SARS and the Architecture of Oppression: Why It is Not Over with SARS Disbandment.
A friend of mine called me from Nigeria 3 months ago, sounding very disturbed and asking how he could get out of Nigeria with his family. As if I wasn’t aware of the hydra-headed problems facing many Nigerian youths, I asked, “Emmanuel what’s the problem, tell me.” He responded after an unusual silence, “it’s SARS my brother.” SARS, in Nigeria, is not a virus but it operates similarly: to kill and incapacitate. It stands for the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, a unit of the Nigerian Police founded in 1992, as the name suggests, to combat armed robbery, kidnapping and other violent crimes. Emmanuel told me he went to the market for grocery shopping but was stopped by SARS operatives, and forcefully taken to the ATM and made to withdraw 200k naira ($520 USD), even though the ATM card was his wife’s. I wasn’t shocked because of the many credible heart-wrenching experiences of others (some lost their lives), and also, personally, being a victim of police brutality before I left Nigeria. But I was nonplussed that SARS still operated and backed by law.
In recent days, Nigerian youths have trooped out in large numbers to protest against police brutality and SARS specifically. This is quite atypical but also interesting in many ways. Spatially, a protest that was forged and engineered in the digital space of Twitter with ENDSARS hashtags quickly moved to the material space, progressing nationally and internationally, with participants in US, UK, and Canada. Temporally, the protests have continued unabated for days, even as the police continue to flagrantly violate the constitutionally guaranteed right of Nigerians to engage in peaceful protest (a number of individuals have been killed and many detained). Furthermore, the protests have garnered the broad support of career politicians, technocrats, activists and top celebrities, some of them even joining in the protest.
There are several ways to characterise this event. Perhaps, as a watershed moment, given the unprecedented nature of the protest, in the awakening of the socio-political consciousness of the Nigerian youths. Or more cautiously, as a protest facilitated by nothing more than the broad distributedness and networked logic of social media technology. I suggest it is the former. But whichever way it is characterised, one cannot escape this palpable conclusion: there is a shared exasperation amongst the Nigerian youths of the government continually undermining, even thwarting, their welfare and development prospects. In the end, after several days of protest, the Inspector General of Police (IGP) announced on 11 October, 2020 the dissolution of SARS, re-deploying SARS operatives to different units. Nigerian youths won! This, of course, is not to suggest that SARS constitutes the layered problems facing many Nigerian youths. However, as a starting point, the government needed to dissolve SARS to enable Nigerian youths call Nigeria their sanctuary. And the government must be commended for heeding the voice of Nigerians.
The solution, however, is not simply to end SARS or redeploy its operatives to another unit because SARS is emblematic of an institutional failure and organisational culture in which brutality, impunity and extortion are ingrained and excused in the operational architecture of the Nigerian police. In other words, SARS is representative of a hard-wired organisational culture of unlawful practices embedded in the Nigerian police. Indeed SARS, is only one unit of the Nigerian police. As a starting point though, and given that SARS became a metaphor for oppression and impunity, the case for dismantling SARS was incontrovertible coupled with the disintegration of trust between the policed and police, which unravelled the social contract between the governed and the government. But ending SARS is not enough. SARS is the offspring of the Nigerian police and as it is commonly said, “the apple does not fall far from the tree.” What is required, beyond ending SARS, is the rebranding and retraining of SARS operatives as well as a comprehensive reform of Nigerian police.
Rebranding SARS and retraining its operatives are crucial because even though the government has dissolved the unit, there is still the need to combat robbery, kidnapping and violent crimes which SARS was tasked with. Redeploying its operatives to other units, or simply reconstituting them and providing a different label, without any adequate re-training, is a sham. The operational logic of brutality and extortion must be dismantled and re-coded with a logic of service, human rights and respect for lives, if the government’s pledge in tackling police brutality and dismantling SARS are to be taken seriously.
Finally, as a cautious reminder, even as Nigerian youths have won the first battle in cutting off SARS, our work is not done and there is the need to be keenly watchful that SARS, like the head of the mythical monstrous hydra, does not reappear as SWAT
