Some years back, my friends and I were listening to a news story on the radio that dealt with the lynching of the ringleader of a car theft ring in a small town in South Africa.

After months of their town being terrorized by the gang, the young people decided to bring an end to it, because the elders were too "cowardly" to take action. They laid a trap, somehow captured the ringleader (a so-called Rastafarian), beat him almost senseless, put a tire around his neck, poured kerosene over him and set him on fire. Afterwards, they cut off his head, stuck it on a stick and paraded it throughout the town, as proof that the reign of terror was now over.

About a year later, one of my sisters emailed me a video documenting the plight of a 9-year old Ethiopian boy whose right hand was amputated, because he stole two oranges from a marketplace. He was later aopted by an Afram couple from Baltimore Maryland.

Not too long ago, someone e-mailed me a video of an accused thief being burned to death in Warri, Delta State. I was disgusted and horrified. A few months later, a Yoruba friend e-mailed me a video of some elderly Kenyans being burned to death as witches. There are no words to describe my feelings viewing that video.

When you see such things, how do you feel? Is this the type of image some Africans want to portray to the world? 'Jungle Justice' only bolsters the stereotype of Africans as being brutal, savage, bloodthirsty, backward and uncivilized.

In the following article, the author deems 'jungle justice' as a sign of Nigeria's failed state.

Jungle Justice in Nigeria: Signs Of A Failed State
By Mike Ikhariale

One of the justifications for the evolution of the modern state is the desire by humanity to escape from the lawless Hobessian state of nature, wherein life was reputed to be brutish, nasty and short. But because the Nigerian state has, by design or default, failed to live up to these expectations, the society has rapidly descended to that once abandoned bane social order in which human lives, the most valuable asset of mankind, have become valueless, cheap and readily disposable.

In 2012, the killing of four university students unusually aroused the outrage of Nigerians. Just before that incident was the Mubi gruesome massacre of several innocent students. The role played by the social media which went viral with the obscene videos of these most cruel and inhuman treatments being meted out to fellow human beings cannot be over-emphasised; scenes worse than those have become common occurrences all across the country, with the people and the legal order shamelessly looking the other way.

Ordinarily, it is the duty of the State to punish criminals. That is why we have the police, the judiciary and the prisons services. What has, however, happened is that all these official institutions established for the control and management of crimes and criminality, have all lost their credibility and capacities to carry out their institutional duties largely as a result of the weakness of the Nigerian state that was made worse by leaders who did not understand the imperatives of the Rule of Law and constitutionalism; and had chosen to rule the country according to their whims and caprices which have, in turn, alienated them from the very people they purport to serve.

Whatever must have led to the killings of those students, it must be said that the conditions for such gruesome acts of barbarism have already been set in the society long ago and have indeed been entrenched in the consciousness of most Nigerians, especially the urban poor and deprived urchins who joylessly roam the streets and whose daily existence has been deeply brutalised, warped and corrupted, and are therefore, lacking in the humane capacity to make rational judgments with respect to the innocence or guilt of anyone who is unlucky enough to have a loud shout of “thief, thief” raised against him.

It is only God, not police or other security agencies or passing Good Samaritans that can save such an unfortunate individual, as the society seems to have come to the unfortunate conclusion that in the absence (or, where available, the incompetence and corruption) of the official tools for redress against crimes and general deviancy, it is has become surer, quicker and “fairer” to take the laws into their own hands and mete out mob justice instead.

That is why every day, we see in the media frightening headlines like “2 boys lynched for picking pockets,” “A gang of 6 robbers apprehended and burnt to death,” “Police shot and killed suspected car snatchers,” etc. These are typical cases of mob justice which is symptomatic of a failed state.
The everyday experiences of people who have been victims of crimes tend to make some gruesome justifications for the jungle justice that is now common place. Someone, for example, who has been repeatedly robbed, goes to the police station to make a complaint. He is asked to pay for the paper on which the complaint is to be written, to provide the biro that would be used and he is further told that the police have no vehicle or where there is one, no fuel in it and that if he wants anything done, he should also provide the money to fuel the vehicle.

Because he seeks justice, he is willing to cough up money for all these extraneous police demands. Then the alleged robber is arrested and the community members are happy and willing to testify against him because they all “caught him in the act.” The man is arrested but a few days later, he is released by the police who are not ready to process the case any further and the miscreant comes over to the community to boast and further harass the victims over and over again, as well as all those who were ready to pursue the due process of the law against him.

Naturally, the next time a robbery occurs there, they are not likely to go to the police again who they have concluded are colluding with the robbers to torment their lives. By doing so, that community has chosen to set aside the Rule of Law and the ultimate implication is that both the innocent and the guilty alike would, in all future cases, receive equal and barbaric treatments in their own way. At the end of the day, jungle justice would have become the order of the day, while the official legal system is left in abeyance all to the chagrin of law and order and human decency.

Whatever disincentive that would have been applied to the evil practice is eventually nullified when it is proved that even the police force also, in their moments of frustration, do brazenly resort to jungle justice when they summarily execute accused persons in their custody, much against the well-known constitutional presumption of innocence in favour of all accused persons until duly proved to be guilty by a court of law.

Things are further made worse by a judicial process that is openly acknowledged as corrupt, where justice is put on sale to the highest bidder. Citizens watch with awe how corrupt ‘big men’ are being casually left off the hook after looting the nation silly and, in some ridiculous cases, let go after laughable “plea bargain” orders. These are the raw materials from which jungle justice are fashioned.

The people who cannot pay for justice or expect to be accorded with the judicial honour of plea bargain and unjustifiable acquittals from high crimes are tempted to take the illegal and primitive path of jungle justice.

The steady decline of state authority or the reality of state failure has made this brand of justice an attractive model to those who have been materially and circumstantially alienated from the formal state processes, as they actually think they are helping themselves even if in the process, they violate the fundamental rights of others. In any case, to these people, the rule of law is a luxury they don’t expect and which they cannot give.

Source: punchng.com

Part 2 - How Does The World View 'Jungle Justice' in Africa?

In the following article, the stereotype of Africans/Nigerians as being butal, savage, bloodthirsty, backward and uncivilized is furthered bolstered by the actions of an ignorant faction. Because Nigeria remains vulnerable to violence and corruption, the rule of law ranks high on the foreign investors' check list.

Nigeria: How Violence Threatens Nigeria's Revival
By John Defterios, CNN

(CNN) -- This should be the time Nigeria steps into the spotlight and basks in the glow of hosting the World Economic Forum in Africa.
It is the first time the West African country has hosted the VIP event since the Geneva-based WEF came to the continent nearly a quarter century ago -- but the spotlight has shifted.

Focus is now on the Nigeria's list of problems in the North: kidnappings, terrorist attacks and killings.

The country has been a terrific economic growth story for the past few years, humming along at around 7%. It is at the heart of what many define as an African Renaissance.

After decades of loans from international lenders such as the World Bank, high debt and little development, Africa is coming alive.
That is why Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan and his highly regarded economic team were eager to bring global CEOs to their turf.
But Nigeria does have a couple of obvious economic black-eyes, most notably an inability to close the wealth gap between the North and South, which in turn has given fuel to the Boko Haram movement and, by extension, radical Islam.

These groups take issue with what they see as the negative influences of globalization. The WEF is seen as standing at the forefront of a policy discussion and networking linked to more, not less, globalization.

The best indicator for the wealth gap is per capita income. Let's start in the financial capital of Lagos and work our way North.

In Lagos, it is pegged at just over $2,900, according to a survey by Renaissance Capital. In the political capital of Abuja, where the economic forum is taking place, it rises to $4,000.

But if one heads North to Borno -- the birthplace of Boko Haram -- per capita income is just $1,631. There is an overemphasis on farming, very little in the way of an industrial base and the financial situation is even worse in surrounding states.

In Borno, alarmingly, 60% of the population lives in extreme poverty, according to the Nigeria Security Tracker.

*Analysis: Boko Haram poses wider threat

Poverty and violence often go hand-in-hand, and that is the case here. Nearly a third of all violent deaths in the country over the past two years have taken place in this region.

*Africa's economic outlook

One cannot overlook the effort by the terrorist group to ramp up the heat ahead of this high-profile business forum. But at the same time one cannot ignore the lack of progress in fighting off the violence and persistent corruption. This government's track record of unleashing pent-up demand is solid. After re-basing its economy in early April to take in services growth, Nigeria zoomed ahead of South Africa as the continent's biggest economy.

Nigeria and South Africa are both plagued with high unemployment, but the former's GDP now stands at over a half trillion dollars while the latter's is at $325 billion. South Africa also struggles with less than a third of Nigeria's growth. South Africa's President Jacob Zuma goes to the polls making the case that his country can serve as a springboard into the faster growing economies of West and East Africa, due to its lead in financial and trade services.

Nigerian private sector banks and telecom providers have a different view.

Nigeria has all the ingredients for growth: 170 million people, a low debt level and low budget deficit with the blessing of sizable proven oil reserves. At 37 billion barrels, the country is ranked second on the continent behind Libya.

It is a nice recipe for growth, but the rule of law and rooting out corruption rank high on the foreign investor check list. That is where Nigeria
remains vulnerable.

The only fact more depressing than the epidemic of street lynchings all taking place across sub-Saharan Africa, is the acceptance and support of such wanton sadistic savagery by the wide majority of Africa's populations, most of whom are RABIDLY religious in observance and pronouncement.

Step 1: Go to google, or click in your google toolbar if you have it.

Step 2: Type in "Jungle Justice".

Step 3: Click on images (you can search google web, news, images, books...)

Step 4: Observe how Africa dominates all images and begin to weep.

This is a consequence of the lack of a functioning justice system