Digital marketer and life coach, Babatunde Olusola Thomas, popularly known as Shola Jayy The Dope has spoken about police brutality in the country and how it has become a menace in society.
The Chemical Engineering graduate of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, (LAUTECH) shared his views amid protest against police brutality in Nigeria.
Recalled that in 2020, Babatunde Olusola was unlawfully detained by the police for allegedly setting up a Twitter parody account of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
The digital marketer spent 81 days at the Force Criminal Investigation Department, Abuja, even as he made the express clarification in the biography of the parody Twitter account that the account does not belong to the former President, an event that left him traumatized.
The popular influencer who was also a victim of police brutality said the menace is very embarrassing, and “it has inflicted fear in most youths when they come in contact with officers who brutalize civilians to extort them of their money.”
“I’ve been a victim severally, and it’s not a good experience. It is sad the government is yet to find any lasting solution to that,” he added.
Speaking about his 2020 illegal detention, Shola said, “It has made me realize police aren’t your friend. Also, the experience was traumatic, but it made me more courageous. It made me realize my right as a citizen of Nigeria too.”
The life coach and social media expert further the success of #EndSARS was due to the use of social media, while its failure was caused by government interference.
“Truth is, change starts with us, I would say the success of #EndSARS was due to social media, but the failure was due to having a bad government. Social media took our voices out of the country, and we were heard, thanks to Twitter, but we got a bad government that will rather silence its people than correct what they are demanding changes for.
“Also, I believe change starts with me, with you, with every individual. We youths were asking the government to #EndSARS, some hungry youths were sponsored by the same government to sabotage our efforts, you’d think they weren’t affected too, so change begins with every individual because we all need to be on the same page to win these corrupt governments, knowing that the social media has a role to play where we all need to come together as one, raise our voices to say enough is enough to bad governance, we deserve better,” he concluded.
The protests that happened in October 2020 across Nigeria are in response to the outcry from young people in the country who say the police unit known as the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) is responsible for kidnapping, harassment, and extortion, as Travel Noire previously reported.
Around the world, celebrities spoke out against Lagos’s violence through the #EndSARS movement on social media, and many megastars, including Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Burna Boy, and WizKid, supported the movement too.