It continues a scourge of victim profiling and wanton neglect of fundamental human rights at the hands of gaudily selected members of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad [SARS].  

A 2017 article titled, ‘SARS: The police unit that harasses young Nigerians,’ by former Senior Editor of Pulse Nigeria, Ayomide Tayo documents the sad reality after he spoke with a certain Patrick [not his real name]

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But when you think about it, EndSARS is just a microcosm of the uniformed Nigerian tendency to get drunk on the arms wielded and constantly abuse the office and power. 

In November 2008, Uzoma Okere was beaten and reportedly stripped naked by the security aides of a naval officer on Victoria Island, Lagos. After Nigerian women protested, a Federal High Court awarded her punitive, general and special damages of N100 million.

On a random cruise through Lagos, you would see a member of the Nigerian Army casually bullying a citizen for simply scratching his car or even blaring his horns too loudly. In fact, the horsewhip popularly known as ‘koboko’ is a permanent feature of the Nigerian military man’s dashboard, just like the black belt is to a member of the Nigerian police. 

Whenever there is a traffic jam in Lagos, members of the Nigerian armed forces would try to bully citizens with sirens and aggressive movements. Even members of the Civil Defence Corps have gotten increasingly violent since they started owning guns. 

What we are dealing with is a culture of abuse of office, propelled by terrible management from administrators who were also benefactors of that abuse of office. Thereby, they see no wrongdoing being done. SARS is also a terrible symptom of the Nigerian tendency for profiling regular people. 

On Saturday, October 13, 2020, Onyeka [not real name], a member of the Nigerian Police Force who doubles as an Uber driver told this writer that, “The problem is that most of the people in the Nigerian police force represent the average Nigerian. Their enlightenment is low and their intelligence is equally short. 

“The only thing they know is the power the uniform and the arms give them. They feel like they are bigger, better and higher than everybody else whenever they wield that gun and they don’t want to be questioned by a civilian who doesn’t even have a whip on him [scoffs].”

He laments the problems confronting Nigeria as he also alludes to how the average Nigerian with an education doesn’t aspire to the Nigerian police. He calls it, “Both an advantage and a disadvantage. It means that the police have terrible PR and nobody wants to be associated with them. 

“It also means that the police force isn’t for everybody.”

In 1992, former police commissioner Simeon Danladi Midenda founded SARS after Col. Rindam of the Nigerian Army was killed by police officers at a checkpoint in Lagos. 

After information of a totem’s death reached the Nigerian army, soldiers were dispatched into the streets of Lagos in search of any police officer. Members of the Nigerian police withdrew from checkpoints, security areas and other points of interest for criminals for two weeks while others fled. 

Within those two weeks, SARS was formed with only 15 officers operating in the shadows without knowledge of the army while monitoring police radio chatter. 

SARS is one of the 14 units in the Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department which was established to detain, investigate and prosecute people involved in crimes like armed robbery, kidnapping and other forms of crimes.

Onyeka tells this writer that, “These days [in 2020] members of SARS are selected during regular police training and through extreme events. The idea is to pick on bravery, tendency for controlled aggression and instincts at key moments. They then have to undergo a different training regimen.”

By the mid-2000s, SARS grew in notoriety and numbers due to a need for the arm and its approach to solving crime. Cultism, internet fraud and even rituals had also risen amongst Nigerian youth. Equally, bank robberies casually took lives. 

As a result, SARS became a police unit with a license to kill. While SARS really did solve problems, it also became a problem of its own. 

In an article, Pulse Nigeria wrote, “What SARS became was a national scourge and a witch-hunt machinery against Nigerian youth with dreadlocks, piercings, cars, expensive phones and risque means of expression.” 

This happens because they don’t wear police uniforms. 

On 27 July 2010, an extensive editorial report was published by Sahara Reporters on how SARS among other police units profit 9.35Billion Naira ($60million) from roadblocks and extortion within 18 months.

On 3 June 2011, the Nigeria Police Force discovered an attempt by a SARS operative Musa Agbu to bomb the force headquarters because the IGP Hafiz Ringim scuttled his ambition. 

On 7 August 2015, SARS was split into two - operational and investigation - units by then IGP, Solomon Arase after numerous instances of human rights violation.  

But still, the problems persisted. The question though is; was SARS really the problem? The answer is no. 

SARS was created and is being perpetuated by an irresponsible Nigerian government and administration devoid of vision and with terrible execution. It only decides to look at the good SARS can do while it intentionally turns a blind eye to the bad it does.

The problem SARS faces is administrative and that problem ensures that SARS has little checks and balances by the adequate channels because powers that control SARS are not adequately separated. 

While IGP Mohammed Adamu ordered the immediate decentralization for the first time since its inception in January 2019, it never happened. The centralization of the control of SARS robs local police departments of the power to control them. 

Onyeka says, “Until Commissioners of Police are given adequate powers to be able to control SARS, we will keep having this problem. There is a reason why OPMESA doesn’t misbehave in Lagos. Members of that arm know that their Major will deal with them. 

“There’s a reason why members of the police are not as ruthless as SARS. They know that the CP will deal with them. I know that this statement is problematic because we still have cases of soldier and police brutality, however, those things are mostly prevalent because Nigeria has a terrible system and history of administering armed forces.” 

While SARS has a terrible record, they are still the ones people and banks call when they are bombarded. Either we want to admit it or not, criminals fear SARS because of their unfettered brutality. If SARS also goes away, what will the fate of its thousands of members be? 

Already, Onyeka told this writer that a lot of the crimes supposedly perpetuated by members of SARS are perpetuated by dismissed members. 

He says, “The government hates revealing this because it will be a case of double wahala. It is better for them to admit that the actual SARS has a ruthless streak than to admit dismissed members of SARS who have improper records have suddenly gone rogue. 

“These people also have arms because they confiscate guns every other day. If you ban SARS, there is a sharp possibility that members of SARS will become full-blown robbers and kidnappers. That’s besides considering the fact that non-SARS related crime will rise to breakneck levels, bro.

“Aside from SARS, we still have other tactical units within many levels of the Nigerian police force that handle cultism and other issues. We need real solutions when the average policeman is ridiculously underpaid. When a jackboot aficionado is stuck in a desert with an empty belly, everything else looks like an ant.

“Members of SARS commit greatest crimes of extortion than murder. I’m not saying salary increments will solve everything because people are greedy and SARS members already make an incredible amount of money from extortion than the government can pay. I’m just saying that solution could solve a large part of the problem.”

As hard as it is for anybody to admit, Onyeka does have a point. This conundrum and the inability to tackle the problem at its root is why the August 2018 “overhaul” order by Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo didn’t hold water. 

Offshoots of the Nigerian Police Force serve their unique purposes. The solution then becomes very simple;

EndSARS is only one part of a larger problem and a larger conversation for which a larger, more pragmatic solution is required.