#ENDSARS: A REFLECTION ON THE NATURE OF THE STATE

The Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) was established to detain, investigate and prosecute people involved in crimes of armed robbery, cultism and kidnapping. It was under the Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence

Department headed by a Deputy Inspector General of Police.
SARS was synonymous with torture, extortion and blackmail. When the excesses of the unit led to public outcry in 2015, Inspector General of Police (IGP), Solomon Arase, split the squad into operational and investigative

units. It was a slap on the wrist. His boys went ahead with their aggressive tactics, operating with unmatched recklessness as they assumed uncontrollable taste for blood and robbery. They became the robbers they were meant to investigate.

At its formation the Squad was designed to operate covertly.The operatives didnot bear arms brazenly, they didnot wear uniforms. They operated in unmarked vehicles but all that changed with the horrendous arbitrariness that governed the cruel intentions of some of the operatives.

They became as visible as a full moon at night, breaking into the innocence of the oppressed people, cutting their resistances criminally and carting away their material well-being with an air of invisibility. What an affront!

The brutish nature of the unit provoked a December 2016 online campaign to disband it. In August 2018 the Vice President of Nigeria - then Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo attempted a reworking of the Squad when he asked IGP Ibrahim Idris to reform SARS. At this point F was added

to the acronym - FSARS. Before long the unit again showed its resistance to reform. The situation worsened as the operatives went on rampage, running amok in market squares, streets and bars, killing and maiming their victims as if we have reached the end of reason.

When on 21 January 2019, new IGP Mohammed Adamu decentralized the unit, the people thought respite had come their way, but it was an exercise to enforce nothing, a mission to nowhere and a pronouncement to deceive.

With decentralization, the Commissioner of Police in each state becomes responsible for the activities of FSARS. Did they show responsibility as the extortions aggravated the frosty relationship between the people and the police?
The failure of the police to stop the hostility

explains the character of the political leadership exemplifies by Buhari.
President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria therefore directs IGP Adamu to listen to the voices of Nigerians and stop the unethical conducts of men of FSARS. The president’s order comes on 9 October 2020 in the

wake of growing discontent over police actions. While protesters call for the outright ban of the Squad, Mr President after meeting with the police chief orders him to reform SARS.
But on Sunday, 11 October 2020, the IGP chose BAN over REFORM. He announced the scrapping of SARS.

They have listened to the voice of an angry population, but the hunger that makes the population angry cannot be addressed by the BAN. There are other Tactical Squads of the Force with the character of SARS, including Intelligence Response Team (IRT), Anti-Cultism Squad,

operating at the Federal, Zonal and Command levels. There are police stations with deadly squads operating with unimaginable disdain for human right.
What next after #EndSARS accomplishes the end of SARS?
Is it the end of poverty and mal-administration?
Are members of the

political leadership not deadlier than SARS?
SARS and other oppressive agencies are representations of the character of leadership, the nature and the structure of the state. Without breaking the structures of exploitation erected by the political system - a function of the

constitution, the brutality of the agents of the state will remain alive. However, I am glad the journey to redemption has started. I commend the Nigerian people for their courage despite the obstacles laid on their path to progress.

I am sure a resolute people will achieve prosperity.
I am convinced that a renewed spirit for the redemption of the state will bring everything good.

Picture: My friend @I_am_Kms on duty

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