The year 2020 has been one that will be defined by two main issues. How our respective countries responded to the global pandemic that was Covid-19 and the global demand from citizens for justice against government sanctioned violence. While The United States had center stage for the latter issue throughout the summer beginning with the killing of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis and then the lack of justice afforded to the family of Breonna Taylor after she was killed by Louisville police officers in her home.

The fight to demand justice from governments by citizens has crossed the Atlantic and Africa’s most populated nation has the world’s attention.

Since October began Lagos, Nigeria has been entrenched with protests between civilians and government security forces regarding The Special Anti-Robbery Squad. The Special Anti-Robbery Squad or SARS as they are more commonly known have been a special police unit that has operated in the nation since 1992. The unit was first established to curb the growing crime rates that were affecting Lagos and surrounding areas during the early 1990s. A police unit that began and operated solely in the Lagos state grew to a unit that spanned the entire country and became an official part of the Nigerian Police Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department.

It should be noted that on October 11th the Inspector General of police, Muhammad Adamu said SARS would be disbanded “effective immediately”

It was also reported by the Nigerian Army on Twitter that reports of civilian deaths at the protests were “FAKE NEWS

Police brutality in the States has a long storied history, the same can’t be said about Nigeria. In Nigeria, the police force as a national entity has only existed since 1930. SARS as a unit is as old as me, 28 years. In its 28 years of existence SARS has had a complicated history, both providing a valuable service in fighting the insurgency group Boko Haram in the country’s northeast region and as we can see currently being accused of killing innocent civilians.

I remember back in 2003 or 2004 my uncle went to Ghana and one of the biggest stories he came back with was a group of kids who were captured and killed for attempting an arm robbery (Allegedly from Nigeria)\. Apparently this was a big issue throughout the 2000s. There wasn’t much remorse in the telling of the story. The people were wronged and justice was served.

Nigeria has become the cultural leader of Africa and one of iits many flouring economies. With a growing economy, clearer and distinct social classes along economic lines have formed. This has naturally increased crime and poverty. With a history of government incompetence and corruption, along with the government currently being accused of withholding valuable relief during a global pandemic one might not trust the government to do the right thing with SARS or much else.

Like in the United States instead of tending to the issues that have caused for their to be crime at high levels leading to interactions with police that have ultimately turned deadly, the government of Nigeria has decided downplaying and passing accountability off to the civilians would be better than enacting their power to stop state employees from committing murder with impunity.

So where does that leave the black people across the world who are looking to be in solidarity with other black people in Nigeria fighting the injustices inflicted on them by SARS?

I don’t know but I do know the fight doesn’t end with a disbanding of SARS (which has been done) or some sort of reform of policing in Nigeria or anywhere else in the world. Whether the root of police brutality be racism or power, policing has to be reimagined as a whole. Our society must make it mandatory that police carry out their jobs to protect civilians and themselves without giving those same forces an unlimited amount of discretion in the process or immunity from prosecution once found to be in the wrong.