If you have been following objectively the soap opera starring one of the greatest side chic of all times – Chidinma Ojukwu and the late Super TV CEO, Michael Ataga, you would have come to some obvious conclusion by now. The recent emergence of Chidinma as Miss Kirikiri 2022 is indeed something that even a novelist in the mold of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie would find difficult to imagine. Here is a university undergraduate who confessed on camera without any visible evidence of being coaxed to the murder of a middle-aged man strutting the prison catwalk with smiles and emerging winner. If this happenstance does not rick your stomach and make you start thinking of the multiple conspiracies that must be at play, then you must take time to do a psychoanalysis of your present state of mind.

Wonders they say will never end! Reading the various media reports, comments from notable individuals and non-governmental organizations, I am in wonderment about how we got here with regards to treating confessed criminals as celebrities. The Nigeria Correctional Service (NCS) released a statement saying she was allowed to participate in the contest as part of its effort to rehabilitate her and other inmates. A non-governmental organization, Joy Bringers Foundation, in their press release argued that it is good to focus on reformation programs for inmates and that inmates deserve a life while in prison. Fans and supporters of Chidinma have also sited similar events in Brazil where, in 2018, Veronica Verone, was crowned Miss Talavera Bruce. And in 2019, a Kenyan woman in the medium-security section of Kodiaga Prison in Kisumu, Kenya took part in a beauty pageant aimed at rehabilitating prisoners.

Reading about these examples by mainstream media outfits, the conspiracy theories in my mind about Chidinma’s murder case get increasingly substantiated. I am curious that nobody could site any similar case in the developed world where human rights and mental health are championed more than in developing countries like Brazil and Kenya. I also suspect that these contests in Brazil and Kenya were organized for convicted inmates and not for good-looking and unremorseful cold-blooded killers under trial. It has been said a people get the type of leadership they deserve. If we as Nigerians think that a Chidinma Ojukwu deserves the celebrity life she has been enjoying since her arrest, then I understand why we presently have a certificateless incompetent as our president for the last 7 years. And why he might be succeeded by someone who ordinarily should be in jail. I also understand why the super cop even with all the huge evidence against him might go unpunished. Yes! This is our present polity and reality. Many of us have been debased. From the pulpit to the prison criminals are glorified and celebrated. If we desire a better future for ourselves and our children, we must start calling a spade a spade. We must start using the stick instead of the carrot when the need arises. So far, Chidinma Ojukwu has been fed carrots when she should have been receiving a steady dose of sticks.

Ata Ukuta, Editor – Towncryyers.