The state as an oppressor of citizens

Oppression comes in diverse forms. It is synonymous with domination, coercion, cruelty, tyranny, subjugation, persecution, harassment and repression. It could be political, economic, social, cultural, religious or domestic. The variations of oppression manifest to varying degrees in every society. In Nigeria, oppression in all its naked diversity is rampant and even seems to have become a way of life. When the state or the government, through its agents, happens to be the oppressor inflicting agony on its own citizens, then we are inevitably sliding back to a dark past when people lived subhuman lives under colonial masters.

If one is not mistaken, Nigeria exited the era of human slavery and colonialism a long time ago. Unfortunately, Nigerians themselves are still held in the shackles of what is called internal neocolonialism. It is state oppression by another name. It is a dystopian state where the government, at federal, state and local levels, subjects the citizens to untold harassment, persecution, subjugation and exploitation. By and large, we are in a pathetic dilemma in this depreciating country.

The dilemma is such that we have criminal elements operating freely all over the country and making life hell for us through ceaseless killings, kidnappings and armed robberies. At the same time, we contend with state agents also making existence unbearable for law-abiding Nigerians through harassment, brutality and extortion by uniformed men, deprivation of basic human rights by intimidation and repression, and undue frustration of private businesses with excessive taxes and levies. If citizens are oppressing fellow citizens, matters may be resolved either judicially or extra judicially. But if citizens are being oppressed by their own government, who will rescue the oppressed?

Already, with almost everything in a mess in Nigeria, most Nigerians have lost faith in the ability of government to make the country a better place for all. We citizens just want an environment where we can at least breathe some air of sanity and freedom to go about our daily business. But as reminiscent of the sad case of African-American George Floyd who cried; “I cant breathe” while his life was being snuffed out under the oppressive knee of a white cop Derek Chauvin in the US last year, Nigerians are finding it increasingly hard to breathe in their own country. The very socio-economic air that we breathe is so choking and toxic with systemic oppression!

For instance, being a business man in this country is like living in Afghanistan under a repressive Taliban regime. Setting up and running a business in our environment is hard enough, with the abnormally high operating costs and lack of government incentives. Yet, to the officials of our government at the federal, state and local levels, business owners are crooks or milk cows who must be subjected to all manner of bureaucratic intimidation, subjugation, exploitation and frustration. These days, visiting any government agency for one business purpose or the other is always a frustrating experience as in a case of master and servant.

Public officials who should be civil servants turn themselves into public masters by looking down on citizens and dilly-dallying on doing their job except they receive some gratifications. And nowadays when all levels of governments are said to be suffering acute revenue shortfall, private businesses are bearing the brunt with multiple, excessive taxes, levies and fines. The situation has now become a matter of baboon dey work, monkey dey chop. Entrepreneurs struggle to make money, while the government routinely shows up taking all the profits with excessive taxes and levies! Finally, killing private businesses seems to have become an official state policy in Nigeria. If this is not oppression, what then is it?

As state oppression haunts and hurts our businesses as citizens, so also it encroaches on our social lives and everyday rights. Citizens cannot freely express their grievances through peaceful protests without being arrested or shot dead by security agents. People cannot lodge peacefully in hotels without their privacies being invaded at unholy hours of midnight by EFCC operatives allegedly hunting for Yahoo-Yahoo boys. And Nigerians cannot move freely on the roads without some government convoys with security escorts and blaring sirens intimidating innocent motorists off the way.

Now, it is even difficult to drive around in any of our major cities in Nigeria without running into mischievous traffic traps set up for extortion by government agencies and agents. This is most evident in Lagos. If LASTMA and the police are not violently pouncing on unlucky motorists, task force and local council agents are terrorizing and extorting others. In all this, it is a relief when two Lagos courts recently ruled against the government on alleged traffic offences. In September 2021, an Ikeja high court ordered Oshodi local government area of Lagos state to pay the sum of N1 million as compensation to a motorist, Louis Idahosa, for extorting him of N28,000 for allegedly driving against traffic.

Then, this December, a magistrate also ordered the release of a vehicle impounded by officials of the Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Unit (Task Force), over an alleged traffic offence. Certainly, we need more of such judicial interventions to rescue innocent Nigerians from executive state oppressors! If the government cannot secure lives and property, make the environment conducive for business, provide citizens opportunities for a better life, it should not make life more miserable for us through its oppressive agencies and agents. Nigerians need to breathe!

Olabode can be reached via [email protected]