Police brutality will only lead to more rebellion
Several times, I have posited before that while learning is essential, the fundamental sure premise for a nation’s progress is unlearning.
It is undoubted that we have learnt quite a lot since our independence as a nation. However, we have done little if any to ensure we unlearn and free ourselves from the shackles of our mediocre past.
Our obstinate determination to cling to medieval outdated ways persistently overshadows the remarkable painful baby progress we have achieved. No matter the fight, our strove of bad manners remains full. Like Lot’s wife, we cannot resist looking back. We gave ourselves a new Constitution in 2010, one that has been lauded as the most progressive in any developing country. While we can see glimpses of its benefit, the 12 years since its promulgation is largely replete with deliberate subversion of the Constitution.
Court orders remain mere papers to be obeyed at will and the haves are still guilty until proven rich; tribalism remains deeply entrenched into the core veins of our country; independent institutions, or so we thought, remain anchored to the armpit of the governments of the day; corruption has become devolved and entrenched; the moral fabric of the nation is in decadence and even more equally important; our rights, fundamental rights that we gave ourselves in the Constitution is wilfully abused and allotted depending on your tribe, religion, and political party.
There is nothing to celebrate about the new Constitution. We poured new wine into an old wineskin – we have refused to unlearn our past bad behaviours. Look at the police; even after creating an independent constitutional office, we still have a police unit kowtowing to the whims of the Executive. We have carefully created a rat race of different Executive regimes competing on who can misuse the police the most.
The second liberation was fought when I was a little boy, however, as a student of history, I have painfully read about the police abuses that occurred during those times. It had never crossed my mind that I could witness some of those abuses again, 23 years into the 21st century.
That I could witness police abduction of citizens and detaining them for more than 24 hours. How about some of the charges that have been preferred recently? They have been laughable though but grotesquely painful.
Police brutality is wrong; it doesn’t matter who it is for or against. Like in the past, it will galvanise rebellion if it is left unchecked. When abuses are carried out with such audacity and in the sunlight, it brings out a lion in people who are not necessarily bloodthirsty. A friend of mine recently commented to me that she no longer watches videos of police brutality because it almost encourages her to go to the streets. I certainly agree, if you love this country as most of us do, it is impossible to just sit back and watch even the little gains we have achieved being clawed back.
Yes, we will disagree, vehemently sometimes, certainly so in an immature democracy like ours, but we cannot stoop low, however, inviting to unleash upon our fellow citizens the kind of police brutality we have seen of late. We cannot go back to the era of arbitrary arrests and trumped-up political charges.
Unfortunately, there has never been any justification for police brutality – I rejoice that there shall never be. Police brutality will brew rebellion, history teaches us so. The human race since creation has never been railroaded into submission.
Try doing so even with a teenager and you will be served unbridled rebellion. I agree, we are a nation that is a work in progress, but there are certain basic lines we must no longer cross however fiercely we disagree. Police brutality is one of those thick red lines - it is a No! This administration must break the rat race of using police to brutalise their critics and opponents to submission.
—The writer is a construction manager
