Lagos #EndSARS report: Lessons for Lai Mohammed and co

As Nigerians of good conscience grapple with comprehending and living with the sordid revelations in the Lagos state judicial panel report into SARS related abuses, a sane country should begin to ponder how it will never repeat this disgraceful past. But that is not Nigeria and it is heart-breaking!

Since the leakage of the report on Monday, arguments have followed the traditional lines of government supporters and government critics. Each party holds on to their diametrical positions from as far back as, probably, 2015! So, you wonder how a country makes progress when its people cannot agree on issues that devalue their existence.

Society’s value on life is a standard of its humanity and the extent to which its people are ready to advance. So, when life is said to have been lost in extrajudicial circumstances, arguments are not centred on defending agents of the state accused of the crime. They are uniformly about prompt investigations to show how the event happened and meting out sanctions on those who may have illegally taken another person’s life. Every life is essential in such societies; people see evil and injustice done to one as being done to all.

Sadly, that is not Nigeria. Here, people are imprisoned by primordial interests like tribe, religion, and political affiliations. It is only when injustice hits close to home that they have the faintest touch of fellow feeling. It is a country where man’s inhumanity to man is classic!
It would be understandable if people like the information minister Lai Mohammed, whose love for hearing his own voice is legendary, are the only ones caught in this disregard for lives. Government people in Nigeria feel godlike. They are the archetype of the hypothesis that power intoxicates. They lord it over and speak down on Nigerians as if the offices they occupy will be there forever. These guys suffer from an infuriating superiority complex which makes them think ordinary Nigerians are simpletons. The average public office holder is the very opposite of the service essence of his calling. Here, he is more of an overlord. What is even worse about people like Mohammed is the vigour with which they defend the inexcusable. Mohammed, who serves a government that hardly acknowledged the incident at the Lekki Tollgate on October 20, 2020, did not only insinuate that eyewitnesses were liars, he called out reputable media outfits (local and international) and threatened them with sanctions that were not within his reach. How else do you explain the delusions that power does to men?

Are we saying that it is wrong for Mohammed to defend the government? Not at all, but defending the government in this century must be evidence-based. It is more so when the lives of citizens whom you are called to serve are involved. Government should hold its peace until its investigations arm it with evidence! But that is not Nigeria! Rather than propagating evidence-based positions, lying is becoming a state art and it is reprehensible that those who serve in government feel no sense of remorse when these lies blow up in their faces.

Take the Nigerian army, for instance. It started by denying that its men were deployed to that location and described reports about the same as fake news. It then claimed it was investigating video images that emerged from the scene, only to finally accept that its men were at the scene without firing shots at the protesters. At the Lagos state panel, Ibrahim Taiwo, a brigadier general who spoke for the army, owned up to the fact that men of the Nigerian Army fired shots of blank bullets into the air to disperse the protesters. Of course, blank ammunition is incapable of inflicting fatal injuries and only two people fainted, and they were revived, the army claimed! Taiwo, who conceded that troops were armed with blank and live bullets that evening, also gave the panel the rules of engagement for such occasions. Part of this was that lethal force should only be employed when the lives of soldiers or other citizens are at risk and “after firing has ceased, medical assistance must be rendered,” according to the rules of engagement the officer was said to have presented to the panel. But none of these rules was observed on the evening under discussion. Instead of offering medical assistance, men of the army were said to have prevented the injured from receiving help thereby throwing their own rules out of the window!

So, when the chief of defence staff, Lucky Irabor, asked Nigerians not to disparage the armed forces in Benin city on Tuesday, he spoke because he is not privy to how this event was handled. One of the points he made in his comment is that the Nigerian Armed Forces are professional. Maybe he is right but those who handled the October 20, 2020 event did not reflect that. On the contrary, they behaved like the one-legged man’s legendary child who bought a pair of shoes and took them home to his father. The unprofessional conduct of these does not only derogate from the not too sparkling image of the army, it is an unacceptable testimony to the disrespect that this institution has for citizens of the country.

And that is the other point to make about men of power and the general psychology of men of Nigeria’s security and armed forces. It is appalling to imagine that these men and women see ordinary Nigerians as inferior. Anyone who is interested in attributing professionalism to the Nigerian Armed Forces must make members of this institution understand that they are primary agents of the state and not agents of the government in power. In addition to that, they must know that the uniforms they adorn do not make them superior to other citizens. On the contrary, they serve those citizens and should not turn their office equipment on the same people they are paid to protect. Regardless of whatever might and power the army may claim, the people of Nigeria are the basis of its existence, and it owes Nigerians and not the incumbent leader its loyalty.

Like many other national institutions, the Nigerian military is still unable to grasp the essence of loyalty. This institution needs to wean itself off its self-conceited mentality, a probable hangover from the long years of military rule. Doing this, and not mere pronouncements, are the fundamental philosophies of a disciplined and professional armed force.

The other thing is that Nigerian leaders must realise that they are only human, fallible, and susceptible to errors like all others. It’s hard to get a Nigerian leader to own up to an error and apologise for it. Nigerian leaders should realise that accepting their humanity, the frailties that attend it and admitting errors are essential ingredients of leadership. To act otherwise is to say that they are superhuman and risk a depreciation of their estimation in the perception of the citizenry who will see through them when the bubble bursts as it is wont to.

For example, the Justice Doris Oduwobi panel says the military had no reason to be at the Lekki Tollgate that evening, someone requested their presence. Why was it a problem to accept this fact, justify it if need be, and offer an apology if need be? Leaders should be able to stand by their decisions no matter how ill-advised they turn out to be. That is what leadership is all about! The armed forces have a laid down procedure for dealing with situations like the Lekki Tollgate, but were these rules obeyed on the said date? If not, has anyone admitted fault and apologised to Nigerians for it?

Regardless of what the Lagos state government does with the report presented by the Oduwobi Panel, (since there are also reports of inaccuracies in the report), Nigerians, leaders and led should learn three things from this exercise: this country needs to have far more regard for the lives of its citizens than it currently does; those who lead Nigeria must operate with more honesty and as a corollary, they must understand that Nigerians are their employers rather than slaves.

Adedokun can be reached on Twitter @niranadedokun