The agitation for the scrapping of the police Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) continues to gain momentum, not only within the country but beyond the shores of Nigeria by youths and young men and women across the board. The police are notorious for brutalising, assaulting, maiming, and killing the people indiscriminately in the course of discharging their duties. At variance with the Nigerian legal system’s presumption of innocence, but for the police, the reverse is the case.
The Nigeria Police Force is grossly underfunded and equipped with a large chunk of its personnel deployed to very important persons. Recruitment into the force does not allow for competence, quality, and merit. Policemen are made to purchase their uniforms while their offices and barracks are poorly managed, among other problems. The menace of fraudsters popularly called Yahoo Boys not only tarnishes the good name of the nation; victims of fraud are humans that do not deserve to be swindled of their hard-earned resources. SARS personnel often swoop on innocent people, who are mistaken for fraudsters. SARS operatives have also been allegedly used by the aggrieved to settle personal scores.
A-2019 public survey by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) ranked the police as the nation’s most corrupt institution while Amnesty International revealed a disturbing pattern of abuse of detainees in SARS custody despite the existence of the 2017 Anti-Torture Act that criminalises torture in Nigeria. It is not contentious, therefore, to say that the entire police force needs total reformation. Aside from very few police officers that are humane and dutiful, other security agents such as the armed forces are not left out of the illegal use of arms and brutality against civilians. The complexity of these problems questions the rationale for the existence of the government as an agent of the state.
Many people are unhappy that national wealth is badly undistributed to the extent that only a tiny segment of the country appears to be benefitting, contrary to the pluralistic nature of our society with over 270 ethnic nationalities, diversity in cultures, varied faiths, and mutually-exclusive historical experiences that allow for federalism as the appropriate form of government. What do we have? The distinct nationalist policies have competed for primacy in defining the country’s political future in which pro-restructure advocates have been calling for devolution of powers while the antagonists would rather prefer the preservation of the existing, lopsided, and unjust system by maintaining the status quo. It is this distortion that is accountable for bad governance that is being witnessed in all facets of our national life.
This imbalance did not just start. It had been a recurring decimal since the 1914 amalgamation that brought in reluctant partners to cohabitate and fuse into union of convenience by the colonialists. It is for this reason that the critical issue of national question would continue to beg for an answer and the call for restructuring becomes louder. In this context, restructuring means fiscal federalism or resource control, state police, wider devolution of powers and monumental reduction in the cost of governance to make the three tiers of government productive and every segment of the political structure empowered.
It is on this premise that the protesting youth may be seen beyond the prism of anti-SARS to the manifestation of anger, mistrust, disenchantment, frustration, and disappointment with the state of affairs in their dear country. What we are witnessing is a patriotic show of anger by the youths against perceived injustice by the older generation. Today, the youth do not have a say in governance. The entire politico-economic space is occupied by old people and their anointed candidates. This neopatrimonialism, a feature of a weak democracy, is antithetical to the enthronement of an egalitarian society that caters for the well-being of all citizens, irrespective of class, tribe, gender, and age.
The killings and harassment of youths should end and we should collectively stand to defend their rights responsibly. The government should avoid using any force or intimidation on the protesters otherwise it could snowball into national unrest that may never be curtailed. The right to protest has constitutionally been recognised as one of the citizens’ inalienable rights and cornerstones of liberty. It is understandable that to protect public safety, order, and security, the police should strike a balance between these guaranteed rights. As a starting point, the Federal Government should revisit the most recent outcome of national dialogue, which is the 2014 national conference.
The argument that the legislature is capable of amending the defective 1999 constitution should be kept aside. Nigerians should be allowed to sit down and decide on how they want their nation to be governed. We should not miss this opportunity again. The youths should marshal their points and appoint representatives for likely dialogue with the government without further delay. The way to go is to be open, sincere, and win the confidence of not only the youths but Nigerians in general that the existing crop of leaders is truly ready and capable of bringing about real ‘change’ and good governance.
