Femi Owolabi, the police and the rest of us

The man, truly, must be dead in him who keeps silence in the face of violence. But what happens when you are continually suppressed, strangled and crushed, to the point there is no voice left in you; and the press, whose major obligation includes adequate surveillance on the society, time and again thinks your stories trivial, and scrambles for ‘juicy’ political stories? And then you are, pathetically abandoned, in your vulnerability, to the mercy of a government that sees a man with money or power before you. What happens when the police, an institution that ridicule itself as your friend turns its back to hunt you? You must be a pawn of fate.

All over the world today, the protest is mounting against perceived and glaring government injustice against her people. And the people must unite to defend herself against the government she voted to protect her. “If we do not have the right to speak freely, we will turn into a society that suffers from intellectual malnutrition, a nation of fools” writes Arundhati Roy, the award-winning author of God of Small Things after joining an intellectual group in India protesting the murder of Malleshappa Kalburgi, the famous writer author killed earlier in August for writing against superstition and false beliefs.

In Nigeria, there are people, innocent citizens who fall victims to police recklessness and extrajudicial killings; people in whom, for no fault of theirs, the man in them continues to die, for their voice is so often stifled and muffled. If a young man in the village sees a police man, it is fear that first grips him, not because he is a suspect but because a man in police uniform would almost always get you into trouble. He does not believe the policeman is there to protect him. An average Nigerian does not trust the police. It is an unfortunate truth; the police have succeeded in building a rusty and almost irredeemable reputation. But these are impressions built over time by everyday experiences of the people.

In the past few days, I followed, with keen interest, the poignant story of police brutality, or is it rascality on unsuspecting Nigerian citizens in Lagos including a journalist, Femi Owolabi. I grew up hearing the trite term “the police is your friend,” but everyday experience provide ample evidence that the Police, an institution saddled with the primary responsibility to protect the people, in many instance, turns the people’s number one enemy.

The gruesome story of Mr. Owolabi’s experience with the police is a veritable instance. The publicity that the story enjoyed, without doubt is attributable to the fact that Mr. Owolabi is a journalist.  And the press, rallied around him; and with the social media, the journalist ensured every bit of the story went viral. Gimba Kakanda, a social critic and columnist lent his voice to the disturbing incident, and wrote on his timeline: “…I just read about my friend, Femi Owolabi's heart-wrenching experience; how, for stepping out of a night club, he was bundled into a bus, slapped repeatedly and then tear-gassed. For no reason other than his oppressors' liberty to dehumanise the innocent and still go Scot-free. Owolabi was set free only having underwent the procedures of tortures for which the Nigerian policemen are notorious, on being identified as a journalist, one likely to blow the "covert operations" of the cheap extortionist…”

So far, Mr. Owolabi seem to have had the last laugh, as newspaper report claims the affected police officers may face suspension  and appropriate charge. But would the story have ended this way if it involved a common man in the street? My worries abound, for I know that Femi Owolabi was a fortunate victim. Now, Femi Owolabi, a journalist, has the luxury of lawyers. And so his case in the hands of these unscrupulous policemen was different. My concern is for the “ordinary” man in the street, who, most likely, may not enjoy the support of voices from the media; who certainly would never dream of accessing the services of a lawyer to stand for him, and who, for the fault of the same government (by way of poor education system) whose police force is now pitched against him do not even know he has any right. Life can be hell for the living!

According to the bits of information which Mr. Owolabi dropped on his facebook timeline as the story unfolded, the matter by means of some obscure connections got to the notice of the Inspector General of police, and other highly placed police authorities.  But one must not know the I G, commissioner of any person power to be treated with dignity.

In the end, even as we urge government to take urgent steps to ensure total overhaul and reorientation of police personnel, with particular regard for human dignity and respect, writers must know that silence is a lethal conspiracy against the weak and can be more deadly than the bullets from a gun.  The media must pay critical attention to human stories for thereof lies the hallmark of their profession.