Live and Let Live - Nigerian Youths Cry Out Against Police Brutality
I should have made this post way earlier but I've been out on the street joining the Nigerian youth in a peaceful protest to exercise our rights and voice out against the truancy and brutality of the rogue arm of the Nigerian Police force called SARS against young Nigerians that has been going on for years with the lackadaisical intervention of the Nigerian government which only lasts for a couple of weeks before the "gun-men" take back to the streets.
"Nigerians are resilient", is the term they throw at us for taking every shit the Nigerian government feeds its people. Drenched in lies and corruption, reeking of injustice and truancy, the Nigerian government is the worst!
Imagine not protesting for good governance, not protesting for healthcare nor lack of jobs, not protesting for security or light, which are the barest minimum amenities, but here we are, protesting for a right to live, to go out and not be kidnapped, brutalized or killed for simply being young, by the arm of police force meant to protect the citizens of the country, SARS.
For those who don't know, SARS is an acronym for Special Anti Robbery Squad, in a sane environment, seeing a member of the SARS around you should give some assurance of security, safety, but here, reverse is the case, as a young Nigerian, you leave your home with hopes that you don't encounter members of the SARS on the road, because for some it's been their last day, while many others have through such encounter found themselves in cells, unlawfully locked up with bail worth hefty fees.
Instead of unravelling robbery and locking up criminals these rogue policemen extort young Nigerians at random, brutalize the ones who don't dance to their music and do away with the ones they feel trigger happy with. Imagine leaving your home and not even being afraid of being robbed by robbers but rather with fear of encountering an arm of the police force.
Well, this has been the reality of the Nigerian youth for a couple of years without any permanent solution from the government to curb the menace!
They(SARS) claim to be fighting cyber crime by stopping and unlawfully searching youths at random, search their phones and laptops for conversations with foreigners, transactions, even pictures of a favorite footballer and criminalize them for it. Its unbelievable, in this age of technology where most youth work remotely,with foreigners and foreign organizations.
Just the other day, I was about to step out of my house and I had to delete my bitcoin wallet app, binance app, luno, and every sign of crypto from my phone because a friend was recently arrested for having a bitcoin wallet with bitcoins in it, he was tagged an internet fraudster, and had to pay hefty fees to be released for being a legitimate bitcoin holder, he luckily had the amount they thought was reasonable, an amount I couldn't dare provide were I in his case.
If you check the hashtag #endsars on twitter, there are countless videos of live experiences of the extortion, brutality and killings of the youth by SARS, and whenever we call on the government, they issue some vague warnings that does nothing to change the situation.
Today, #endsars was the number 1 trending topic in the world on twitter, if the Nigerian government wont listen to the people then we will show the world what we are suffering, the protest today showed that the people are tired of being oppressed, being killed and of the silence of the government!
Enough is enough!!!
We are not asking for stable electricity, not asking for jobs promised, not for healthcare or education, not for good roads, not even for justice. We are asking the Nigerian govt to let the youths live, to #endsarsimmediately, yet we are being taken for idiots!
This is just the beginning, we will ask for every other thing the older gen are too cool to fight for!We will use our strength, technology and everything at our disposal, we will take our lives back.
You can even follow this link to read a more detailed story of the History of SARS
Thanks for reading
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