10 Barbaric Practices That Still Exist In Nigeria

Civilization has saturated Nigeria with modern gadgets that have made communication easier, business transactions exciting, religion very comfortable and human relationship better. However, civilization still has a long way to go when it comes to eradicating a lot of barbaric practices that our ancient fathers had practiced. We have the following die hard barbaric practices still happening in Nigeria;

(1) Female Genital Mutilation

Even some so called civilized and educated parents including few who are outside the shores of Africa are still supporting this act called female circumcision.

Nigeria, due to its large population, has the highest absolute number of female genital mutilation (FGM) worldwide, accounting for about one-quarter of the estimated 115–130 million circumcised women in the world.

It is believed to be a religious obligation that can control the libido of a woman.

There is no federal laws banning FGM/FGC in Nigeria. Opponents of this practice rely on Section 34(1)(a) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that states, "no person shall be subjected to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment," as the basis for banning the practice nationwide.



A member of the House of Representatives has drafted a bill, not yet in committee, banning this practice.


Edo State banned this practice in October 1999. Persons convicted under the law are subject to a 1000 Naira (US$10) fine and imprisonment of six months. While opponents of the practice applaud laws like this one as a step in the right direction, they have criticized the small fine and lack of enforcement thus far.
Ogun, Cross River, Osun, Rivers and Bayelsa states have also banned the practice .

                                              

(2) Osu- Caste Sysyem

The Osu, by definition, is a people sacrificed to the gods in Igbo community. And they assist the high priest of the traditional religion to serve the deities or the gods in their shrine. It is the belief of many Igbo traditionalists that the deities, which were (and are still) perceived in some quarters as being very powerful, would wreck havoc in the society, if they are not appeased.

In some special circumstances, those who hold the traditional beliefs of the Igbos could transform a Diala who committed certain atrocities against the land, into an Osu.

 This process involved intricate rituals (offering of libations and sacrificing animals to the earth goddess). Some of the ancestors of the present-day Osu people inherited their dehumanizing social status this way.

That method is now a thing of the old; Western influence has affected this practice.

Presently, one could acquire the Osu status through inheritance and marriage.

(3) Maltreatment Of Widow

                                                                                

                                                                       

Oh Death, where is thy sting? For the widow, a woman who has just been bereaved of her husband, death stings, strips her bare and exposes her to humiliating physical and psychological violence; often in the name of culture, usually by those who should console her and support her in her time of bereavement.

Widowhood practices in West Africa are considered part of cleansing rituals designed to remove the bond that links a living spouse to a dead one. These practices are carried out as part of culture. Therefore, anyone who fails to fulfil the requirements of the rituals risks social exclusion and family or personal calamity. The Igbos of South-Eastern Nigeria (comprising Imo, Ebonyi, Abia, Enugu and Anambra States) widowhood practices impact on the life, health and wellbeing of women.

Widows suffer a disproportionate form of ritual cleansing compared to widowers in Igbo culture. Widows may be subjected to the following:

1.     Scraping or Cutting of hair (on the head and pubic area) with a blunt razor

2.     Crying loudly for long and sustained periods

3.     Lying down or sleeping next to the corpse of the dead spouse

4.     Forced to drink water which has been used to wash the dead spouse

5.     Stripped naked or made to bathe in public

6.     Jeered or pushed around if she fails to cry loud enough or long enough

7.     Made to sit on a hard floor while she cries

8.     Dressed in filthy clothes or rags as a sign or mourning

9.     Subjected to hurtful comments and possibly accused of causing the death of her spouse

10.  Prevented from washing or having a bath for a given period

11.  Forced to eat from unwashed bowls

12.  Requested to be in a period of mourning  for 1 year

A widow may suffer one or many of the rituals listed.  Her treatment differs from state to state and even village to village, according to Dr. Esther Nzewi in her book Widowhood practices: A female perspective.

  (4)    Witch Hunts

 In this era where aircraft are flying around the skies, people are still haunting for people who are believed to be witches. When someone is identified as a witch that is the end of public association with that person. Sometimes, they are killed without allowing the law to take its position in the matter.

(5)Slavery

The end of the ancient slavery where the blacks were subjected to labour has come and gone. It has been replaced by modern slavery which seems to be the worse. Ladies are sold outside their countries for prostitution and other ill vices.

Kids are kidnapped and taken to farms to work and child trafficking has equally made it a lucrative business.

(6)Little Witches

This is real: Ifot (witchcraft or witch) remains one of the very few indigenous words a first-time visitor to Akwa Ibom State is likely to quickly pick up from among the people of the state. This is because in Akwa Ibom State, almost every misfortune is attributed to ifot. Here, a migraine or a student’s poor academic performance or even poor record of sales in a business shop

would most likely be traceable to ifot. Here, everyone does live in fear, and everyone is a potential suspect.

Akwa Ibom is generally believed to be among the top states in Nigeria that remained plagued by witchcraft killings. The oil-rich state assumed international spotlights few years ago with the showing of a documentary titled ‘Dispatches: Saving Africa’s Witch Children’ which was aired in a TV station in the United Kingdom.

The documentary which went viral on the Internet through YouTube and other video-sharing websites showed a self-styled cleric, Bishop Sunday William boasting “I killed up to 110 people identified to be witch.” 

The documentary expectedly prompted international awareness and concern over the situation in Akwa Ibom, and may have in some ways contributed to the passing of the Child Rights Law in the state by the current administration of Governor Godswill Akpabio. As it is, Akwa Ibom State may never have the correct statistics of those tortured, maimed or killed on suspicion of witchcraft. Likewise, the state may never have a complete picture of the public relations disaster this phenomenon has caused it. What is most worrisome, however, is the seeming helplessness of the government and the state security system in tackling this retrogressive phenomenon.

                                               

(7) Cannibalism

People still eat their fellow humans in some parts of Nigeria. Most times, we do not hear about it but in few cases, their atrocities are opened to the public.

(8)Human Sacrifice

Most human sacrifices are done for religious reasons -- to appease or please deities and spirits.  As horrendous as it sounds, human sacrifice is actually not a new phenomenon: it has been taking place from the beginning of time in all cultures through all ages and civilizations.

In today’s Nigeria body parts are sold and bought mostly for fetish and magical reasons. And most of the originating markets for body parts are to be found in the western and eastern part of the country; still, there is almost no part of the country where one couldn’t find whatever part one was interested in. Even so, there are specific ethnic groups where it is culturally and religiously forbidden to engage in human sacrifice and or to trade in or violate dead bodies, i.e. the Ijaw ethnic group in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

And indeed, there are people who believe that money and fame and good fortune can be acquired if certain parts of the human anatomy are consumed or sacrificed; there is the believe that supernatural commands can be only be effected if certain body parts are altered.  Legends abound about market women who use body parts as part of their trading strategy. It could be true or perhaps mere fabrication, but there is the story of a popular pepper soup joint in Port Harcourt, and others in Lagos, Aba, and Akure where it is alleged that the owners uses bits and pieces of human liver and human heart as spices. 

(9)     Rituals

 We always find people with some parts of the bodies cut after they must have been killed for some sort of rituals.

  (10) Cultism

Why did the students decide to form such a group? Nigeria in the 1940s and 1950s was on the verge of gaining political independence. The nationalistic fervour in the country gave a warning signal to the colonialists that the sun was about to set on the British empire. Trade union consciousness and militancy soared under the leadership of Michael Imuodu. Political parties sprang up in the major centres of the country which raised political awareness and questioned the continued stay of the colonialists in the country. Nigerian students were not left out of this social change. They questioned the conscription of Kings’ college students into the colonial army to fight in the World war II and eventually created a conducive background for the emergence of the popular National council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (later Citizens) (NCNC). The idea of the students was to respond to the demands of the time, enhance cultural nationalism and fight the tribalisation of politics which was given a boost by the Richards constitution of 1946.

It is noteworthy that the group was not to harm, maim, kill and destroy as their cohesiveness and absolute allegiance to rules made it become an elite club, only for the cleanest, brightest and the politically conscious. They teleguided political events and held important positions within the student body like President, Chief Judge, P.R.O and Secretary. Their existence was well known by students and was not associated with weird, horrorful and spiteful character of latter-day confraternities. The Anti Anglo-defence pact with Britain riot and the “Ali must go” students protest of 1978 was ably handled by members of the Pyrates confraternity.

Over the years, due to doctrinal differences and inability of intending members to meet required standards of the Pyrates confraternity, protestant ones started emerging like the Buccaneers, Mafia and Vickings. 

The early nineties witnessed a boom as every university was plagued with cult explosion such as the Black Axe, Black Cats, Trojan Horse, Black Panthers, the Twelve Disciples, Mgba Mgba Brothers, Eiye, Maphites, Temple of Eden, The Jurists, Klu Klux Klan, The Executioners, Black Beret, Dreaded friend of friends, National Association of Adventurers, Black Scorpion, Eagle Club, Termites, Red Sea Horses, Knight Cadet, Sonmen, White Angels, Amazons, Daughters of Jezebel, and the Black Brassieres.