SARS: An Emblem of Government Half-assery

     Nigeria has an efficiency problem. It's why we have roads, but not good roads. We have electricity, but it is not constant. We have public schools, but they are not properly funded so everyone who wants a good education is forced to scrape money together for private school.
We have cell service, but it's unreliable.
     Oh, we have wireless Internet service, but it doesn't work. I could go on and on but I think we all know what I'm talking about. The whole system, the whole Nigerian government is just half-assed. I wish there is a more technical term, but there isn't. 
     SARS is merely an emblem of that half-assery.
       The police unit, SARS, was formed in 1992 "to combat armed robbery with 'the element of surprise'" (Paquette, 2020). You know what this sounds like to me? Some Minority Report B.S. when Nigerian police, at this time, could not even handle actual robberies. I remember when our house in Ibadan got robbed as a kid. I know we went to the police station, but nothing came of it. We had to be our own FBI: gathering a list of potential suspects and making sure to stay clear of them as if we were the ones who committed the crime!
     Somehow, in the past few years, SARS has morphed into the most half-assed police unit to ever exist: a Yahoo boy- profiling unit that gathers suspects, not based on reasonable cause, but based on the color of their hair.  
     Instead of creating an intelligence-gathering agency to sniff out fraudsters on the platforms they actually use, SARS officials corner timid boys and girls for buying rice and pepper from their local market (this is an actual story on endsars.com).
     It's the equivalent of going blindfolded to the grocery store to buy brown eggs. Literally, the only way you can tell the difference between a brown egg and a white egg is with your eyes, but instead of using your vision to find the brown eggs, you pick up every roundish grocery item your hands can touch, throw it to the ground and step on it because you decide that it is brown.  Of course, the real brown eggs are ensconced in crates where you cannot reach them  because you cannot even see them. 

What the people in power do care about though, why they refuse to turn their words into action is because they know that if they implement the changes demanded by the protesters, they concede their power. 

     Women are raped. Men are pummeled and bludgeoned to death. Even if a person was a burglar, a criminal or a scammer, they still don't deserve to be treated the way SARS treats innocent people. 
     The Former Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Kpotun Idris, had the effrontery to say that social media is for criminally minded Nigerians. This is the man that was in charge of all police in Nigeria. Well, if that's the case, doofus, why didn't you focus on gathering evidence on actual criminals on social media since that's where they are?
    Here's the stone-cold truth: The government does not particularly care if SARS is disbanded or dissolved or ended. That's why they are quick to (and have been quick to since 2017) verbally dissolve them on national and international television. What the people in power do care about though, why they refuse to turn their words into action is because they know that if they implement the changes demanded by the protesters, they concede their power. The same power that reinforces the half-assery of Nigeria's system, and they can't have that. Because then they can't embezzle money anymore. 
     Well, we are coming for you, pathetic excuses for leaders. We are coming for you.
    Sars is not just a youth problem, it's an everyone issue. This is where we say enough is enough. 
     If you're wondering how to help, please visit endsars.carrd.co
     You can also join @limoblaze_'s prayer walks/protests. Tweet #EndSars and #SarsMustEnd. Pray like crazy. Join protests. Move heaven and earth because as children of God, we can do it.

Reference:
Paquette, R. (2020, October 11). Nigeria abolishes special police squad after nationwide protests. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/nigeria-sars-police-robbery-end-sars/2020/10/10/999e2400-0a48-11eb-991c-be6ead8c4018_story.html 

Image credit: Wale Adetona (@iSlimfit on Twitter)