About 20 years after graduating from the same engineering class in Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, one of my close friends then has gone on to establish himself as one of the most sought after names in the field of Telecoms and Artificial Intelligence in the UK.
This friend of mine has certifications and courses under his belt that would probably fill a room.
Beside this, he has worked for top names in the telecoms industry and participated in some epoch making projects around the world. The problem though is; my friend cannot easily come home.
He can’t just saunter into Nigeria the way I imagine he shuttles the globe from one project to another or from one vacation spot to another, without changing the way he looks and the way he has chosen to dress most times.
You see, Joey my friend has gone on to adorn his body in various forms of embellishments; from his cute daughters name down to many art and symbols that tickle his fancy.
The fear when he visits is not robbery or the various forms of suffering that has become our reality in Nigeria to the extent that in some masochistic way, we have come to enjoy them. No, the fear is actually of a weird form of law enforcement that would drag out a tattooed person and possibly shoot him on the crazy assumption that those who wear tattoos are criminals.
Matters would even be made worse if he has a computer, a tool of his chosen trade, with him when such a confrontation happens. So you see, when people protest against what Nigeria’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) became, the world has to know where the youth are coming from. If you’re dreadlocked, tattooed, wear an earring, carry a laptop… you’re not just a suspect in the eyes of this killer squad that are oftentimes high on cheap drugs, you have been tried and will face the executioner among them unless you’re ready to part with a huge chunk of money. This is why the protest happens.
Let’s be truthful; have we not even had more men speak the truth in the mold of Fela Anikulapo Kuti than those who have prefixed their names with pastor, reverend or Al-Haj? Is this ignorance, envy or sheer wickedness? But then let’s not be too hasty to blame it all on SARS.
The SARS menace is actually a product of how we have become so self-righteous and judgmental that anything or lifestyle that we don’t practice is automatically evil and/or criminal. Just the other day in a whatsapp forum, someone posted a video of a guy harassing a lady, somewhere in Europe, just because she had miniskirts on. Both parties were Nigerians from their language exchange. The guy who posted this in the whatsapp forum, and quite a few other “educated’ former colleagues of mine, just saw the lady as a prostitute and that she deserved the harassment she was getting from the guy!! Just because a lady had a dress on that was shorter than their self-righteous minds could agree with, she was a prostitute…simple to them like ABC.
I made the point to them that the young man in that video was obviously jobless otherwise he would have been busy pursuing a livelihood rather than heckling people on the streets on account of their dressing.
Now please imagine that that young man and a few of his supporters were in any form of law enforcement and that they bear arms. Imagine that the young man in that video had a gun and ‘rights’ to harass that lady as he wishes, as law enforcement officers have in Nigeria.
So while we protest the highhandedness of SARS and call on government to bring the murderers in their ranks to book, we must start to change how we think and how we judge people, after all, it is from among us that the next crop of SARS would be chosen.
A person is not a criminal because of the way he dresses.
A person is not a criminal because of his hairstyle.
A person is not a thief simply because he likes and can afford the finer things of life.
The decision of who should be labeled a criminal should be left for the courts, after investigation and for good reasons.
Further to this, we must learn to condemn wrong and not shame a victim. I really hate to hear “why she dress like that?” when a woman has been harassed or even raped. I hate it when I hear “oh, he shouldn’t have been there” or “shouldn’t have done that” when the individual did all that were within his constitutional rights.
Live and let live.
#StopStereotypes
#StopVictimShaming/blaming
#AllLivesMatter
#ENDSARS
END police brutality.
Tony Alika
