Mary Odiong and Ekong Asua, both 8- year-olds, represent the modern victims of superstition at the hands of wicked and backward relatives. Their similar experiences although common in their subculture, speak to heathen and heinous contexts that are reminiscent only of the 'heart of darkness.'Mary Odiong's uncle had died of an ailment suspected to be Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), but her relatives accused her of afflicting her uncle of the dreaded disease and causing his subsequent death. In her words, 'the people in my family called me and started asking me questions whether I was a witch and why I killed my uncle. I told them that I did not know anything about what they were talking about. They started beating me. They hit me with cutlasses. They cut my buttocks with knives.'When Mary Odiong's ordeal reached the peak, she lost consciousness only to wake up in a bush where she had been dumped. In the last one month, according to the report, she has been in the street foraging and without shelter or any care for that matter. Ekong Asua's parents had died recently of a strange ailment. After the death of his parents, his uncles accused him of having killed his parents through wizardry. They attacked him with native sugar canes and asked him to confess. When he insisted that he was innocent, they took him to the bush where he met Mary Odiong and both of them teamed together to live on the street.Although both urchins might have been rescued by an NGO, it still beggars belief that relatives who ought to take care of these minors after their personal losses could contrive such an atrocious comeuppance for no just cause on mere suspicion that these children were into witchcraft and wizardry, touted allegations that would defy any kind of validation.For these children to have been turned into outcasts to live in the bush, despite the existence of laws in the state prohibiting such child abuses is really disheartening. This again reaffirms our often-stated position: without enforcement, laws become mere docile statutes to be flagrantly and contemptuously disobeyed. In cases where certain anti-life practices are rooted in traditional silly beliefs, the desirable social change could become an onerous task that should be taken seriously and punctiliously enforced.The relatives of both children who were responsible for the physical abuse and psychological trauma meted to them deserve some sort of strong sanction from the state to deter others who are still steeped in such baseless, dangerous and shameful superstitions. Even stark illiterates should know that nobody, except the state, can pass such judgment on others much less minors and not answer to the state.The implications of the ostracism suffered by the children are indeed grave. Such children made to suffer rejection early in life easily sway toward hate as an alternative norm and could with some justification, visit reprisal on the larger society subsequently. When vicious criminals turn their hatred and frustrations on the larger society, it pays for the lapses of such callous relatives who failed to offer acceptance and rehabilitation initially.And it is simply not just enough to excuse these obvious lapses on account of poverty and illiteracy. The decision to torture and ostracise these children must have been borne out of wickedness and dysfunctional socialisation for which appropriate sanction should be meted to the erring relatives in order to put a decisive stop to the obnoxious practices. We have stated in earlier comments the need to revive the various welfare departments in the states to take care of the less fortunate members of the society not only as an emergency but as a consistent social policy for the overall well-being of the society.Such mean and absolutely churlish behaviours as exhibited by the relatives of Mary Odiong and Ekong Esua have a tendency to prevail in poor societies where the tenuous family ties and kinship have broken down, yet society owes it a duty in its larger interests to discourage such tendencies. Along with sanctions, public education and enlightenment will also help to prevent the aggravation of the misfortunes and tragic losses of these pitiable minors.It is an irony that over a century since Mary Slessor dared to stop the killing of twins as a result of a faulty belief system, such atrocities as accusing little children of witchcraft and wizardry still persist. Why are the adults not accused' And if both witchcraft and wizardry are in a sense, spiritual activities, why were the children subjected to physical torture and ostracism as punishment for offences committed in the spiritual realm
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