#END_SARS_NOW

When white police officers shoot and kill armless black people, it's easy to label it institutionalised racism, which makes it difficult to explain what to term the same barbarity when it happens between policemen in Nigeria, killing Nigerian youths when both are black. What is most unfortunate about this, is that in America the government joins in the conversation, while in Nigeria the organs of government keep mum, almost as if the police is acting according to instructions from them. The frequency with which the anti - robbery squad have been going about mowing down the youth of this country in recent times with brazen impunity, compared to the recent past where activities by them tail off after another video of them extrajudicially murdering someone comes to fore, and are then reported to have been arrested and awaiting prosecution, suggests that either they've seen that no punishment was eventually meted out to the erring ones formerly arrested, or whatever leash or restrictions that existed (no matter how weak), has now been totally lifted.

There are certain peculiarities about the harassment and killing of Nigerians by mostly the Special Anti-Robberies Squad, SARS of the Nigerian Police, that leaves the discerning wondering if there's an agenda behind the unending tales of woe coming from Nigerian youths regarding they way they are being treated by the Nigerian police. The main peculiarity is the fact that most of these infringements on the rights of Nigerians occur in the South, leaving one to suspect a subjugation agenda against Southerners, especially the young people of the region. It used to be that they were profiled, and those with tattoos, dreadlocks, wearing jewellery, possessing expensive smart phones, driving state of the art automobiles, amongst others were targeted, however recent cases of harassment suggests that just about any other person is now a target for these men, and all of a sudden no one is safe, at the hands of those whose core responsibility is to protect Nigerians from the hands of armed robbers. Unfortunately, while these SARS men target those they've so profiled to be criminals or fraudsters, their ilks are the sort who provide security for the real gangsters, fraudsters and criminals in town, so what are we saying? 

The experiences of most Nigerians at the hands of these men have been horrifying to say the least. The least that can happen to those who are unfortunate to fall victims to them, is extortion. Victims could also get beaten up, sustaining life altering and/or threatening injuries sometimes, and in increasing cases, loss of lives. Though online personalities like the famous Segalink, have at various times come to the rescue of hapless Nigerians after coming in contact with these evil minded gun-toting wretches, sadly the experience once felt cannot be unfelt, and any compensation (usually refunds only) does little to nothing to erase the scars, physical as well as physiological, suffered by the victims. Also, the fact that Segalink and other activists like him cannot be allover Nigeria, even in the South where the activities of these criminals is rampant means that the unreported number of Nigerians who do not get redress is far more than those who do, and for the dead, they would have died, for nothing!

The saddest part of this is the silence. The silence from those who could truly cause all of this to stop. Those whose silence makes them appear complicit, include those in the executive arm of government, who by just issuing a statement could bring this to a halt, and also bringing to book errant members of the police force who perpetrate these heinous crimes, to members of the legislature who could raise the issue as a matter of urgent national importance, to people whose voices matter in the society, whose voices they speedily append to political talk, but have suddenly gone dumb, even deaf since the harassment and killing of armless Nigerians became a thing, amongst police officers, before you begin to mention so called influencers on social media, some of whom for some pittance turned their backs on the suffering of their fellow citizens by trying to justify the actions of the bloodletters in uniform.

Beyond ending SARS, a reorganisation of the Nigerian Police Force has become necessary, if not long overdue. This is because even before SARS became a menace, the regular police were not any better, and I have written about that in BAIL IS FREE, therefore any reform shouldn't be piecemeal, rather holistic, from those extorting motorists on the roads and highways, to those at the police station who make a lie of the fact that "bail is free", and the likes. This must be done if the shame that the Nigerian Police has constituted itself to be amongst Nigerians, and before the outside world is to be a thing of the past. Merely banning their activities on the road, as the Inspector General of Police has just done will not cut, as this latest action is the umpteenth time it's happening, only to subtly resume, and return to its menacing levels once again. We've been here before, hence much more than mere rhetorics is what is needed now, with the Police Reform Bill properly implemented to the latter, or if found wanting scrutinised to ensure that areas that provide leeway for the abuse of the rights of Nigerians are expunged.

'kovich 

UWA

So many issues shattered the peace of this weekend in Nigeria, but I doubt any other news (including the rape of a girl by several men, and a teenage girl shot by trigger happy policeman) had the traction that the rape and death of Vera Uwaila Omozuwa

 had on and over Nigerians. I feel like rewriting what I just wrote now, because there's no peace to be shattered in Nigeria, not over a weekend, and definitely not over a working week. Even Covid-19 didn't have the power to protect Nigerians from unfortunate events, that will make any ear that hears it tinge. We don't know how to cry again in Nigeria, the voice of the people have been stifled by a regime that considers protests illegal, so you won't see, or you will see only a few brave people on the streets, so we turn only to social media to vent, and hope not to be found and incarcerated, as has been the case with missing Dadiyata for months on end, while politicians and those in positions of authority hardly add their voices to these things, that bug us on the streets, like they were of no consequence to issues of governance, and therefore have nothing to do with them.


During my university days on campus, after libraries were closed (I was even locked up in one, after I slept off), and classes were too far to walk to, buildings of churches and mosques were the next available and popular spots to go read. Tutorials also happened there, organized by Catholic, Pentecostal fellowships and Muslim groups, when it seemed like there was a competition to see which of the groups produced the better students. Another reason why they were choice spots was because there was always "light" in those places for some reason or the other, and unlike other reading spots, they were the safest, especially as regards the possibility of rape for female students, and mugging for both male and female students. Going to read in religious places is a tradition that preceded my time in school, and I was sure will succeed me. It stands to reason also that students who are not within campuses may also want to continue the tradition outside campuses. On these streets, we celebrated children reading under streetlights of busy roads while selling wares with their mothers, or on their own. A bank recently decided to sponsor a girl's education, after she was found using the light from their ATM to read. 

If we begin to list the reasons why Uwa decided to go and read at the church that fateful night, we might not be able to exhaust them all fully. However, what happened to her later that night would've been the last thing she expected, and especially at that location. Sadly, our police and policing haven't developed to the point where forensics could have been able to tell us whether the motive was murder, or attempted murder following rape, or attempted rape, and until a culprit that's not coerced to tell the truth, is found what we have as information regarding Uwa's death, remains just speculations by those who saw her after the dastardly acts have been committed, leaving her in a coma, from which she eventually passed on.

Even though the police mentioned something about finger prints on the fire extinguisher cylinder, I doubt Edo State police command has the wherewithal to pursue that, and if they do, which database have they to tally their findings with. An autopsy will definitely reveal the horrors she passed through, and cause of her death, but will not reveal who her perpetrators are. Sadly, the record of the Nigerian police as regards rape is abysmally poor and nothing to write home about. Before human rights activists, and bodies committed to fighting sexual violence in all its forms came to be, victims of rape had no one to turn to, as the police was known to further compound their predicament, even in cases where the rapists were caught during the act. On several occasions, the police that should protect victims, and bring perpetrators to book, championed so called "peace moves" and "settlement proposals" from the rapists' people to the victim's family.


It is the lack of justice for victims over the years, that have continued to enable rapists, the results of which is evident in the metro section of our newspapers daily. Even religious leaders are not left out as perpetrators, and babies even as young as a few months are not left out as victims, talk more of teenagers, young adults like Uwa, and women. When everybody was looking at India as the rape capital of the world, the news about rape in Nigeria was there, a constant, just like in South Africa, only that the world didn't seem to have our time. The Nigerian society looks like a society that enables sexual violence against females, and the reports are there, have been there, and once a while there's the noise either in sex for marks scandal in universities, or the occasional story on twitter that will trend for a few days, and then disappear, without any recourse to legal aid, but someone's life would've been scarred and/or ruined, sometimes for life, even when the seem to be enjoying family life, in seemingly blissful marriages.


I hope that the death of Uwa will not go the way of others. This is not the first time that a Governor, a Commissioner of Police, even the Inspector General of Police will be on a matter, yet justice will remain a fleeting illusion. Nothing remains newsworthy in Nigeria beyond a week, and that's even when it's most dastardly, and usually it is overtaken by something worse making one wonder if the country isn't one big movie set for a horror movie. It is painful not to imagine how things can be done differently, seeing as the rhetoric is the same as has always been, when things like this happen. It is the helplessness Nigerians feel with the police and the criminal justice system, when crimes are committed, that leaves the Nigerian society with no option than to resort to self help, especially when the culprit is caught red handed. I want to be optimistic, but there's not even a straw to hold on to now. I pray the Almighty gives Uwa's family the fortitude to bear this great loss.


'kovich


PICTURE CREDIT:
- https://m.guardian.ng
- https://www.pulse.ng

ÀMÒTÉKÙN

The law of unintended consequences, that is the only thing that comes to my mind when I think about Àmòtékùn, the security outfit set up by governors in Nigeria's southwest. It is difficult not to see how it's formation doesn't have basis in the way Nigeria's security apparatus appears skewed in favour of the North, leaving other parts of Nigeria wandering whether they still matter in the "security" scheme of things; more so, when those parts of Nigeria are experiencing security challenges, with accusing fingers pointed at marauders suspected to be from the section of the country from where the hierarchy of the security agencies hail from, leaving them suspect as to whether there exists a reluctance to bring perpetrators to justice. This is coupled with the fact that in many, if not all of the cases, justice isn't seen to be done, in the midst of the impunity with which the acts of killings and brigandage are carried out.

The speed with which the attorney general rushed to condemn the outfit, calling it illegal, when there are groups setup with similar objectives in the North (especially in areas ravaged by insurgency, and banditry, besides Kano's hisbah, which is "religious police", so enabled that recently a member of the police landed in their net during a raid at a hotel), further confirmed the fears of many that the federal government, not only appearing to be treating the security of lives and properties of Nigerians with levity, show no intent to allow Nigerians defend themselves. Indeed, it won't be the first time, as before now Nigerians had been urged to submit arms and ammunitions in their possession, whether legally or illegally obtained, without extending same to herdsmen who brandish theirs in broad daylight for all to see, under the guise that they come in handy when they are attacked by humans (raiders) or wild animals, when they traverse the forests especially at night.


All it took for the attorney general, Abubakar Malami to sing a new tune, was the statement by APC's national leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu which tried to soothe nerves at both ends of the divide. A meeting of the governors, with the attorney general, and the vice president followed later, and from the look of things a place of accommodation was found, and just like that Àmòtékùn wasn't illegal anymore, or a loophole was found via which their operations could be legalised. Now, every region in Nigeria seem to be keen to setting up a security outfit of the likes Àmòtékùn,

like "Shege Ka Fasa"

 setup by a coalition of northern groups. Interestingly, while Àmòtékùn's sigil is the leopard, the lion is that of Shege Ka Fasa, leaving me to wonder what animal the southeast (whose dying regional party, APGA's symbol, is the cock) will use as symbol, when their regional security outfit comes online.


Interestingly, military operations in recent times have also had animals depicted expressing emotions, such as "crocodile smile, python dance", etc especially at a period snakes and monkeys have been accused of stealing and embezzlement, by Nigerians who at one time or the other had public funds placed under their care, yet many Nigerians took exception when Nigeria was referred to as a zoo by one seeking a referendum to determine whether a part of Nigeria, should remain in Lord Lugard's contraption or out of it. The fact that soldiers were deployed to police any or every part of Nigeria shows an aberration in the first place, worse still to have the populace lose confidence in them too, like the police before them, enough to have to be accused of colluding with bandits (evidenced not long after with the now cold "Wadume" case, interestingly in the same Taraba State, as that of General T.Y. Danjuma who made the allegations) and marauders by an ex-military general, who thereafter asked his people to defend themselves, shows how badly things have gone security-wise with Nigeria. Even the American government based its visa restrictions to Nigeria on security, in what can be described as the lowest Nigeria has ever been since it gained independence.


It therefore didn't come as a surprise to me when Àmòtékùn moved from conjecture to the real deal, because the clamour for regional police has been on for sometime, achieving a deafening crescendo under Buhari's administration, which is perceived as thinking that members of security agencies from other parts of Nigeria, including civilian and political officers charged with key security responsibilities, weren't competent enough to address security matters and challenges, when over time not much improvement has been recorded with the present crop of officers in command and politicians/civilians in charge. Interestingly, the military chiefs overdue for retirement, yet still retained have been a source of concern for close watchers of security events in Nigeria, who surmise that this may affect the morale of officers who have found themselves stagnated in service, or even forced to retire, as there's been a ceiling to their enhancement because the top has yet to give way. As for the men, prosecuting the war on terror, it is no surprise that morale is low, as there seem to be no change in tactics, and if recent amateur videos from the war front are anything to go by, they are also battling with lack of equipments, and most importantly, simple basic amenities needed to maintain life, and sustain the onslaught against insurgents in the northeast.


What couldn't be achieved by democratic means, via a referendum for instance, or by an act of legislation, in terms of decentralising the police force, as you'd expect from a federation (Nigeria's federation is a lie) appears to now being fondled with, with the formation of Àmòtékùn and the likes that may evolve from the other parts of Nigeria. Sadly, lives have been lost, properties destroyed in the face of a helpless and "disinterested" security architecture. These regional security outfits, should they become a thing, and thrive, may become the precursor for state policing, that many who seek the restructuring of Nigeria have been asking for. The present knee jerk rhetoric by the federal government to midwife "Community Policing", that will include just about every other regular person, on a voluntary basis, I consider dead on arrival, because it still doesn't take security issues serious, as it mirrors what was behind the formation of the civil defence corp, whose duty today in the scheme of things cannot be distinctly explained, one of them recently shot dead the politician he was attached as aide to, while shooting "into the air", in celebratory mood at a victory party organised by the latters' colleague.


'kovich


PICTURE CREDIT:
- www.dailypost.ng