By: Ismaila Y Kana Onzonu
Since news of Senator Ike Ekweremadu’s arrest in England on charges of attempted organ harvesting, Nigerians have had their say on the matter. Whereas many have empathised with the Ekweremadus for attempting like every parent, to save their child, others have welcomed their legal actions not because they believed it was wrong for them to turn to the young man to save their child, but more on grounds of the lawmaker’s failure to work with his political associates over 16 years to build and equip a world-class Hospital capable of handling such simple procedures back here in Nigeria.
On the parental ground, I also empathise with Ike Ekweremadu. No parent should have to watch helplessly as their child withers away. As a parent myself, I can gladly give both my kidney to save my child. However, like many Nigerians, I don’t feel sorry for Ekweremadu. As stated earlier, he and his cohorts in politics knew the importance of expert Medicare but failed to build a facility that can provide it. On this bases, and without having to put it into words, Nigerians have silently held the belief that anything short of the sentencing of Ekweremadu for his actions, if only to serve as a lesson to other politicians, will not help our collective aspirations as a people.
Nonetheless, Nigerians expected a clean conviction that will not seek to over-complicate a rather simple matter, otherwise, unintended consequences may set in. But, since the Ekweremadus were committed to detention, so many things have given the impression that the Brits have been angling for a grandstand finish. The content of the courts public communication suggested it and the practiced eyes would have read in-between the lines to pick up silent cues, which resonate the underlying glee; the impatience even, to make an example of the Ekweremadus.
I believe, the Brits thought this was a God given opportunity. I mean, who better to setup as scapegoat in the charade of fighting modern slavery than the victims of old Slavery themselves and a Senator at that? So, therefore, Judge Jeremy of Old Bailey was certainly aiming for a blockbuster finish to the case. Let’s face it, he may never get a bigger fish with which to use as Cannon fodder for laying a legal precedent for conviction based on the 2015 enacted MSA.
However, nothing could have made it more clearer to Africans that the Brits setout from the off to reverse the cause of history. Looking at content and text of the Ekweremadu sentencing, one could easily see the sauciness of an old slaver attempting to rewrite history. Quoting Jeremy Johnson, the presiding Judge at Old Bailey, he declared that Ekweremadu’s crime of “People trafficking across international borders for the harvesting of human organs is a form of SLAVERY. It treats human beings and their body parts as commodities to be bought and sold… it is a trade that preys on poverty and misery and desperation.
I don’t know if it’s just me, but that judgement reads like what Senator Ike Ekweremadu, himself a learned legal luminary should be preferring against Judge Jeremy and his cast of white legal luminaries for an even worst crime of Old Slavery! It doesn’t matter that the Judge relied on the Modern Slavery Act (MSA), to deliver the landmark judgement, before dismissing the crime as a despicable trade” that took advantage of the “poverty, misery and desperation” of vulnerable people. I could have sworn this is exactly what an African court should be convicting the entire white race of. For what it’s worth, Ekweremadu and his accomplices may have gotten what they deserved, but that Slavery angle just spoilt the whole exercise for me.
I believe it was the hypocrisy of an English Judge, jailing a black man for slavery – modern or old, in an English court. It really is an affront on morality for the English, the most notorious slave masters to turnaround and self-righteously begin to convict anyone in the name of Slavery! This is a race that are yet to even apologize to Africa for the despicable and unconscionable transatlantic slave trade. The same folks that have continued to enslave African professionals, putting them to work under sugarcane plantation-like working conditions without remorse and with no one bagging any conviction for this heinous crime.
I make bold to say that unless and until Briton’s slave merchants are punished and Africa remunerated for the Trillions of Pounds worths of raw materials and artefacts stolen from Nigeria in particular that were used to lay the foundations for Britain’s economy, no British should have the audacity to jail any black man under any law that purports to end or dissuade Slavery.
I believe this sentencing is an opportunity for African nations to come together and enact a law that mandates England and all former colonial masters to pay huge reparations/ compensations for the crime of slavery. We must demand that the names of all slave merchants be criminalised and all that were knighted in recognition of their Slave-trade voyages be posthumously declared criminals.
The call for an unreserved apology by the new King of England before his coronation which appears to have been ignored is no longer enough. Africa must exert responsibility and accountability from the crown of England, Portugal, America and every nation that sailed even if just one ship to Africa for the purpose of slavery. We shouldn’t be talking of the repercussions of Modern Slavery Law without anyone taking responsibility for the wanton dehumanisation of millions of black wo/men during those dark years whose blight on Africa can never be erased.
Surely, nobody will be talking of Neo-slavery as a crime if the crime, evil and conspiracy of the west which led to the looting of not just the strongest and most productive human resources of Africa, but also raw materials, culminating into old Slavery goes unpunished. Somebody has to bear the retrospective cost of that evil. Justice needs to be dispatched in as swift a manner as Old Bailey just delivered in the case of Ekweremadu using Modern Slavery laws. Old Slavery should never be allowed to go unpunished, especially now that Africa’s modern slavers have deservedly met their Waterloo in London.
This retrospective punishment is not more than we deserved even for closure’s sake. We can’t have roads named after known slavers even as their children continue to enjoy wealth built with the proceeds, sweat and blood of slavery, yet stomach the insult on our sensibilities as these same beneficiaries of evil purport to understand slavery to the extent of positioning themselves as defenders against it. This is the highest points of hypocrisy.
In conclusion therefore, Ekweremadu’s ancestors deserve no less justice as has been preferred against their son. This much can never be overemphasized. Correcting this injustice must start with the confiscation of the old money, being proceeds of slavery that is the foundation of UK’s wealth, repatriating same to Africa. These funds could be tied perhaps to legacy projects like modern healthcare and education and road/rail infrastructure. Until this is done, further attempts to selectively convict Africans using the MSA should be resisted with reciprocating laws that retrospectively criminalise all actors and benefits of Slavery everywhere in the world.
