If the Chinese proverb that “a picture is worth a thousand words” is right, then should pictures not be used more cautiously than words? When are nauseating images of gore and dead bodies’ offensive and when are they necessary? Has the mobile revolution moved death from the taboo closet that the African culture has kept it in for ages to the open? What is the effect of the repeated publication and circulation of graphic images on public consciousness? Is the dead entitled to the right to be treated with dignity? At what point do the dead stop being just mere news item and object of morbid fascination and become human? These and some other questions were thrown up by the images that surfaced after the Abuja bombing of April 14, 2014 and the recent school bombing in Potiskum, Nigeria.

The general argument in favor of publishing grisly photographs has always been that it brings home to the public what is at stake, the enormity of the failures of the Nigerian state, and that it underlines the reality of the destruction wrought by the Islamist insurgency in Northern Nigeria. In fact, it can be argued that these pictures of horror, at certain levels transcend being news supplements to becoming the news in themselves. Beyond this, Section 39 (1) the Nigerian 1999 constitution protects the rights of every Nigerian to the freedom of expression, including the freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impact ideas and information without interference, thus the legality of such publication is generally protected.

However, irrespective of the arguments put forward in favor of the publication of graphic content in the Nigerian media, it is no doubt a blatant violation of the African culture and runs against the very grain of the African philosophical worldview that considers death and dying an indivisible part of the same cycle of life and a journey into a new phase of existence, so the dead is respected. Beyond that there is the natural African disposition towards mutual sympathy and reliance. John Mbiti succinctly encapsulates this mutuality when he said “whatever happens to the individual happens to the whole group, and whatever happens to the whole group happens to the individual. The individual can only say; ‘I am, because we are; and since we are, therefore I am.’ This is a cardinal point in understanding of the African view of man.” Moreover, the appeal to African values for support by proponents of anti-gay legislation within and without Nigeria is a validation of the agelessness of certain strains of the African culture. The exploitation of the images of the dead for political and/or commercial ends violates a sacred constituent of the Nigerian culture.

While the dead have minimal or no rights, perhaps except the right to remain undisturbed and unmolested, that right is universally held sacrosanct. According to William Basevi, “in or near the grave are placed food, clothes and weapons; while the body is protected from molestation often most elaborately. All this provision conveys the idea that there is something more in burial than the disposal of the dead.”

Article 16 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions protects the sanctity of corpses even in the chaos and unpredictability of conflict scenes by explicitly providing for “[…] each party to the conflict shall facilitate the steps takes taken….to protect [the killed] against ill-treatment.” The 1977 Additional Protocol 1 also provides that “[t]he remains of persons who have died for reasons related to occupation or in detention resulting from occupation or hostilities….shall be protected.” Article 3 (a) of the 1990 declaration on Human Rights in Islam provides that “In the event of the use of force and in case of armed conflict…it is prohibited to mutilate dead bodies.”

The argument that the publication of graphic photographs arouses public conscience to action is not proven and it has been stated by some that such practice in fact deadens and inure us to the horrors that these images represent.[vi] And some other school of thought posits that such “death porn” only stimulates our darkest selves.[vii] The progressively worsening Boko Haram insurgency in itself invalidates this position, publications after publications of stomach churning scenes of carnages and death wreaked by the group has neither roused the Nigerian state into effective action nor reverse the group’s ascendancy; also vivid and sometimes crass portray of fatality on Nigerian roads has not impelled the government to action nor moved the potential victims of the next butchery to demand change, so of what good is it?

The practice of mass burial and anonymous internment of victims of violence violates the dignity of the dead in every way particular and an act of injustice of the most grievous kind to citizens, whose demise is traceable to the failure of state and social institutions to perform the very duties they were conceived for. The 1949 Geneva Convention outlaws the hurried and anonymous burials without proper identification of combatants even in conflicts. According to the World Health Organization “burial of bodies in common graves or the use of mass cremation is unnecessary and a violation of the human rights of the surviving family members,” so what justifies this Nigerian practice, even in the absence of a major disaster?

There is a need for a collective critique of the tone of unnecessary pictures and videos that show very graphic portray of mortality and the misery of hapless Nigerians, this cruelty is neither necessary in helping readers apprehend the multifaceted challenges that the Nigerian states faces nor does it dignify the dead. It is pure sensationalism.

Source: http://acontrarioicl.com/2014/11/12/respecting-the-dead/

[quote author=chino24]Some pictures that I took in ibadam.. [/q

tochukwuifeduba: Fellow Nigerians our attension have been drawn to news making round in the electronic media and social networks that Apc publicity secretary Lai Mohammed was kidnapped. I just have a brief interview with him this morning and we exchange pleasantries and share the common hope to see the best man and party emerge victorious today giving the perfect arrangement put in place by INEC.
I wish to state categorically that nothing of such nature happened. I urge all Nigerians to desist from peddling rumours that is capable of over-heating the political climate here in osun state,
I urge all Osun state citizens to go out enmass today and vote for the best party , Vote for transformative change , Vote For Democracy and freedom which only the best party can guarantee to the People.
God Bless Osun State, God Bless Nigeria!!!!

IFEDUBA THANKGOD TOCHUKWU writes in from Osun state( Election observer team)

And as an election observer,does your mandate include what you have just done? Aren't you endangering the mission?

chino24: There is an intelligence report that some groups wanted to cause crisis if the result do not favor them. Read the passage again. The intelligence report ignited the heavy security presence..

well I understand the imperatives of providing security, what i don't get my chairman is your ' blatant partisanship'. Although you have a right to your freedom of association as well as your freedom of expression, but using the service as a vehicle to express such does great disservice to that institution. The service outlived Obasanjo, Yaradua, it is sure going to outlive Jonathan. It is well bro

chino24: Trust me with pictures..even if I fail on the detailed assignment, I will not fail in photography!

But good sir, doesn't service rules and code expect neutrality from all agents? You give a skewed impression about the service. God bless you

Firefire: APC propaganda is Wobbling, what a pity

wobbling indeed

For me the question is,has OAU resumed? Has UI resumed? Has ABU resumed? Has UNN resumed? Has any of those famed bastion of agitation capitulated? 1000 AAU could as well not gone on strike...those ASUU folks have survived more organised onslaught......

Respect Bro...you have said it all

samkoro:

Gentleman,spying is not about peeping at lovemakers.The Chinese and Russians are good at peeping and not spying.Do you know what it means and what it took to collapse the Soviete Union and thus eliminate. Communism.U think the cold war was a joke.The cold war was bigger than the two world wars 1 and 2 put together.The only difference was ;there was no direct offensive between U.S and Soviete Unionalthough it nearly lead to a nuclear war at some point.

Listen U.S can make a Russian preident spy for her. U.S can organise a fourty year deep cover in spying if u don't know.

Do u know that durring the cold war,Russian government officials were having meetings in moving limousines and jets just to avoid U.S spying.Still their voices where being tapped from window vibrations of those cars and jets.
The Russia u are talking about was just a part of the Soviete Union. U.S dealt a big blow to it and it shattered into pieces. One of the pieces is named Russia. Russia is a little rat the big rat was Soviet Union.

Forget about china.It just a puppy for now.They can't even suppass Japan their master in warfare.They are more interested in feeding their population than wars.

Chinco weapons are usualy of low quality.The satelites they launched for Nigeria got missing in space.Their missiles usualy malfunction in mid air or hit wrong targets.Sometimes they reverse and attack the same people that launched them.

China built Ak 47 are the ones always giving the Nigerian police accidental discharge.

So 14years of my life has gone past? God rest the fallen comrades, it was a terrible night

ATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis said on Saturday it pained him to see priests driving flashy cars, and told them to pick something more "humble".

As part of his drive to make the Catholic Church more austere and focus on the poor, Francis told young and trainee priests and nuns from around the world that having the latest smartphone or fashion accessory was not the route to happiness.

"It hurts me when I see a priest or a nun with the latest model car, you can't do this," he said.

"A car is necessary to do a lot of work, but please, choose a more humble one. If you like the fancy one, just think about how many children are dying of hunger in the world," he said.

Since succeeding Pope Benedict in March, the former cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina has eschewed some of the more ostentatious trappings of his office and has chosen to live in a Vatican guest house rather than the opulent papal apartments.

The ANSA news agency said the pope's car of choice for moving around the walled Vatican City was a compact Ford Focus.
http://news.yahoo.com/jesus-drive-pope-tells-priests-buy-humble-cars-183903106.html

My HTC Evo design 4g is not booting, The HTC freezes on the screen, what do i do?

Kindly help out guys,my HTC Evo design 4g won't boot, it freezes at the HTC screen, what do i do?

Sincere 9gerian: Minister of information, Labaran Maku, Says Fashola does not have to do much as governor besides "traffic control and environmental sanitation".

Labaran Maku made this remark in the ongoing ministerial platform while responding to questions from the audience on the criticisms of the National Good Governance Tour by some opposition parties. He said Lagos state is virtually sitting on federal infrastructure and that the eyes of Nigerians will open when the National Good Governance Tour storm Lagos. "Even the BRT runs on federal roads".

And If GEJ would only be what Fashola is,a la roads and flowers at the federal level, how gladly would I have voted again for him as president in 2015

JEG sounded presidential at least tonight

still available? 25k

"If you don't like someone's story, write your own.”
― Chinua Achebe

merci.......... ...free shine shine bobo for the willing

suspenseful

@4:11-"in your infinite mercy,whatever he had done wrong,please forgive him"....amen,but his sins are damned too many
@5:11-"all those who wish him well,let it be well with them"..... :amen,but that one hard oooo

Her prayers and encouragement