The Uniport 4

The ugliness of sin.
"why do u torture yourself watching this video?  I ask myself repeatedly. The inhumane way these children of men and women like you and I  were humiliated, mutilated, and finally dehumanized?
My heart is heavy. Pain gnaws at me, wrenching everything I hold dear away from me as I repeatedly watch the video, trying to put a face to each of these children as they were being beaten and writhing in pain with no one to help. I wonder what thoughts ran through their minds as they lay there helplessly with no one to help them, preparing for their unannounced meeting with their creator and Father.
The tears won't stop. I see Tekena, as he laid there already dead but for the piercing heat of the fire that roused him back from the land of the dead as it lit his body first before spreading to the rest of his friends.
I watch Lloyd as he later laid back with the tyre on his neck and watch his lips moving, I try to make out what his lips uttered in those final minutes of his life. I finally caught the repeated confession he muttered, ' I shall not die, I shall not die, I shall not die'
The tears have started rolling down again and this time, along with it comes a rage from within me and then sudden helplessness. Even with all the anger, I feel, the murderous urge to do something drastic, here I am, still helpless with nothing but clips of the inhumane act performed by other humans like you and i.
I watched as Chidiaka laid on his back, defenseless. Already half dead. Tall handsome Chidiaka, the theater arts undergraduate. And then repeatedly, his head was being hit with a heavy stick until his tongue literally hangs out.
And then, Ugonna, who though I never met, find myself feeling very auntish towards him. He tries to defend himself. He covers his head with his hand but repeatedly the stick comes towards him, directly aiming for his head. He falls on his friend exhausted and exposes his head to his assailant, who
finally got him. I saw part of the flesh on his head cut off and then he was too weak. But Ugonna does not give up. He still struggles and tries to rise but the fire gets to him and out went the light from these young men.
I mourn with your mothers. I feel the pain they feel. I imagine their anger and outrage. I weep for the dreams that Ugonna, Llyod, Chidiaka, and Tekena dreamed. I feel weakened by all these emotions that are passing through me like life electric wires. I am devastated.

And they watched. The onlookers stood watching. None could run for help. None could tell them to stop. The only voices heard were those that condemned these boys to death and the eyes that watched their agony and pains. I won't leave you out. You watched the wiping out of four generations. Four nations. Four young men that may have changed the narrative of Nigeria. You watched their lights go out. I saw the pictures of you that were taken. Amongst you were the clean and seemingly educated ones but You made your choice as you stayed on and watched a real-life home video. You, the onlookers, the mixed multitude, are partly responsible for the death of those boys. By standing there to watch, you silently cheered their murderers on and made them into your own actors and heroes reliving that which you secretly nursed. That part of you that becomes a blood-sucking monster at night and a harmless looking person by day. You may not have picked stones or sticks or pushed these boys, but you dealt them the hardest blow by your silence.

Africa!!!!!! Nigeria, my motherland. Your womb has soaked in the blood of many innocents for so long and more recently, these sons of yours. Nigeria, you have borne children that have created monsters. On and on and over the years, by the heavy silence and folding of our arms, watching our society slowly slid into moral decadence. By our inaction and lackadaisical attitude, we have sold our generations yet unborn into eternal slavery and doom, leaving them a legacy of greed, corruption, murder and all that represents evil to inherit.

I suddenly come back to my self with a sudden jolt. As I walked into my children's school to pick them, I watched the young men in navy blue suits and I wondered silently how those young boys must have walked down the hallway of their own secondary schools not so long ago. And now, all that is left where they once stood is silence.
You and I are the creators of these monsters and we must fight and not rest until it is completely destroyed even if it means destroying ourselves in the end. That would be the ultimate sacrifice to destroy the ugliness of sin.
Sin and all it represents is indeed ugly. It is not only hideous but devilish in nature. It is the most wicked, mischievous, and deadly thing that ever was. It is hellish. It is full of deception. And that is what I saw captured on the video that black Friday. God forgive us.
God have mercy.