Read on Twitter
Let’s put this video beside with these charts https://twitter.com/LSMOH/status/1251976542571421697 https://twitter.com/UnclePamilerin/status/1252254401483415553
We’re defending ourselves from 1 million boys/protecting Ilupeju from 1 million boys feels tragic already.
We’re probably going to see more exuberance tomorrow. Unfortunately, it’s likely some of the Mushin defenders will begin showing Covid-19 symptoms as early as Saturday.
We’re probably going to see more exuberance tomorrow. Unfortunately, it’s likely some of the Mushin defenders will begin showing Covid-19 symptoms as early as Saturday.
Large population of young men, pent up energy from restricted mobility, cabin fever: 1 Million Boys is certainly bound to become a bogey that shows up everywhere. Of course, there is real crime, but 1 Million Boys is a catch-all phrase that obscures more than it clarifies.
Let’s make this as simplistic as possible: in a sense, 1 Million Boys actually began similar to what we are seeing in Mushin. The defence Mushin says it is providing for itself is Stage 1, while 1 Million Boys is Stage 3 in the cycle.
Stage 0: Perverse Policing i.e. extortion, harassment and extra-judicial killings instead of guaranteeing security, not even projecting the modicum of capacity that produces a perception of being secure in the populace.
Stage 1: Vigilantism i.e. self-help, people start going round to organise themselves, to collect donations so they can buy flashlights and weapons and stimulants. They set up night watches, they begin burning tires, gongs & whistles all through the night etc
Stage 2: Mafia i.e. some of the vigilantes start lying to collect money, false pretenses; extortion, friendly & hostile, begins; shakedown behaviour; using their familiarity and access to ‘case the joint’ and identify targets for larceny, burglary and ultimately armed robbery
Stage 3: Roving Banditry i.e. some of the mafia exhaust their ‘stock’ of home victims & start making runs into contiguous territories to burgle, rob, rape, murder. This final stage launches the same cycle in the new areas being plundered and terrorised. Vigilantes form.
This is how you could have been hearing rumours for months about the police in Ogun State, all the way to the top, wan tin, wan tin, actively abetting, wan tin, wan tin, conniving wan tin, wan tin colluding, wan tin, wan tin. Meanwhile, police in Lagos: pestilence known as SARS.
That is Stage 0. Covid-19 comes and one week you hear of robberies in the communities on the border with Ogun. A few days later, they are already in Alimosho. The next week, Mushin boys are in Stage 1, the vigilante Batmen to take down those 1 Million Jokers.
Although the Batmen of Mushin killed the 1 Million Jokers dead, only a few days have passed since 1 Million Jokers became 1 Million Zombies, trying to overrun Surulere & Yaba. It’s probably bandits from Mushin or mafia in Surulere & Yaba, but they’ll be called 1 Million Boys, too
As the contagion of crime spreads and the 3-stage cycle repeats in successive neighbourhoods, the first casualty in the Vigilante stage is social distancing. Batman’s raspy voice already betrayed the coughing, anosmia, and pneumonia; his epitaph will be, ‘He Defeated Himself’.
I’ve used this overly simple explanation for friends concerned for my safety a few times today, but as I was typing this, I Googled ‘1 Million Boys’ to see what description exists of the group that 1st had the name. You might as well read the Wikipedia page instead of this thread
Buhari is a failure in policing. It’s almost like he hasn’t done a single thing right on NPF since 2015, not appointments, not legislation, not policy design or implementation. Sadly, that has been the undoing of many. It will undo many things. Hope it doesn’t undo everything.
