'Wunmility' By Adesina Ogunlana

Vol 7 No 16 5th February 2007

THE LEARNED SQUIB


“Ise te ni kan se
to la, to fi lowo
iyen leni kan se
to fid a lapa
Gba mi olorun Oba
Ma se je ki se wa
oparun
Ma se je kola wa o
womi”

Wasiu Alabi Pasuma
(The same enterprise
that made one person
wealthy
was the same
business
that ended another
with broken limbs
save me oh God
don’t let my work
perish
don’t let my wealth
be ruined.”

About three years ago, popular multi talented musician Gbenga Adeboye a.k.a Funwontan went the way of all flesh and he was mourned deeply by the art community. One of the dirges sung for him, by another popular musician Wasiu Alabi a.k.a Pasuma, a fuji music act had the quoted lyrics above.

But why at this point in time does my mind go to the truly thought provoking lines of Pasuma? It was because of a certain young man, a Nigerian, alas now late, called Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi. And, young, well not so young woman, a Nigerian, Taiwo Hassanat Akinwande, simply and popularly known as Wunmi.

You see, these two people shared a lot in common, yet they ended up differently. Firstly, both were Nigerians. Secondly, they were both entertainers. Tochi was a footballer, while Wunmi is an actress. Thirdly, both were mules, which in indelicate language means they were hard drug couriers. Fourthly, both mules were apprehended by security agents at Airports and their merchandise; Tochi’s – diamorphine; Wunmi’s – cocaine, were down loaded from them. Fifthly, both were tried by courts of law. Sixthly, both were convicted of committing very serious offences.

Alas, at least for Tochi, that’s where the similarities ended for these two colleagues. Their ways parted at the juncture of sentencing and Wasiu Alabi’s lamentation began to make very direct and hard meaning.

The reason is simple. After receiving her sentence, Wunmi’s relatives, sympathizers and well wishers burst out in paeans to God, extremely joyous and ecstatic they were. And you can’t blame them; what the mule received for her heinous offence was a mere rub on the rump – a term of three years imprisonment or payment of a fine of one million naira! Wunmi (and who says actresses are dumb) is now very safely and happily at home. In fact her profile has risen tremendously. After all, only an anointed and chosen one of the Deities will go to the Lair of the Tiger and come back alive and unscathed the way she did.

In the next few months, Wunmi who obviously wept and acted her way to easy freedom, in pure professional style, will be conferred with chieftaincy titles such as the Moyege of Agege and the Otolorin of Ilorin. Naturally she will land more roles and command high fees in films for everybody loves a winner.

But what of poor Tochi? The other mule has gone truly underground. He has crossed border into the land of the spirits courtesy of unblinking Singaporean justice. In his new abode there are no garlands and they don’t confer or take chieftaincy titles. And it is certain that Tochi will not play soccer where he is now. You don’t play the beautiful game in Sheol.

Seriously, what does this tale of two mules tell us? A lot. But I will dwell only on one inescapable and sad reality – Nigeria is a country of ‘anything goes.’ Let us examine the so called trial of Lady Wunmi. What message did its conclusion send to us a people and to the outside world? To me the message is that Nigeria is a country of jokers.

A grown up woman, a supposed local TV star, with her faculties intact, for a fee loaded herself with 92 wraps of mind-twisting, insanity triggering stuff and all she got was either go to prison for three years or pay a sum of one million naira! Nigeria!

The judge who gave this judgement as far as I see has not done her job well. 92 wraps of cocaine is big, heavy stuff. Of course the courier is a determined veteran. I’ll find it very hard to believe the a first timer ‘innocenti’ will have the liver or even be entrusted by her loaders (barons) to ingest such a hefty luggage – 92 wraps of cocaine.

Then what’s the market value of 92 wraps of Grade A narcotics like cocaine? Certainly not a trashy million naira or put it in international scope, just about nine thousand dollars! Thus in the first instance, there ought not to be an alternative to a term of imprisonment that ought to be stiff, and where such an avenue opens, a reasonable tribunal cannot order less than fifteen million naira to be paid in fines by the convict.

This judge who succumbed to Wunmi’s acted up court room humility and despair which I now dub and donate to the English Language, at the Nigerian tribe of it as WUNMILITY (feigned acute distress accompanied by extensive lachrymal performance and display by a caught-by-the-wrist criminal in a court of law in order to gain a lenient sentence) should have realized that the mule before her in the dock was a professional thespian and should not have been moved by those “Oh-I-am-done-for” tears and ululations of Wunmi.

The judge should also have realized that Wunmi went on the voyage deliberately and with only one purpose in mind – to get rich, very rich, quick. Wunmi certainly knew she was carrying hard drugs and she did not establish any compelling reason for her dastard action than “The devil misled me.”
This curiously lenient sentence has not done the image of the judiciary and the country at large any good. As far as many people are concerned, the trial judge has been ‘settled’ or ‘approached’ to ‘deal gently’ with some people’s ‘beloved daughter.’ What a shame. How do you take a country like Nigeria serious when enforcers of the law such as judges treat big-time criminals with kid-gloves, even when the applicable laws dictate otherwise.

If another drug carrier appears before the judge who succumbed to Wunmility, would this judge have any moral right to refrain from following the shocking precedent in Wunmi’s case?