by Stepney Glory-Emeh
Except you have been living under a rock in some remote village outside the shores of Nigeria or even Africa, you should have heard either actively or passively these words #ENDSARSNOW #ENDPOLICEPBRUTALITY #REFORMPOLICENG. Over the past week, this has been the cry of almost every young Nigerian, both in and outside the geographical constraints of this nation. Funny enough (not really, because there is nothing funny about our plea), this is not the first time this cry has been heard so loudly from the youths of what some will term "a great country". But why is this one, why has this particular cry resonated so loudly round the entire globe, heard in virtually every continent of the world? You see, this year has been ever so eventful, and unfortunately not for the right reasons. We started this year with hope and glimmer. 2020 was supposed to be a turning point, and depending on how you look at it, either the beginning of a new century, or the end of an old one. Regardless of optics, 2020 was meant to be the year of "triumph", the year of moving forward. However, barely 2 weeks into the New Year, the world was hit by the Australian fire, then the death of Kobe Bryant that eventually triggered a rollercoaster of catastrophic events. The Chinese virus as Donald trump would like to call it, or the Wuhan virus, or the more politically correct Covid-19 that had been confined to China since the end of 2019, began to ravage the entire globe, affecting virtually every country and leaving with it, a death toll of over 1 million and counting, and we are yet to know what the long term effect of this virus would entail, the only bright side to it was the earth had a bit of 'rest' as human activities were halted. Then the Black Lives Matter movement sprung up, after another black man was sadly murdered in cold blood to the viewing of the whole word, thanks to social media and the World Wide Web. This boomeranged into a political statement as protests turned to riots, and riots turned to looting. Now back to the actual topic of discussion, why has this year's cry for the Special Anti-Robbery Squad aka SARS to be scrapped, banned, destroyed rung so loudly? For the first time in a long time, the world has a sense of togetherness. These horrible events have brought us together. We now realize that we are as much alike as we are different, and what affects one person can affect the other. This realization, I would say has made the rest of the world stand with us as injustice to one, can be seen as injustice to all.
The Special Anti-Robbery Squad aka (SARS), was created in 1992, as a tactical unit of the Nigerian Police (the reason for their creation is as sad as what they currently are), and as their name rightly says, they were created to curtail armed robbery, and kidnapping. From my understanding of their modus operandi, they were not supposed to be seen on the road and were also, not meant to carry weapons. Their operations were to be very covert. Nonetheless, this unit has over the years done a complete 180, and has deviated from what they were supposed to be. They have constituted themselves to being a nuisance and a terror to any young, well dressed, average youth (both male and female). They are now known for extortion, kidnapping, armed robbery, and extra judicial killings. Over the years, Nigerians have clamored, begged, cried, for the authorities to put an end to this menace, but all this always falls on deaf ears. We hear about so-called reforms done by the leadership of the police, but nothing practical is ever seen on ground. In 2018, the then acting President of Nigeria, Vice-President Professor Yemi Osinbajo, yielded to the yearnings of Nigerians. He instructed the then Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris to call his men to order. This was done and for a little while, just a little while there was some calm; however, when the new Inspector General of Police came on board, he undid everything and put these blood thirsty criminals back on the street. And these criminals emboldened by the law, became even more callous and bold. They felt protected by the highest office in their agency, and decided to operate with reckless abandon. A report in 2010 by Sahara Reporters estimated that the money that had been extorted from Nigerians by SARS and other police units, over an 18 month period was about $60million. The number of Nigerians killed, runs into hundreds. These people were fathers, mothers, sons, uncles, aunties, boyfriends, girlfriends, brothers and sisters who had their lives cut short all because a unit of the police force has gone rogue without any recourse to common sense. In Nigeria you are more likely to be dead before the age of 40, than you are before the age of 90, all because someone has a gun, is almost certain to be intoxicated with all sort of drugs and illicit substance and has seen it fit to legally use that same gun to kill without any consequence.
For us, this current protest is a turning point. We have had enough. We want just one thing, #ENDSARS. They have over stayed their welcome. This is a do or die affair, its either SARS is scrapped or we die. I cannot even imagine what will happen if this protest does not yield fruits. Our ever gallant youths, we cannot stop now, our voices cannot grow weary, our legs cannot fatigue, we cannot afford to lose momentum. Our parents, political class, religious leaders have failed us; all we have is ourselves, and the internet. So I say, cry as loudly as you can, keep tweeting, keep talking, keep fighting, keep walking, keep protesting. Our voices will be heard!! We are the leaders of tomorrow right? Let us start by leading today!
