We Can't Change the World Unless We Change Ourselves

INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY

In Nigeria today, once you are arrested by any security agencies, you are already guilty of a crime you are yet to be charged to court for, or yet to be sentenced by the judge. Even your rights as a suspect when arrested are not read to you, instead the police officer tells you not to form i-to-know or else, you will regret the day you were born.


For those who have showed to our security agencies that they know their rights have had multiple criminal charges or accusations they weren’t involved in, filed against them, just because they tried to tell the Officers their job.
For years now, suspect, as they are meant to be portrayed have been paraded like criminals, even though many of them haven’t been charged to court, talk less of being found guilty by the Judge. These people are paraded on both regional and national television stations, with their pictures plastered on daily publications; Newspapers or Magazines.


It is said that, “one is innocent until proven guilty”, but not in the case of Nigeria, or at least, the case of poor people who are not rich enough to quench the taste of our Security officers, or don’t have the guts to steal millions or billions of naira.
The way these suspects are displayed on the screen and publications, make one wonder, what really is the true definition of “Suspect”? Or do Nigeria Security Agencies have their own personal definition of “Suspect” that we do not know of? Or Do their own definition apply to just the poor?


Because we don’t see the rich and influential, those who have committed far worse crime than these Suspects, get the same treatment like the Suspects who choose to indulge in criminal activities when the government failed in its duty toward the citizens.


Criminal activities shouldn’t be condoned of course; stealing someone’s property is wrong and anyone found guilty of any kind of crime should face the consequences. But it is important to note that the word “Suspects” and “Guilty” can’t be used for a person at the same time. You can’t treat someone who has already been found guilty as a suspect, just like you can’t treat someone who is still a suspect, yet to be charged to court and sentenced by the Judge as tho the person has already been found guilty.


In a civilized country, things are not done that way, but the way affairs are run within Nigeria shows that we are many years behind civilization. Like a Lecturer at the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ), do say, “Nigeria is ten years behind”.
It unfortunate that this treatment is only melted on the poor, the rich are treated the way a suspect is meant to be treated; even with special privileges, which the poor are denied. The rich are still fully clothed and never paraded, unlike the poor ones who are half naked most of the time they are paraded, with just boxers covering their sensitive parts, with the women dressed like a disturbed person.


These people are scrutinized by reporters even before they face the Judge. They have already been put through a process by the Police and Journalists that is enough to leave them morally and mentally derailed even before court proceedings.
The sad part is that, even Journalists who are meant to protect the citizens from such injustice are fully and deeply involved in the injustice itself. These are one of the ways the media or news organizations get to fill their space, and attract readers. The very thing they sworn to be against and preach against, is the very thing they do buoyantly and is what they use to attract advertisers.


The media has a job to do, and that is to protect the rights of the citizens, not just to broadcast news about daily activities within governments’ confines or entertain us, but to also educate their readers, viewers and listeners of their right and expose those who dared to trample upon the citizens right; these are one of the social contracts the media has with the people.


No matter who the citizen is, be it a law abiding citizen, a suspect, or criminal, everybody has their rights. Your Human Rights doesn’t end because you have been charged to court or found guilty. There are some treatments that a citizen never should go through; even inside the prison. And one of the social responsibilities of the media is to expose, defend and educate the citizens on such maltreatments.


But the Nigerian media have failed in its duty to protect the citizens from their rights being trampled upon, because the press also tramples upon them. One doesn’t need to travel abroad, before you know how Human Rights are held to the highest esteem by the media; take example, USA and Britain. One can’t find on their cable news, CNN or BBC, suspects being paraded by their Police officers.


This is not done in the western world, because even a hardened criminal, terrorist, have their rights, there is a limit to what you can say towards them, and a limit to how you treat them. For some years now, there have been protest and condemnation to how the United States security Intelligence Agencies get their suspects to talk. Condemnation has trailed the waterboarding technique used to get information from terrorists; this is the same USA that lost many lives to the act of terrorism some years ago, the same citizens of the country now call against the way the terrorists are being treated.


If they (westerner world) could show a bit of sympathy towards a terrorist, imagine how their petty thieves are treated. This is the reason why some Nigerians would prefer to go to jail over there, than live as a free man in Nigeria, because their ex-convicts always look healthier than the free man in our country.
 Law enforcement agencies are always careful about what they say about suspects or criminals or how they treat them, because the same suspect they are charging to court can sue them as well. But here in Nigeria, caution is thrown into the wind.


It is important to note that everyone is innocent until proven guilty; this statement isn’t limited to the rich or influential, but to all citizens. Even when caught in the act, the faith of the person should be left to the Judge, they are not to be paraded like criminals when the court is yet to call them that. Even after they have been found guilty, that doesn’t take away all their human rights and privileges, it only reduces them.


Note that not everyone that was paraded in front of the camera were sentenced to jail or found guilty after court proceedings. So what happens to their image after they are set free, because they had no hand in the robbery or accusations? The Police don’t bring them back to the media to explain that they are innocent of the charges. They just release them into a society where they have already tainted their image and reputation.


That’s why the Lagos State Police command was threatened with a law suit some weeks back for defamation of character by some individuals the Command paraded as suspects behind the much publicized robbery attack at some banks in Lekki some months back, which led to the death of a young girl.


These individuals might have the fund to employ a private lawyer to defend them. What about those ones that the same injustice have been melted on but not rich enough to employ a private lawyer as well, so they have to depend on the lawyer the government provide them; the same lawyer who only fight for the reduction of imprisonment years of the accused, and not to first prove the innocence of the suspects.


The best way to fight this injustice melted to only some section of the society is for the Media, Human Rights Activists and Human Right Commission to be against it as well. Without the support of the media, this wrongful act by the Police officers will continue. A stop should be put to the parading of suspects by the Police. Even after the suspects have been found guilty; they shouldn’t be set free after years of being locked up, and still feel imprisoned in a society that they once called home.  ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

************WRITTEN BY FAKOYEJO OLALEKAN**************