By Femi Akintunde-Johnson
While I was writing this article, the tenor of my sentiment and the chord that propelled me was rooted in the 1977 monster hit song of same title as my headline… “Dem leave Sorrow, Tears and Blood… Dem regular trademark…”. The lanky priest of our national existential struggles, who should have been 82 years old few days ago, immortalised these hauntingly true words. And 43 years after, they are echoing on the major streets of Nigeria.
We have witnessed in the past one week and some days, the truly heroic expressions of our young folks, casting aside the presidential slur on laziness, and stomping the grounds with trenchant declarations of their readiness and urgency to change the minds of government – when it became obvious that appeals and grumblings were inadequate.
For many years, the members of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, and their different transformations and futile attempts at redemption, had soiled the land with stories that those who have never encountered them would be quick to assume as exaggerations and embellishments. How can any human being, paid by the sweat and toil of the same people, inflict so much wickedness and brutality on both the young and old, on men as well as women, on suspected criminals and ill-fated innocents?
The stories are legion…the narratives are morbid and spectacularly heartless… tethering on the impossible. How can a group of compatriots, not evil aliens, spread so much Sorrow, Tears and Blood…and for so long, without the hierarchy of the Nigerian Police being alarmed to such an extent that their atrocities could not be exterminated by hauling, before panels of Public Enquiry, these entitled armed terrorists, garbed maniacally in dreadful and dreary paraphernalia of callous intimidation.
From its inception in the early eighties, as far as I can recollect, it had not been so. Wickedness was not moving arm akimbo around our neighbourhood looking for young men and women who seemed to have acquired materials that the agents of death felt were above their station. My friend, Taiwo Lakanu, who retired recently as a deputy inspector general of police, was once a leader of a squad around Surulere/Ebute Metta axis… he was a halo of pride and dignity amongst law-abiding citizens – and a handsome and courageous terror within the ranks of the stubborn denizens of Ebute Metta crime world. Decked in fighting gears, not the ridiculous assemblage of “colour-riot” miasma copied from over-sexed lunatics of my Lagos hoods… the movements and appearances of Lakanu and his valiant band of SARS were a cusp of serendipity and disguised awe, in the volatile environment of Ebute Metta – as they conducted their duties with bravery, commonsense and a touch of class. Not once did I hear he was used to destroy one party for the benefit of another…or was involved in revenge killings or reprisals against attacks by wicked folks… Even many of us were worried for his twin bother who could have been mistakenly attacked by miscreants, in spite of the fact that he lived so long abroad, and was hardly back in Nigeria… but the resemblance was so keen that revenge-seeking could have easily taken the gentle civilian out, in place of the gentle super cop. Kehinde died years ago, in situation that would not concern the focus of this article.
The point is, SARS was once great – dealing with the scourge of our time… armed robbery, vicious armed gangs and terrible weaponised cultists. In the last five years, the stories emanating from the dark holes supervised by corps of the ‘defunct’ SARS/FSARS or whatever tactical name they have been called, the men – I haven’t seen a female member – who took over from the Lakanus of this world, appear to have sworn to some evil vows: to kill, maim, extort, destroy and dehumanize as many Nigerians as are unfortunate to come across their bloody paths – their untactical cruelty knew no boundaries. It is staggeringly improbable that the Inspector Generals of Police – not just Mr. Mohammed Adamu, the current one – would imply that they were never privy to some, if not most, of the heinous techniques and operational recklessness of their men.
That doubt is underscored when you consider their futile attempts to sweep a mountain of fecal deposit enveloping the police force by looking for bigger shovels and buckets. The last so-called disbandment of FSARS was reported as the fourth attempt at restoring that arm of the Police Force to a level of normalcy that would assuage the bruised and brutalised fabrics of the Nigerian populace. Signs from the operational and communication challenges of the Police in the instantaneous swapping of FSARS for the fancy SWAT clearly show that the police leadership, and their employees, have no clue how deep-seated the Nigerian anomie against that dreadful squad, and that our metaphoric fecal mountain needs more than shovels and buckets…. So, lift up your heads, IGP and his management team, and start looking for bulldozers and massive cranes…this mountain stinks to high heavens, and kid-gloves treatment of it will lead to more Sorrow, Tears and Blood.
Demands are pouring from all angles, genuine stakeholders, and opportunists, hangers-on who profit from misery and chaos have flooded the arena… It is time for government and those who have the welfare and peaceful existence of this country at heart…not on their palms, not in their suitcases… nor their dainty handbags… to seek policy direction and communication mindsets that will remove offensive structures, without disrupting operational imperatives to intervene in areas that may be exposed to lawlessness and chaos, in the negative celebration of the demise of FSARS.
Let the nation heal and celebrate that token of success as we jointly build, not only a tactical squad, but a new Police Force that Nigerians and the entire world would not hesitate to point to with pride and respect.
While at it, let us recognize that part of what turned the FSARS to animals in torn uniforms is perhaps traceable to systemic corruption, criminal neglect of police welfare, health and life insurance, complete absence of liveable remuneration, comprehensive housing scheme that makes well-kept and managed barracks the starting point, and the “that’s all”.
There are litany of issues, big and small, that need the attention of governments, corporate entities and the populace which will go into building a “new” police force – in training, development, funding, medicare, vision, capacity-building, and so many other details that combine to provide us an opportunity to not waste this current general unrest.
Here is an example of what we should discourage…I mean the trainers of police trainees also need extensive training and de-toxification in their management of human resources. How do you train potential police officers like animals, using vicious and inhumane tactics – physical and mental torture, severe beatings, smacking heads with “kondos”, and traumatising their psyche…. To instil what? Courage or wickedness? Bravery or brutality? Passion or poison. There are so many issues and levels that need to be unbundled, re-programmed and remodelled…before we move to material and operational matters.
Yet, the simple request to #EndSARS, or #EndSWAT…may appear knee-jerk, and speaks only to assuaging a momentary pain… doubtless, it’s a critical first step forward…assuring people that their pains are real, and their voices do matter. How we go from here may take us beyond the streets…but the journey to put a stop to the orgy of Sorrow, Tears and Blood has begun…we all must see to it that we get to a lasting destination. There have been too much pain and sundry losses, on both sides, to peter out into a fleeting nostalgia. End SARS…but start the reforms.