I took a good look at the minors arraigned by the Nigeria Police as suspects who plotted, schemed and openly called for regime change. A judge heard the case and remanded them in the custody of those whose duty as adults is to ensure that these minors were not exposed to vulnerabilities in the first place.

Too many oddities about kids plotting insurrection. These kids are of school age. Denied education by their leaders, parents and guardians. They are malnourished, hungry and unkempt. They need food, water, good life. They got none of these. Instead they were charged with a heavy offence: TREASON. An act of treason is a serious crime against one’s nation. Attempt to undermine the sovereignty of a country, effect forceful change of government; overthrow a sitting government; working with an external force (Body or government) to undermine one’s government.

My little understanding of the concept of treason is that only persons with a certain level of capacity – fiscal, military might and social equity – can attempt treason. Not minors out in the streets to fend for themselves, to fight for their bellies. Kids denied food by those who ought to care for them, fight for them and ensure they get a better future. And a father, an adult, would look at them and call them adults, persons of the same age category as himself. I shudder at some people’s sense of logic. Are you not outraged by your own logic, metrics, even manners? Does your conscience not prick you when you, in full consciousness, label these helpless minors suspects in a case of TREASON? Has TREASON become so cheap that even a foetus can be charged with such crime?

Has education, professional zealotry blinded us? Where is humanity, where is discretion? Not even in Afghanistan, Sudan, Yemen (ranked as most dangerous nations to live in) do we have such primitive descent to inhumanity. This is Nigeria, a democratic nation which ought to uphold the fundamental rights of individuals; Nigeria which has domesticated the UN child rights Convention. Did we sign up to the Convention in pretence? We can do better than this, please.

This is not an endorsement of a group, any group, waving the flags of foreign nations and chanting songs suggesting or insinuating an invitation to a foreign nation to effect overthrow of a sitting government in Nigeria. Far from it. But how do you rationalize the arrest, detention and arraignment of juveniles who were caught up in a wave of protests only because the protests happened in their domain, the streets.

To make matters worse, the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, was justifying the arrest and arraignment of a bunch of helpless minors who desperately needed food, shelter and education.  What manner of law enforcement closes its eyes to the fundamental human rights of the people, especially unschooled minors? And what manner of lawyer would look at those minors and call them adults?

The sight of those minors labelled ‘treason suspects’ is distressing and mortifying. It still haunts the subconscious.  In China, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, these kids should be in school or vocational centres being prepared for a beautiful future. They would have mastered the art of Coding, become accustomed to the rudiments of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, or become gifted hands in upholstery making, building techniques and technicalities, and any other skill.

But here is the thing. The real FELONS are those who through bad leadership marinated in corruption ensured that these minors found comfort in the streets and not in the capacity-building centres or in their homes. I do not support insurrection or a call for such. I do not endorse hoisting or waving another country’s flag in your country and chanting ‘regime change songs’. Abhorrent!

But I condemn deliberately mixing the wheat with the chaff just to be seen as helping the Chief Farmer. The police and the judiciary did not behave well in the matter of the arrest and arraignment of the minors. Both institutions deserve a rebuke. And they got one in the form of the global outrage that greeted the arraignment of those minors who typify the millions of such kids now out-of-school nationwide, particularly in the north.

Thank goodness that President Tinubu had to wear the garb of humanitarian-in-chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The president directed the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), to ensure immediate release of all the minors. He directed the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs to cater to the immediate needs of the minors and reunite them with their families.

Tinubu has vowed to ‘deal’ with those who put the minors to such horrifying and harrowing experience. He will have to start with the police including IGP Egbetokun who even justified the prosecution of the minors. The police cite certain Nigerian laws including the Child and Young Persons Act but ignore the letters and the spirit of the Constitution, the grundnorm (fons et origo), and mother of all laws in the country. Part II of the constitution outlines the rights and responsibilities of a child, including the right to receive care and protection for their well-being. It guarantees their right to survival and development; right to freedom of association and peaceful assembly. The constitution places the obligation to safeguard children against exploitation and moral and material neglect on the state.

If the state had discharged its constitutional responsibility to these minors, they would not have been wandering on the streets where they easily became cheap recruits in a protest. They would be in school. The Tinubu government must remove the growing army of minors from the streets to schools using a feasible ‘streets-to-schools’ programme.

But we must never forget that the real felons in this saga are those whose mis-governance kept these minors on the streets. They are the real pests of society.