by Joachim MacEbong

Thanks once again to social media, the world has had yet another opportunity to see the brutality of America’s police force against black males. This morning, it was Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. Yesterday, it was Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. They are just the latest of hundreds killed this year alone by a police force that is increasingly out of control.

It’s impossible for a Nigerian to watch those videos and not immediately think about how the Nigerian police and army – uniformed people in general – relate to citizens back home. As a result of years of military rule, Nigeria’s uniformed men are largely above the law. Nearly everyone has at least one horror story to share about the police or military, from extortion to illegal detention, to extrajudicial killing, all without any accountability.

From danfo drivers and okada riders killed for not paying bribes, to entire villages destroyed in ‘retaliation’, few people are safe from Nigeria’s men in uniform. The impunity of the military era, and those trained in that era, have passed the virus down to the rank and file, with grave consequences. You can draw a line from the killing of Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995 and 1999’s massacre in Odi, Bayelsa state, to the militancy which erupted in the Niger Delta.

The Boko Haram insurgency truly kicked off after the extrajudicial killing of Mohammed Yusuf in 2009, along with hundreds of his followers. Even in trying to end the insurgency, more human rights violations were committed making the task of winning hearts and minds, which is so crucial, that much harder.

Little or nothing has changed since then. No lessons have been learned. When incidents of brutality are reported, it is important for justice to be seen to be done, not swept under the carpet. We are still waiting for the outcome of an investigation regarding the killing of several hundred Shiite Muslims in Zaria in December last year. Their leader, Sheik Ibrahim Zakzaky is still being held with no charges brought.

Amnesty International, for so long the nemesis of Nigeria’s security forces, accused them of killing 17 Pro-Biafra protesters between May 29 and 30 this year, during the anniversary of the declaration of Biafra. They were unarmed, yet no investigation has been launched, and those families will not get justice.

When people feel that they cannot get justice from the state, they tend to create avenues to get that justice for themselves in ways that undermine the state, leading to ‘a war of all, against all’. A state has legitimacy only to the extent it can guarantee that people everywhere within its borders are equal before the law. When this does not happen, all bets are off.

While we are rightly horrified by the actions of police in America, turning a blind eye to what goes on all around us is a mistake. We must speak up at every opportunity, and demand that any incident that leads to a loss of life is properly investigated and anyone guilty of wrongdoing goes to jail. Merely shrugging the shoulders – or worse, justifying brutality – is not good enough.

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