Civilian, Military, Hoodlum.
Tags: Police Brutality, Military, Civilian, Endsars, Hoodlum

The fact is that there are people who can be incited to violence with just 2,000 Naira. There are people who are so restless and bloodthirsty that they turn a peaceful protest violent. There are those who cannot deduce that the looting and destruction of private businesses is not a punishment to the government but rather a damage to civilians who are trying to make a life for themselves.

Hooliganism is not something we can continue to turn blind eyes on. We simply cannot afford that.

Perhaps the actions of the past few days will reveal just how much we stand to lose by ignoring hooliganism. Now that we have experienced first hand and en masse what a danger the weaponisation of hoodlums poses, perhaps we’ll be more inclined to pay the necessary attention. When we see that we have free radicals running amok in our society, ready to be loyal to the highest paying party, notwithstanding the consequences, maybe we will be more mindful of the common touts we have in our neighbourhood.

We see that they cannot be ignored. These are self proclaimed eru iku (the messengers of death). How can we ever feel at peace when we share a society with people who proclaim that they have nothing to live for? We are shocked and we cry out about the injustice of the deaths that have happened, the senseless murders of people whose only crime was to dare to ask for better treatment, whose only crime was the audacity to demand life. But do we express the same sentiments toward hoodlums that are killed everyday? Who mourns them? Do their shallow graves indicate a lack of value on their lives?

To the hoodlum in the streets, the only classification of people are: us and them. This means that anyone who is not a hoodlum is fair game and a viable target to them. The fact is that we have collectively as a nation failed these people. No matter which circumstances led them to that lifestyle in the first place, we have failed as a people to help bring them back. We have offered no education, rehabilitation or forgiveness. Like the shunned child of a troublesome wife, we have cast them without thought, feeling or inheritance. They are restless, they do not have healthy outlets, they do not know that violence is not the way since they’ve had to strive for every single thing they have. To people who extort commercial motorists for bribes on a daily basis, there will be no second thoughts about breaking into another’s home to take what’s not theirs — it is simply a lifestyle.

To the oppressed, unfed, uneducated, forgotten, avoided and overlooked members of our society, we are all oppressors.

How have I oppressed them, one might ask, yet the very normalisation of their way of existence is proof of our collective complicity. The fact that we are so desensitised to the horrific reality of child beggars who sleep rough, live rough, spend their days looking after the old in their community and have no time or room to do fun things as a child or express themselves creatively, to the child who had to grow up too early, the child who was lucky to be an afterthought, the child that is chased away like a fly when they perch on the windows of the rich to beg for their next meal. To the child to whom I may never address a letter because they have not enjoyed the privilege of an education. To the child who has had to undergo a lot of hardship, pain and suffering in their very short existence. The child who was molested and abused, who had to show grit and severity to be considered one of the boys and allowed into the brotherhood where there is protection from rival brotherhoods. To that child we all owe a debt. A massive debt of attention, of effort, of empathy, of consideration, of goodwill.

If you are one of the countless people whose business was looted during the mandatory curfew by hoodlums, I offer my sincere sympathy. I hope it’s not an irreparable loss. However, I urge you to think about these recent happenings from the perspective of the hoodlums. To them, this is just an opportunity to get back at society. We see that a lot of their destruction does not hold any personal returns for them: they just do it because they can and they enjoy the high. Think about what lives they must live to personally submit themselves as agents of destruction. Think of what hand fate has dealt them. Think of whether they ever had a guide or anyone to point them away from evil and toward good. Think of their motives. And I’m sure that at the end of your thinking you’ll come to the conclusion that they are humans just like us acting on their basic instincts. The impulses that come naturally to them have evolved from those shared by everyone else.

We will never again ignore or avoid. We are allies. We Fight For All.

We must, like sentinels, stand guard over the destinies of these people so that they too have a future to aspire to. We must push for reform and policies from our government that do not overlook the plight of the poor. We must force the hand of our local politicians to do something about homelessness in our community. If those fail then we must each come together to create a solution that at least addresses the immediate need.

We will never again ignore or avoid. We are allies. We Fight For All.