By Nigerian author Amara Chidinma Ezediniru

If you lived in Nigeria, you will certainly be familiar with the terror called SARS – Special Anti-Robbery Squad. They were formed as a special unit of the Nigerian Police Force with a sole target of combating crime. It was part of the Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (FCIID) during former President brahim Babangida’s regime. They did not become popular until many years after their inception, as their thirst for blood and money continued to be insatiable.

As with anything set in Nigeria, SARS became unchecked and derailed heavily. Instead of being a corrective tool, it became a harbinger of crime. As their notoriety expanded in the country so did the monetary returns they made to their headquarters. It is difficult to wrap my head around the fact that these group of policemen operated without caution from the centre.

In Nigeria, the police force is centrally controlled. Even though there are thirty-six states, all the police offices deployed to the states are not local, they all report to the Inspector General of Police. I find this extremely laughable. I’m not sure this will ever be an effective way of policing a country with almost two hundred million humans. How is it possible that one man is at the helm of decision-making for all?

It was a pleasant music to my ears when the youths took to the streets demanding an end to police brutality, a behaviour most of us had learned to live with. The fear of SARS was certainly the beginning of their definition of wisdom. SARS meant death, jungle justice kind of death. It meant death without trial and rough handling without consequences. Many young folks got lost in their custody and as the manner is in Nigeria, there was nothing anyone did about it. When an innocent young person is apprehended and taken to SARs, their families will need to part with a fat ‘brown envelop’ or risk parting with their family member for life. Females were raped and tortured to accept what they never did.

SARS was evil!

Unfortunately, I think the protest was a bitter pill for the SARS members and their masters. Disbanding SARS was synchronous with taking food off their wicked tables. The government was swift to announce the disbandment but the youths knowing their untrusworthy rulers refused to back down. They made more demands all pointing to having accountable governance and ending police brutality in all forms.

They continued their protest against warnings and a curfew posed in one of the states, the commercial state of the nation.

In my wildest dream, I never thought the army of our dear country will ever let off their triggers on the citizens, unarmed citizens who were not only harmless but seated at one spot singing the national anthem with the national flag in their hands. What a paradox!

I died.

Who will protect us if our own kills us?

Where else would I be safe if in my country practices firing with me?

Young men cried. Women too. Our hearts were ripped and raped by the nation we call our own. Worse still, the governor denied, the army denied. They made us look insane.

Who will clothe us, who will wipe our tears?

The Nigeria I saw last night is a Nigeria I hope will be lost forever.

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Amara Chidinma Ezediniru is a business administrator, human resource manager and a certified teacher. She is widely traveled, a compassionate Rotarian, an author of three books, and a mother. She is the managing consultant of Rald and Vid Consulting Ltd.