Nigeria erupts
Imagine the following scene. A group of well-dressed educated teenagers, armed with nothing but their smart phones, stroll along a highway somewhere in urban Nigeria. Suddenly a car stops right next to them. Armed men jump out and approach the youngsters, surround them, and force them to hand over their mobile phones. The young Nigerians have no choice than to obey.
This is a daily incident in Nigeria, and this particular scene is comparably harmless. The teenagers were lucky, they just lost their phones, not their lives. But what about the robbers who took the phones? No, they aren’t robbers… Sadly, in many of these cases these are members of a police unit called the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), that was originally sent out to STOP crime, not to ROB innocent youngsters.
On the 20th of October, over 130,000 people from all over the world joined an Instagram live hosted by a popular Nigerian DJ and witnessed the shooting of unarmed Nigerian youth who were peacefully protesting at the Lekki toll gate.
Since then, we have spoken to several of our kanthari change makers who gave us insights into the tragic developments.
“SARS, a special police unit, have been a terror to young people for a long while. They kill, rape, and shoot people without any consequences. If you are seen with an I-phone, if you wear dreads or drive an expensive car, you immediately become a target for harassment. Thus, we started the END SARS campaign in 2017 to push for reform of the Nigerian police and the disbanding of the SARS unit. The government has announced this disbandment every year since then, but nothing has been done about it.”
“This year they pushed young men out of a moving vehicle which became a trigger for the protest. Young Nigerians took to the street to express their anger and to ask for an end to the impunity. The protests were peaceful. no looting or vandalism whatsoever. The government made some decisions, but the public wanted to see concrete actions which never came. They started using thugs to intimidate, harass and kill protesters across the nation.”
“It was the Covid lockdown that gave members of SARS an excuse to act like robbers. Their favourite targets are teenagers with dreadlocks. If you carry a laptop, you are accused of being a spy and you are taken to the next police station. “
“It started on October 8. That was when youth around Nigeria decided, enough is enough!
A young innocent man was killed by members of SARS in Niger delta. This was not the first time. This happened over and over again. And every-time we asked the government to bring justice to the victims, nothing was done.”
“SARS have been accused of 100s of cases of brutality. For example, during the peak of the Corona lockdown, a young girl was killed. Recently, some of my friends became victims: The police parked next to them and pulled them into the car, why? just because they carried I-phones. They take their phones, check the social media pages that are visited. They check everything, couldn’t find anything and still then they beat them up, took them to the station. Kept them. They could not call their family members. Then they would get their banking cards, took them to the ATM and forced them to take out 80,000 Naira. That was the only way to be released. And this is still a rather mild case. They do much worse things. People are missing. These are daily actions. I don’t feel safe anywhere I go in Nigeria.”
The protests started peaceful. The demand was simple. The youth were asking for better governance; they requested an end to police brutality. Asking for better security agencies to curb corruption.
“As the days went by, the protests became intense. Hundreds of people in over 20 states in different locations expressed their frustration. Thus, the protest became a movement with the name #EndSARS.
“On the 19th of October in the Benin city, there was a prison break. Over 2000 prisoners were set free. The government accused the protesters. But from the videos that we saw, it was not evident that the protestors were involved. The problem now is: how do we differentiate hoodlums from protestors. We believe that the government is sponsoring some of these hoodlums to discredit our movement.”
“One day after the prisoners escaped, Lagos State declared a curfew at around 9:00 in the morning when people were already at work. Lagos is the busiest state in Nigeria. It is also the most populated state. How would the people go back home? Meanwhile, people were protesting. They picked a particular location which was the Lekki tollgate.
“Just around evening time, we saw army tanks coming into town. But for what? They came in at about 19:00. There were power lights, everything was bright.
But that particular evening, October 20th, all spotlights were removed and the CCTV cameras that had been installed all around Lekki tollgate had been removed. And suddenly, gun shots!”
“Protestors had organized medical care and ambulances were prepared to come. but the soldiers didn’t allow them to pass.”
“How many were killed is heavily disputed. At first people talked about 20, then 48, then 78. But according to the government, just 8 people got injured.”
“Nigeria is traumatized. Now our youth put public facilities, police cars and police stations on fire. Chaos is everywhere!”
“Only yesterday evening the president recorded a speech. He didn’t even dare to speak live. Until now, the government is holding the position that nobody died. He completely ignored that there was a massacre in Lekki. He didn’t mention the youth that had lost their lives. The only thing he was sorry about was that a policeman apparently had lost his life on duty.”
“We requested the government to increase the salary of the police force. Their salary is low, and we feel this is one of the reasons why they have developed such anger.”
Listening to all these statements, the question remains: what is causing the rise of police brutality not just in Nigeria but also in other places around the world? From racial profiling in the US to right wing extremism in Germany, everywhere, innocent citizens start to feel insecure in the presence of police forces.
In German the term “Ressentiment” comes to my mind. The English translation “resentment” does not resemble the exact meaning. “Ressentiment” describes an angry feeling based on envy, on low confidence, a feeling of being less valued. The request of Nigerian youth to increase salaries the police was surprising at first.
When I think about it, it becomes obvious that being lesser valued can cause aggression and injustice.
A police officer that is emotionally skilled, well trained, and adequately remunerated will most likely be the only solution to improve the image of the police force. And only with the help of a well-trained and emotionally skilled police force, governments will be able to calm down erupting volcanos all around the world.