#ENDSARS: If Only They’d Listened to Ebenezer Obey!
Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey have justified in one of his albums that appearance is not reality. Sadly, and sorrowfully, Nigeria’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) have killed, detained, assaulted and harassed several Nigerian youths on the premise of appearance, or better still, on the premise of how dressed they are.
Maybe if SARS had listened to the lyrics of Ebenezer Obey in his 1970 Oro Nipa Lace, they supposedly may have been doing better.
E ma f’oju buruku wo eni to wo Lace
Eni t’o jale iyen lo ye ka ba wi
K’elegbe m’gbe (2ce)
A jumo mi wo lace
K’elegbe m’gbe.
Translation: Do not look wickedly/disdainfully at a person wearing Lace
A person who steals is the one to be rebuked
Let’s know our status (2ce)
My fans wear lace
Let’s know our status.
What have you deduced from this song? Notorious armed robber doctor Ishola Oyenusi arrayed himself in lace clothing. Obey responds that people should not be disdained because they are wearing lace. Or are they Oyenusi? Similarly, SARS ought to have known that the youths that they see on the streets and roads of Nigeria are not the robbers that they are looking for. Nigerian youths refuse to be their potential suspects!
Conversing with a friend a friend of mine, he narrated his experience with SARS. He was stopped because he wasn’t suit up and his hair was a bit dreaded. It is amusing to me because this friend of mine happens to be a student-pastor. SARS accusing someone of “theft” because of how he/she looked is really uncalled for and unprofessional in a civil society. After my friend has been stopped, his phones were collected and searched. Found innocent, they asked for his means of identification because he told them that he is a student. How, on earth, do you expect someone to walk the streets of Lagos with his student ID card! My friend too asked these SARS officers for their ID cards o — they couldn’t tender one but kept shouting that he should enter their vehicle. Who is to believe who now? Thanks to Lagosians who came to my friend’s aid at that awful and harassing spot.
Let me soro soke! Do you know that if the last son of President Buhari walk the street of Abuja without escorts, I lie not, he too will be mercilessly harassed, assaulted, or even killed by these SARS officials? You do not agree with me, abi? Maybe you should go and read Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah, and you will know what I am talking about. The Commissioner of Information, Chris, was intentionally killed by a soldier because of appearance.
Putting an end to the brutality of Police is now a necessity! It should not be procrastinated any longer. We, the citizens of Nigeria, want to live in this nation without fearing how I appear in public places. The Covid pandemic has taught us how to better stay safe — but SARS is another agent who will make us unsafe in Nigeria.
#endsarsbrutality #endsarsnow #endsars #endpolicebrutality #endpoliceviolence.
