The Looting Spree : Is It Really Stealing If It's Yours?
For instance, I break into a house to pick up a book that's actually mine but had been hidden from me. So I needed that particular book to say, read for an important exam. The plan was not to give it to me and I knew that, reason why I had to take it by force. Would you call me a thief still? Did I steal my book?
Nigeria: Poverty Capital Of The World
This is quite an embarrassing title to hold. I don't know how it came to be but I have read so many local and international articles refer to Nigeria as the poverty capital of the world. It might be an over-exaggeration but it's equally not hard to believe. I look around me and it's very common to see families struggle to feed on a dollar a day. I find mothers and children living in uncompleted buildings in my neighborhood, sane people living like animals in the streets and even supposed middle class tenants asking food from their neighbors.
When the Covid19 lockdown situation began so many families found it hard to cope, especially the poor who feed from daily earnings. I watched on TV how stranded some families were and they begged the government come to their aide. Their children were getting sick, the already malnourished ones looked worse than usual. They weren't asking for money, they just needed food.
Billions of Naira were allocated to distributing palliatives for the poor but surprisingly, we still don't know who got these palliatives. Countries like Canada, USA and Ireland got Covid cheques I hear. A Nigerian living in Canada tweeted he received $2000 from Canadian government when the lockdown began. Down here, I saw few clips of 2 packets of noodles shared to the poor. Not cartons, packets meant for one sitting. So much for the billions spent.
The Looting
There has been a lot of unrest in Nigeria lately, since the protests sort of ended last week after the massacre at Lagos, there has been a lot of thuggery. A curfew was imposed after the massacre and government thugs caused a lot of havoc on public and private properties. Soon after, discoveries were made of government warehouses in different states of the country where clearly marked Covid19 palliatives were stored. There were thousands of cartons of noodles, bags of rice and garri.
It's been over six months since these palliatives were meant to have been given to the poor so why were they still in the warehouses? There have been reports of children dying of hunger in the last six months yet the government had stacks of food hidden right in the communities of the poor.
Now we can't tell how these warehouse locations are exposed but word somehow gets out. So far at least five warehouses in different states have been located and looted by the poor. As I type this, I just saw reports of a warehouse in Abuja, the capital city being looted of the Covid19 palliatives and the military has helicopters spraying teargas at the looters (thank goodness it's not bullets this time).
This is actually my favorite picture. The joy on his face after his loot ๐ Source
These pictures are from the looting scene at Jos, Nigeria. A place known for so much food yet so many hungry people. The government still hasn't given a reasonable explanation as to why they have food meant for the poor locked up in the first place.
I don't support stealing or looting but in this case I honestly find it hard to blame the people who broke into these warehouses. It was theirs in the first place but hidden from them by stingy politicians with bad agenda. A carton of noodles is just about $6, so little but could have fed the malnourished children yet the government held on to thousands of this.
What do you think? Are the looters thieves?
