It was a rude shock after turning to CNN recently to see that Nigerians are on the street protesting thus shutting down once again the nation’s economy.
All the airports, seaports, road transports, banks, schools, markets, shops, offices have all been closed down in protest of the rise in killing of Nigerians by people that are supposed to be protecting them. The demand of the protesters is just one thing, reforms in Police sector.
In response to Christiana Amanpour reporting live from Lagos, Nigeria, “The NLC chairman has declared that they are not going back to work until all the police officers that perpetrated this criminal act are brought to justice.”
“Festus Keyamo, Pastor Tunde Bakare of Save Nigerian Group (SNG), leaders of all civil society groups and members of opposition in Nigeria, had vowed that occupy Nigeria will not stop until the police men face trial and significant reforms are carried out in the Nigeria Police….”
Despite the fact that more than 15 Nigerian students have lost their lives to Nigeria police bullets this year alone, the so called activists, opposition groups and trade unionists are only interested in issues that deal with politics, corruption of a lawmaker, useless Governors Forum Elections among others that can only serve their interest.
After the death of four Nassarawa state University students during a protest 3 months ago against lack of water in their hostels, no reasonable action was taken to put a stop to this madness, even no comments from the fire brand activists and oppositions warming up for Aso Rock in 2015.
Just last week, four University of UYO, students were killed by police officers in another protest against a hike in transportation fees by the school authorities. Yet the so called hope of Nigeria sees this event as non-relevant, they preferred to be paper tigers.
Same story goes for Olabisi Onabanjo University, OOU, student victims of police arbitrary and illegal act of impunity in Ogun State and the recent University of Benin final year student that was killed.
The only reaction to this madness came from the Education Right Campaign (ERC), issuing statements to condemn the killing and National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) who actually protested the killing of Nigerians with little or no support, even though NANS as an organization is battling with credibility problem
Imagine that ASUU, NASU, NLC, NBA, NMA, TUC, SNG, NURTW, PENGANSAN, CIVIL SOCIETIES, Opposition Parties, Nollywood stars and a host of others joined hands with NANS in the campaign against police brutality and extra-judicial killings, my dream news on CNN might come true.
Also, the dead five students’ leaders which include the Senate President of NANS might be alive today. There would have been no reason for them to respond to the urgent call from UYO after the killing of 4 students by Nigerian police force; they would not have died in that accident on their way to UYO.
Police brutality is not only against student, it also affect the whole populace as No section of the society can claimed that they have not lost members to the brutal killings of the Nigeria Police Force(NPF) and yet, it was greeted with silence and energy was directed toward frivolous issues
I think it is high time NANS realized that, they have no allies in the struggle with all these so called mushroom civil societies and opposition groups. How many times have students joined ASUU, NLC, Anti-corruption crusaders, to stage protest marches? It is uncountable and students have even lost comrades in the process or spent times in prisons. But when it came to issues that pertain to students, all these fire brand activists and groups that mobilized students for their own cause always abandon them and left them to dance to the music of sorrow alone.
Talking to many of these people both in Nigeria and in Diaspora always makes me sick. They address you with little respect because you carry the tag of student as if students are different from human beings; the students killing cannot be treated in isolation and the NLC, TUC and others should stop acting as if being a student is a crime. I know some people will argue that, the culture of killing innocent students is not just something that started today, but my concern is why Nigerians don’t make use of this type of event to demand for reforms in relevant public institutions so that people that died will not die for nothing.
Turkey has been witnessing a massive uprising that started from a peaceful protest on relocation of a garden. But they quickly make use of the event to demand for reforms in many sectors when the police responded with force which in turn has threatened the Prime Minister’s job. We don’t need to wait for fuel subsidy to be removed or till free and fair elections are nullified before we realize that killing of students that are the hope of the country is the beginning of the end of Nigeria.
The increasing rise of the spate of police brutality in Nigeria, not only poses dire consequences for the stability of the Nigerian polity, but also undermines the policing and judicial processes. The situation appears to have significantly deteriorated today.
A detailed new report catalogued by many international organizations, demonstrates that the assault, brutality and extra-judicial killings are still going on under the watch of the Nigerian police. Widespread corruption in the Nigeria Police is fuelling abuses against ordinary citizens and severely undermining the rule of law in Nigeria.
On a daily basis, countless ordinary Nigerians are accosted by armed police officers who demand bribes and commit human rights abuses against them as a means of extorting money. These abuses range from arbitrary arrest and unlawful detention to threats and acts of violence, including sexual assault, torture, and extrajudicial killings. Police also routinely extort money from victims of crimes to initiate investigations and demand bribes from suspects to drop investigations.
I am so sad to even go to the in-depth analysis of the decadence in the Nigerian Police Force because it will become boring, a street vendor can give adequate summary on the characteristics of Nigerian police and the danger it poses.
According to Robert F Kenndy “Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centres of energy and daring whose ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance”.
I hope the Nigerian opposition groups; human right activists, labour unions and civil societies will come back to their senses of reasoning and understand that in any society, the hope of the people hinges on their ability to act according to the interest of the masses and not their own selfish interest.
Rest in peace the NAN’s five. I just hope you don’t die for nothing.
Egbeleke, is a masters student in development studies at the Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University the Hague, Netherlands
