The Cattle Rearer Chronicles — #EndSARS: An Idea Whose Time Has Come
Nigeria is a failed state. This was my summation when asked what I think about Nigeria at 60, on our weekly podcast #NigeriaPoliticsWeekly (available on Buzzsprout, Anchor, Apple, Google and Spotify). With Nigeria regularly ranked 3rd worst country on the Global Terrorism Index over the past 3–4 years, with Nigeria ranked as poverty capital of the world, with Nigeria unable to rise from a self inflicted recession over the last 4 years (an oil price crisis exacerbated by ineptitude of the highest magnitude by Federal Government and Central Bank of Nigeria officials) and with rising inflation, public health breakdowns and raging insecurity, there is no other way to describe the state in which the country finds itself.
It goes without saying that Nigeria has been in free fall since the Muhammadu Buhari regime came into office. There is not a single policy issue that has achieved a positive objective. There has been a remarkable consistency in churning out mind boggling and head scratching decisions that anyone with half a brain can see straight off the bat will have negative consequences. When a country that clearly cannot produce all the food it consumes but decides to shut its borders, such a country’s leaders should not be surprised if smuggling becomes rife and inflation, particularly food inflation starts to rise. Even more damning is seeing the Central Bank of Nigeria ban staple items from its FX window and then turns around to license a few firms when the inevitable scarcity ensues. At a point one begins to wonder if it is intellectually honest to simply label these actions as borne out of ineptitude — perhaps there is a more sinister agenda afoot which must not be ignored.
When one looks at Buhari’s failures over the 5 years of his presidency, particularly across the tripod on which he promised to “Change” Nigeria — Economy, Corruption and Insecurity, the promise to tackle Insecurity rankles the most. It was always a joke to expect Buhari, a renowned Statist with his 1984/85 antecedents to improve the economy and as expected, he made it worse. It was an even bigger joke to expect one of the most clannish and nepotistic “leaders” Africa has ever seen, to address corruption, the idea of his incorruptibility was a myth and has now been laid bare for all to see. On Insecurity, it was reasonable to think that a man who had risen through the ranks of the Army to become a Military Commander in Chief would know a thing or two about decisively stamping out the number one menace he inherited on May 29, 2015 — Boko Haram. Despite assuring Nigerians that Boko Haram had been “Technically Defeated” in December 2015, the rag tag group continues to ravage the North East of Nigeria with impunity, kidnapping hundreds of citizens and killing Nigerian soldiers, even senior soldiers at Colonel level have not been spared.
However, it would be less egregious if only the Boko Haram issue prevails today. Rather, Nigeria has become a conflagration of insecurity crises all across the country — Fulani Herdsmen running rampage, Armed bandits making the Abuja — Kaduna highway unsafe, the people of Southern Kaduna being pillaged and killed in their homes, Katsina, Zamfara with security issues, the military attacking IPOB protesters….the list is endless. None of these crises has Buhari been able to get a handle on, it is one twitter thread after the other making meaningless pronouncements that the people get in return. Buhari gives meaningless orders to security chiefs (he has refused to change them for FIVE YEARS!) that are not followed, case in point when he ordered the Inspector General of Police to relocate to Benue to deal with the crisis there. Buhari found out IGP Idris did not go there, yet did nothing.
Insecurity under Buhari has become such a deep rooted malaise that stems from the fact that Buhari is incapable of imposing his will (if indeed he is interested in securing the country). He is unable to ensure the security of lives and property is sacrosanct in Nigeria and those charged with ensuring this is the case are held accountable. This lack of accountability and consequences for non performance means that those responsible for managing the security apparatus are unbothered and do nothing to address the issues at hand. This informs why others are beginning to take matters into own hands, case in point the Amotekun force set up by South West states to address the insecurity issues in their domains. Such a situation portends dire consequences for a country with a population as diverse and mistrustful of one another as we have in Nigeria today, but the country’s political leaders continue to benefit from chaos and the people have until now continued to be complacent. Until now.
As with most wildfires, it starts with a spark, then smouldering and then an explosion. The Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Nigeria Police Force has been a menace for quite a while now. They were set up to deal with the unwelcome increase in the spate of armed robberies and at the start proved to be quite effective at dealing with this. However, they then decided to expand their remit beyond what was asked of them and constituted themselves into menace to society, engaging in extortion, torture, rape and murder across the country, most particularly in the urban centers of the southern part of the country. Numerous complaints have flooded social media over the past few years and the people have trended the hashtag #EndSARS but all that has come through from those charged with leading the country and keeping all safe, has been lip service. In response to the cries from Nigerians, the then IGP Idris banned SARS from conducting stop and search raids in 2018, see here. That led to no positive outcome and then his replacement IGP Adamu upon taking office in 2019 announced a ban on SARS, see here. Still there has been no change and instead a worsening of the situation in 2020 has led to demands that SARS be permanently disbanded. Again, IGP Adamu has banned SARS, see here. How one organization can be banned 3 times in 3 years is quite befuddling, but shows exactly the type of facile leadership Nigeria has in place.
One thing that appears to have changed in 2020 is that Nigerians have shed the toga of complacency. Perhaps its the combination of all the challenges we have dealt with this year that has made us hit the wall and decide to turnaround and fight back. Whatever it is, it is about damn time. #EndSARS is indeed an idea whose time has come and it will not stop with just the complete disbandment of a rogue outfit that has no respect for the citizens whose taxes pay their salaries and who they took an oath to protect. This should continue with a reawakening of the Nigerian consciousness, that consciousness that stared down military rulers, that consciousness that refused to accept that democracy could not happen here, that consciousness that decided that enough was enough and we did indeed deserve better. Nigerians deserve better leadership, better socio-economic outcomes, improved security and quality of life. The current group of carpet-baggers across board have consistently shown they are incapable of providing this and instead prefer the chaos, like pigs they prefer to wallow in the mud of a failed state as that is how they line their pockets to go enjoy their spoils in foreign lands.
Nigerians must not let up. We must seize #EndSARS as our own Arab Spring moment to bring about positive and long lasting change. We must mobilize, aggregate resources and continue to shout at the top of our voices until we bring this fetid house of cards down, all the way to its foundations. It is about damn time……we owe it to ourselves, to those that came before us and fought the battles to get us here and to those who will come after us and to whom we owe a better Nigeria……lest they ask us what did you do and we have to hang our heads in shame.
This has been written in memory of Ifeoma Abugu, a young woman abducted from her fiance’s apartment, raped and killed by SARS operatives in Abuja. May Ifeoma’s soul find peace and like Mohammed Bouazizi’s self immolation in Tunis sparked the Arab Spring, may her sacrifice bring about the change that we need and ensure her name is never forgotten. This is also written for those who have been out protesting and bringing the noise from social media to the real streets…..Aluta Continua, Victoria Ascerta.
