trapped and at the mercy of those who kept him there. His stomach had lost shape, having been denied grain and water for days and weeks. His hair looked rough. Perhaps, he hadn’t washed for weeks.

That was the first glimpse one had of Korede Taiwo, the nine-year-old boy, as he was rescued by men of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, together with the Ogun State Police Command, inside the Key of Joy Parish of Celestial Church of Christ, Ajibawo, in Atan Ota, Ado-Odo, Ogun State on Saturday July 23.

It was a sight that gripped the heart, recalling imageries of captured slaves as they were processed at the medieval port of Badagry (point of no return), on their way through the Atlantic, to plantation farms in America. In those pictures, the slaves were helpless and could not save themselves, but at least, they were adults. But here was a nine-year old, Korede, helpless inside a church in the forest.

The environment didn’t look safe. Unlike government prisons that are well guarded against external attacks, to keep a jailbird from slipping out, Korede’s prison was without windows. Meaning that while he was tied down with no clothes on, save that shrunken of piece of trouser, he was exposed to the elements, the cold, the sweat, the mosquitoes and the rats. Perhaps, ritual headhunters didn’t find him useful, cause after everyone had gone home to sleep, he was without company and defenceless for months.

Even though our collective capacity to be outraged has been tampered with as a country, after all we have gone through in the hands of Boko Haram insurgents, the gory images of gruesome killings and bombings, painful sights of hungry and emaciated Internally displace Persons IDPs, Korede’s plight is one that still brings tears to the eye. You ask yourself, why for God’s sake should self-inflicted crimes like this go on in nooks and crannies, without the larger society paying attention and doing something? Indeed, there could be worst cases than this, but if unreported, it goes un-mourned.

There are stories of child witches in some South-south states, Akwa Ibom and Cross river, for instance, where parents abandoned children to so-called exorcists, who label and criminally manhandle children alleged to be witches. Very much like the Salem witch-hunt hysteria of old America, these children are crudely tried upon some persons’ suspicions, mostly spurious and sentenced. And the larger society says and does nothing.

The one who claims to be Korede’s father, who kept him in that life-threatening position, Francis Taiwo, is said to be the pastor in charge of the Parish. He took off when security agencies came to rescue the boy, but was later apprehended when neighbours blew the lid on him. He alleged that his son stole. The boy, according to reports, confessed that he stole a pot of soup and eba, because he was hungry. For that, he was chained and denied food and water. He was denied education, denied his fraction of God-given freedom and the opportunity to play with his mates and work towards his dream of becoming a doctor.

After all said and done, the Ogun government has intervened and promised Korede another opportunity to live the life his father was determined to criminally abrogate. He has been adopted by the government and will enjoy the privileges of better life from now on. Last week, he was at a government hospital for proper attention. Tests will be carried out to fish out whatever ailments that lurk in his system; and he will be treated for free. He will be put in a school, where special attention will be put to give him good education, since he appears to have lost time and normal beginning. His psychological state needs attention too. Like we say, ‘God works in mysterious ways.’ Korede was put in jail like Joseph in the Bible, but he ended in the palace and became an Egyptian administrator. But that is not the whole story.

The fact of the matter is that we have only managed to rescue one Korede out of millions of abandoned and abused children. They are in the streets of Kano, Lagos, and Calabar; and all over. These children, according to both federal and state laws are supposed to be given free basic education, but they are roaming the streets. Some state governments have attempted to lure them back with free lunch, but that is still work in progress. And may not even be the solution.

The first place to start is to have a workable idea of the number of children born in Nigeria at a given period, so that provision could be arranged for their education and upkeep. Until Korede was rescued, the Ogun government had no idea about his existence. He too did not know that a government is in place to cater to his interests. So, if we must have a country where all citizens matter, governments at all levels must take the interest of all children to heart and make budgetary provisions for their upkeep, particularly giving them a good beginning. Otherwise, the millions that are not captured in the mainstream will be left to roam aimlessly, only to return as militants and armed robbers.

Parents have a great role to play in ensuring that love and care are available to children. What Francis Taiwo and his wife did to Korede is difficult to fully comprehend from a distance. While the criminal investigation is better left for the Police to manage, I’m permitted to have an artist’s impression of the sociology of the Koredes’ micro space. I see them, husband and wife, as two characters that live in the outskirts of law and order, just as their abode is in the outskirts of civilization.

Their disorderly social life is noticeable in their disheveled outlook, which ordinarily should be their headache to worry about, had they not assaulted society’s sensibilities. The man reminds one of Brother Jero, that trickster in Wole Soyinka’s Trial of Brother Jero. But while Jero is a replica, this one is real. He is said to have fathered many children, from three different women. Yet, he does not take responsibility. He is not accountable to his children. The wife as an accomplice is only a stepmother, while Korede’s biological mother is said to have died. Korede’s other three siblings from his mother are not living with them.

Therefore, Korede was a loner in this den. In most cases in Nigeria, stepmothers do not have good relationship with their stepchildren. It is not likely that this woman thinks well of Korede, otherwise, I wonder how she could go home and enjoy her sleep, while Korede languished in detention. Korede was not well fed; and I wonder why he won’t steal pots of soup and plates of eba and amala. Society should demand accountability from this couple, the major offender being the man.

The Church has largely become a free zone for all manner of social abuses. Just because the Constitution says people have their rights to worship in the manner they chose, Nigerians have added their excesses to the law. Religious houses provide immunity for fictitious men of God to ply their impunity and the larger society is held hostage. Until the supremacy of the Constitution is proclaimed and it is manifestly held to be so by all that Nigeria is not anybody’s religious enclave, social crimes like Korede’s will continue to assault all of us.

The Police should also go beyond occasional crime bursting to real community policing. There are more Koredes out there waiting to be rescued. Community leaders should also not shy from blowing the whistle. A crime against one is a crime against all.