I spend an average of one week in Nigeria every year to keep in touch with family, friends and my roots.
Each time I visit, I try to see different people and places as well as create new memories.
For most people visiting home, you bring gifts and take gifts back.
When I need to buy gifts to take back, my preference is usually something uniquely Nigerian, as I see no point returning with goods that litter American malls.
Tejuoso market in Yaba, Lagos, is my favorite, for its abundant variety of Nigerian-made jewelry, clothing and craft.
It was also easy to exchange currency at the popular market.
In a recent year, I shopped in Yaba.
After stocking up on gifts, my itinerary would take me to a newspaper house on the outskirts of the city to see a friend.
Often, public bus is my mode of travel. I rarely took cabs, even before Uber, because I didn’t think they were safe. Besides, mixing with people and experiencing the life of the everyday man is always enriching.
I have not travelled by air within Nigeria for 24 years, and I stopped driving because of continual police harassment.
Since I had schooled in the Yaba area, I knew my way around the neighbourhood. I decided to stroll down to the Ojuelegba Roundabout, from where I could take a bus.
Wearing just jean trousers and a shirt with rolled-up sleeves with a backpack strapped to the back, I could be profiled as a young Nigerian man.
The rich do not walk the streets. Unlike the common man, they are shielded from the problems that hound the man on the street
Just before reaching the roundabout, two men in civilian apparel emerged from nowhere and approached me with military-style rifles.
With guns pointed, they ordered me to move.
I was steered into a waiting van at the Ojuelegba Roundabout where two more men were inside.
My encounter with SARS, the notorious Special Anti-Robbery Task Force of the Nigerian Police, now subject of mass protests, began.
Ojuelegba is one of the busiest spots in Lagos, but no one would know about my illegal arrest in the setting.
If the supposed policemen decided to take me somewhere for execution, no one may ever know.
It instantly struck me I had to think on my feet and muster all my street wisdom to rescue myself.
The van became a court, and my arresters became law enforcement, prosecution, jury and judge.
I was accused by SARS of being a Yahoo Boy, and asked to prove my innocence.
Since I had both my Nigerian and US passports in the backpack, I decided to provide identification.
That was a mistake. My accusers claimed my passports were stolen and counterfeited, without evidence.
I had my work laptop in the bag. According to them, that was my tool to scam people on the Internet.
To prove them wrong, I got the laptop to boot and logged in.
Young people are as afraid of armed robbers as they are of the police
I then began to show them evidence of my employment, using my business card as complementary evidence.
It was as if I was in a camp of the deaf and dumb. First, they did not understand my narration.
Secondly, they showed little interest in getting answers to their own questions.
I realised any attempt at logic to regain my freedom would be a wasted effort.
Time was being lost. If I did not figure out a quick way to get out, my life could be in danger. I switched tactics.
I became talkative, asking the one who seemed most friendly among them where he was from.
“Modakeke,” he replied. The former traditional ruler of the town was my friend’s grandfather. I began to tell him about my growing up and the friend’s family.
He fell for it.
Before that conversation could get stale, I told them I felt like a drink and asked if we could find a bar nearby.
They muttered being at work and not wanting to leave duty post.
I then asked if I could give them some money to get some drinks. That did it.
Careful not to show them how much money I had on me,
I pulled out a few thousand nairas and, like most Nigerians, bribed my way out of trouble.
The bribe unlocked doors.
They began to ask me about life in America.
One of them even inquired how I could help him get a travel visa. I asked for his phone number, promising to call him with details later – just to be free.
As soon as I felt safe enough, I shook their hands and bid them bye.
To my relief, they were happy to let me go.
I immediately disappeared into the Ojuelegba crowd, taking the first bus that was ready to go.
Thoughts ran through my mind. My emotions ranged from anger to frustration to relief.
I reached my friend, a newspaper editor, in his office an hour later.
It was my hope he would take the lead and send a reporter to pursue the story. I was disappointed.
“That’s how Naija is o,” was my friend’s reply. He said I was lucky to be let go that quickly.
The experience gives me a good background into the helplessness and frustration of the ordinary Nigerian in the hands of SARS and its culmination in the #endSARS protests.
I relate intimately to the hundreds of thousands of young people who are demanding the termination of special anti-robbery policing.
The rich do not walk the streets. Unlike the common man, they are shielded from the problems that hound the man on the street.
The streets have been made less safe by the very agents who should have made them secure.
Since the government is no better than its SARS, it failed to develop a mindset and policy that could get the police to serve the people
Young people are as afraid of armed robbers as they are of the police.
While there are scammers, most of those harassed by the police are hard-working youths whose way of survival the police and the elite have yet to fathom.
A particularly bright young Nigerian protester with the Instagram account #farabaleafrica captured beautifully the ignorance of those managing SARS, and the anger of his generation:
“There are young digital artists, animators, developers, coders, programmers, 3D artists, writers, photographers, videographers, filmmakers, bloggers, make-up artists, and so many more in different fields who can literally work from their bedrooms on their laptops, tablets and smartphones and earn enough money in Naira and Dollars to afford cool cars and gadgets. They’re creatives, not criminals. A major mindset change is required.”
The Nigerian police is an antiquated organisation, lacking basic intelligence and tools.
That is why they behave like barbarians and see nothing wrong in their mode of operation.
My people have developed terror, not for criminals and robbers, but for the police who operate as a force that is both crude and out of date.
The government has taken the perseverance of Nigerians for acceptance.
Since the government is no better than its SARS, it failed to develop a mindset and policy that could get the police to serve the people.
EndSARS is no longer a local problem.
Nigerian pop culture has become global, providing the youths a fulcrum from which to speak to an attentive world.
When celebrities like Tyler Perry and Kanye West begin to support EndSARS on Twitter, the world hears.
Nigerian youths have drawn the attention of the whole world to their cause.
This is the moment I have waited for.
I had spent two decades wondering when our youths would get up and stand up. They haven’t appreciated the power in their hands for so long. I thought they would never get it, but they get it now.
I am so proud of the Nigerian youth; such that I feel young again.
The failing schools, bad public infrastructure, massive corruption at the highest levels and election rigging affect them far more than SARS
The dreams of the future always reside in youth.
They are the saviours of the Nigerian Baby Boomers and Generation X, who are too lazy to get off their bums.
Salute the young people for the creativity, the daring, the vision, the organisation, the coordination and the readiness to claim their civil rights.
They lack the lethargy and apathy that has beset my generation.
The achievement and attention notwithstanding, SARS is not a major Nigeria problem and these protests are small beginnings.
Young people need to understand the whole structure of power that is built to suppress the attainment of their happiness.
One hopes they understand their peers in many other countries do not have to suffer so much for opportunities. The headwind built by the forces of corruption grounds the children of the common man before they could even launch.
What am I getting at? The youths have to use this as a springboard to tackle a myriad of other problems stacked against them from birth.
The failing schools, bad public infrastructure, massive corruption at the highest levels and election rigging affect them far more than SARS.
They must begin to tackle the bigger issues and not let the platform sink. It is their opportunity to dig into the root of why Nigeria, a nation blessed with so much in resources, is a beggar country.
The older are too afraid. The young should grow quickly and deliver.
