One of the many incidences of globalization is such that thousands in Nigeria can hold hands with African Americans suffering injustice at the hands of the American police force. After all, there was no such worldwide recognition of the same kind of evil that went down in the 1980s in and around Compton, Los Angeles and many other parts of the same America.
The situation had changed by 2013 when the Black Lives Matter movement started to actively condemn the violence and systemic racism against the people of colour all around America. The movement got unbelievable support from all over the world and Nigerians are not the people to shy away from that sort of activism; especially not if it had become a hashtag that could be added to a social media post under whatever circumstances.
We not only posted photos with #BlackLivesMatter when George Zimmerman was let off the hook by the courts in relation to the shooting of Trayvon Martin; and subsequently, Jonathan Ferell, John Crawford, Michael Brown, and more recently, Alton Sterling amongst many other innocent black lives. We also added the hashtag to more mundane and almost unrelated matters.
What is peculiar is that despite the popularity of the movement here in Nigeria, it has not not been appropriated to deal with the many unspeakable cases of police brutality in Nigeria. Here, it obviously is not a case of racism as much as a case of classicism. While we have been spared the troubles of differences in race here in Nigeria, being humans, we have decided on our brand of oppression against others – brutality against the poor.
As with the rest of the world, the security agents in Nigeria have helped the society perpetrate its chosen form of oppression on the poor by means of unaddressed brutality against the members of the society who lack the means to pay their way out of undeserved brutality.
Last month, Anthony Nwadike, a police officer shot and killed Sunday Joseph in Ondo allegedly over the non-payment of fifty naira bribe. The accused was arraigned but pleaded not guilty to the charges.The matter received far less attention from Nigerians than the arrest of the rapper, Desiigner which happened the same day in New York.
Nigerians’ active participation especially via the internet in several other matters may mean that the many years of authoritarian rule by uniformed men in Nigeria may have informed the culture of siddon look about these kind of issues in Nigeria.
The most common form of brutality in Nigeria is the kind that killed Sunday Joseph. Nigerians daily walk past going about their own businesses as police officers, LASTMA officials and sometimes even members of the Nigerian Army unabashedly unleash violence against okada riders, danfo drivers and taxi drivers. We often feel no reason to bat an eyelid in these circumstances.
The brutal killing of Shiites in the Northern part of Nigeria which started last year in Zaria has, to our collective shame as a nation, been allowed to continue till date. It is even worse now as the matter has degenerated and it is youth, not the security forces that are now perpetrating these killings.
This further proves the fact that we turn our faces away unconcerned when the violence is against the lesser of us in terms of class.
On September 21st, Amnesty International released a report accusing the Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Nigeria Police Force of systematically torturing detainees in its custody as a means of extracting confessions and lucrative bribes. This spotlighted the issue for a few days at most.
It is just extremely sad how we pay lip service to the sufferings of those who live continents away from us – be it France or America – while we deliberately ignore the things that are going horribly wrong right under our noses.
All Nigerian lives matter.
Creative mind. Enthusiast. Learner. Multipotentialite. And here, an assistant editor.
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