By Funto Babawale
Over the past few days Nigerians have joined their voices with the rest of the world by criticizing police brutality and racism towards people of colour in America. The video showing how a black man in handcuffs was knelt on by three police officers with one kneeling on his neck for almost nine minutes despite the man’s continuous plea about not being able to breathe. This incident that led to the death of the black man named George Floyd has caused worldwide outrage over the treatment of black and coloured people in America and Nigerians have not shied away from giving their opinions. Sadly, this sort of tragic and senseless killing is not a unique situation, there’s still an ongoing case for the 26year old black man Armaud Arbery that was shot by a father and son while jogging.Yet, another 26year old black woman, Breanna Taylor was shot about six times by multiple police men in her apartment over a case of mistaken identity and then there is the white woman, Amy Cooper, who threatened to call the police on a black man who was bird watching simply because he told her to leash her dog. This continuous cycle has reached a boiling point where people around the world are joining their voices with that of Americans to say enough is enough.
After all, Dr. Martin Luther king jr once said “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly”. On this note a lot of people have joined in the chorus for justice for these people and their families and an end to violence against people of colour.
While the situation has been unfolding right in front of the whole world thanks to the internet, some people have taken the time out to point at our hypocrisy as Nigerians. Hence,while the white police in America are allegedly biased towards people of colour but the black police in Nigeria are also biased towards black Nigerians.
While we were trying to articulate this and come up with excuses, a 16year old girl was shot and killed in Lagos here, the irony of this situation is not lost on us. Over the weekend some people on tweeter were arguing the fact that black people are not safe anywhere in the world and someone pointed out that black people were not safe from the police even in Nigeria. White people, Asian people, Arab people and anyone who is not black is safer in Nigeria than Nigerians themselves at the hands of the police. It is a harsh reality but one we’ve had to live with for far too long simply because it has become normal to us. The only black people that are relatively safe from the Nigerian police and military are those with foreign accent and passports, but if you do not fall into this anointed category then you are on your own. A lot of other Africans abroad have been sharing their encounters with racism abroad, this then raises the question of why Nigerians bother to relocate to other nations if they do not feel safe there?
Apart from the obvious reasons why people leave Nigeria to go to any country that will have them, there have been fewer records of Africans or Nigerians getting killed in countries like USA, UK e.t.c as opposed to Asian and middle Eastern countries,oh, and South Africa. Let’s use the USA as a case study, fewer Africans have been reportedly killed as opposed to African Americans, there are a few factors responsible for this. When a Nigerian moves to the US for example they go there to either study, get a job or get married amongst other things but these are the dominant factors. The majority who go there probably already have a degree or a secondary school certificate in the least that will help them further their education when they get there. On getting there because they have no criminal records and are coming from a seemingly impoverished country they take on any job they can to ensure their survival over there, those who go there as professionals go on to work as doctors, nurses, researchers e.t.c which immediately improves their standard of living and economic status. Because of the kind of training we have been accustomed to in this part of the world, they learn to save and reduce their debts which puts them in a significantly better position. They live in the better neighborhoods which reduces their interaction with violence, because even back here in Nigeria you never argue with a police or even ask what your offense is, you just obey which is where we coined the phrase “obey before complaint” they are already used to violent policing and violation of their human rights if there is anything like human right in Nigeria. This will help them in their relationship with the police if they are lucky and they don’t get killed, these are some of the things that makes it a little easier for Nigerians to survive in US as opposed to African Americans. This does not mean Nigerians or Africans are not victimised or killed indiscriminately either, it just explains why they are not killed as often. But like they say, beggars can not be choosers, while in our own country we are not treated with the dignity and respect we deserve so it may be a bit of a stretch to demand the same from others because like they say “charity begins at home”.
This brings us to what we can do differently as a society so that our country is livable and not a “shit-hole” as professed. The popular consensus is that African Americans are the children of slaves who were forcefully removed from their countries several hundred years ago. But the truth is there is a good percentage of them that are children of African immigrants, which means there is probably a George Floyd that is your relation, a Breanna Taylor that you never knew was your kin. It starts with Nigerians leaving Nigeria in search of greener pastures and when they eventually find the green they become cynics and critics, pointing out everything that is wrong with Nigeria but never actually doing anything about it. Then then decide not to come back to Nigeria until their children are fully grown, once the children grow old the only thing that brings them home is their parents or grandparents funeral so they know nothing about Nigeria other than the fact that their parents are from here. Because of this their own children don’t even know anything at all about Nigeria other than the name and by the time it’s their great grandchildren’s time they have become sons and daughters of the soil with no ties to Africa whatsoever. This means they only identify as African Americans and that is the culture they know, they have successfully been stripped of their identity and culture so even if they want to come back home they can not. They may then fall into the cycle of systemic racism that has plagued majority of African Americans for hundreds of years and God forbid end up another catastrophic statistic.
While there is nothing wrong with people seeking a better life for themselves and their families, there is also nothing wrong in bringing that experience and knowledge back home to open the eyes of those of us who do not know better. We can not complain about being hunted in other countries when we are being hunted in our own country by our kind. If the founding fathers, the Awolowos, Azikiwes and Ahmadu Bellos of that time had shared our “japa(runaway)” mentality that we have now, there won’t even be a country to fight for. If we can develop home then there won’t be a reason to run abroad and even if we have to there is a need to develop home so we have somewhere to come back to.
If there is anything this pandemic had taught us it is that money, power, beauty, weapons e.t.c may someday fail us, what we will have left is our humanity, our community. If our country is better people will be encouraged to stay, we can keep our dignity, that way we don’t have to die at the hands of our own kin or at the hands of our oppressors. There is nothing any race can do that the black race can not, we excel in sports, entertainment, medicine, engineering and every other field in the world. So why is it difficult for Africans to develop Africa without looking to every other race in the world for permission or support? Until we make Africa, Nigeria a home that is worth coming back to then we pray that our kinsmen do not continue to suffer the same horrible everywhere in the world.
The Nigerian people need to take a page out of the American people’s playbook right now, we need to demand more accountability from our elected officials, demand better treatment from our civil servants, it is not enough to trend #EndSARS, we need to encourage our kinsmen to come back home and do their part. We need to build a home we all want to come back to because in the end there’s no place like home and come what may we know for certain that ‘Nigeria is ours’.
