October 2020 was an eventful month in the modern history of Nigeria. An unprecedented event took place, it shook the country to its core, after which there was a deafening silence, confusion in tranquillity – The End SARS protest.
What started off looking like the usual social media rants, took physical form and manifested into a full-blown protest, spearheaded by the youthful population of the country who have had enough of the unending harassment, oppression and extrajudicial killings of the youth by the men of The Nigerian Police Force, especially by a certain rogue unit of the force known as SARS (Special Anti-Robbery Squad).
The Nigerian police in their obnoxious and unprofessional modus operandi, profile any well-looking young man as an internet fraudster and thereby, level ridiculous charges and accusations on them, blackmail them into signing trumped-up charges and then extort them.
They carry out periodic raids in homes and neighbourhoods s with a high population of youth, arrest them, seize their cars and gadgets and then parade them as criminals without any cult convictions.
This seems like a booming business enterprise in which many high ranking officers are complicit. The police can pick u up in the streets and on the road in the unmarked vehicles, usually private vehicles with no number plates, force you to pay a certain amount, else they would tag you an armed robber, cultists, a kidnapper or whatever charge they feel would carry enough weight to put you behind bars unquestioned and if you don’t pay up, it might be the end of you. Literally.
Now, how can a police force who claims they were waging a war against internet criminals achieve any kind of success in such endeavour by mounting stop and search roadblocks on some of the country’s major roads and subways? You stop young bloods on foot, in their cars, on bikes (anywhere) then you frisk them (unwarrantedly) and then you proceed to ask for their phones, you force them to unlock their phones and then you abuse their privacy and infringe on their rights by scrolling through their phones, call records, media gallery, text inbox. Madness! Absolute madness. You do all these without any probable cause – an unlawful policing of lawful citizens.
People were paying, for police trumped-up charges – “Hey, you are under arrest, where did you get those iPhones from? You are a criminal, get in this vehicle...how much do you have in your account?” This is usually how it plays out and if you do not comply, you are then taken to the station and the allegation would be officially put on paper and it becomes your word against 6 to 8 police officers. You either pay with money or pay with your life.
These have gone on for years, but it became a full-blown epidemic post-2015. The Nigerian youths became an endangered species...in Nigeria. If you are well-fed, can afford an iPhone, a laptop and a car, you automatically become a prey for the Nigerian Police.
Enough is Enough
On the 3rd of October, this rogue police squad (SARS) shot and killed an unarmed young man in Sapele and drove away in his car. Outrageous is it? Well, it had gotten to that stage, the impunity is off the charts. This incident caused a nationwide frenzy on social media, particularly Twitter. The youthful population was outraged and a protest was muted. Some notable Nigerian celebrities like Falz and Runtown threatened that they were going to lead a protest in the streets of Lagos, enough was indeed enough.
A date was scheduled and the wait began, the wait to march to the streets was now in the pipeline while the outrage on social media was fuelling the anger in the belly of the youths and disgruntled Nigerians. The demand was simple, disband the rogue Police Unit, arrest and charge erring officers who had committed these crimes, then reform the police.
The protest came and swept the country like a harsh winter breeze – Lagos, Kano, Ogun, Oyo, Ekiti, Calabar, Port-Harcourt and the major cities in the country. The government thought it was going to go away by just ignoring it, the youths had made their demands but the government were defiant.
What could be so difficult in a government looking into and possibly reforming their police force? What’s so difficult about that? Only one answer stood out. A reformed and working police force means the ruling elite would no longer get the exclusive protection of corrupt police, thus would steal less and forced to work more. Can they live with that? No.
The Nigerian ruling elite likes the police just the way it is, it is serving a deliberate purpose and they weren’t about to mess it up by reforming it. So, instead of giving in to the demands of the protesters, a plan was devised. The plan was to infiltrate the peaceful protests, draw out some kind of violence and unlawfulness, then send in the state law enforcement apparatus to clamp everybody down, with every means necessary.
They planned it and they carried it out ruthlessly, and boy did it work. Soon, the protesters were on the back foot, being tagged criminals and menace (for daring to make demands of the government) hunted down and arrested. LOL. The never-ending cycle of a corrupt extension of a corrupt government – Level unfound charges against you, use the press to smear your name, and then use the law enforcement apparatus to hunt you down.
The protest was turned on its head; the government had achieved their objective, protesters were killed, passports were seized, bank accounts were frozen and nobody ever talks about the reason for the protests, only the outcome the government worked towards achieving.
No police or government official was or has been arrested for their parts in the deaths of unarmed civilians before, during and after the protests, till this day.
