In Defence Of Seun Kuti

Last week,  the social media platforms became agog with divergent views to the video showing Mr. Seun Kuti assaulting a policeman on the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos. In the short clip, the police officer showed uncommon restrain in the face of public humiliation by the Afrobeat musician. I commend him.

 There out not be any justification for him to slap any person including  a law enforcement officer no matter the height  of provocation. Assault is captured in relevant statues in Nigeria with clear punishment if proved in the court. The action of Mr. Seun Kuti received wider interest because the victim is a policeman.  It is therefore not surprising that the Inspector General of Police(IGP) hurriedly ordered his arrest and investigation. There are many Nigerians with reported attacks by the police that did not receive attention from the IGP.

I do think that Mr. Kuti needs some help. He needs help because both his parents and the nation did not give him any reason to become a responsible man in a decent society. Seun grew up in a home where his father, in near nudity, brazenly consumed banned substances  in the midst of people including wives and minors.  Aside consuming outlawed substances, it  was never reported that he counselled his children to stay off hard drugs.

As a toddler, Seun was told  how his grandmother, Mrs. Fumilayo Ramsome-Kuti was brutalized and humiliated by state security agents. This was the first woman to drive car in Nigeria.  Fela, the father of Seun, was dehumanized, debased, tortured and detained in most cases unjustified by state security agents. All these tribulations, Seun watched while growing up. Why should we therefore expect him to love police and other security outfits?

For anyone to be loved or respected, such person MUST first express self-love. The Nigeria Police did nothing to deserve uncommon respect or love. The institution stinks!

A young Nigerian seeking enlistment into the Force, is forced to give bribe. The training school is like a ghetto. While in Police College, the students provide themselves buckets, mattresses and other dormitory requirements even when such needs were captured in government overheads.

Young police officers allegedly spend money to be posted to perceived juicy bits including as orderlies to bloated capitalists and ritualists. We have seen policemen carrying bags for teens just because they expect few currency notes from them. Sadly, Nigeria Police not long ago created unit for such sickening oversights.

The journey from Benin to Lagos ordinarily should take less than four hours but due to the money-collecting checkpoints created by Police Authorities,  the journey takes about eight hours. The checkpoints instead of acting as crime bursting tolls, they are used as personal revenue collecting centres from cummuters. In the heat of cash scarcity due to currency redesign, some checkpoints resorted to the use of ATM for collections.

Young men with tattoos or braided hair are exposed to intimidation, harassment and exploitation by the police on the roads. The cellphones and laptops of these youths are accessed by the police  without permission. There is a particular SUV that users are perceived as fraudsters by the police.

The police have refused to express self-love. Expecting it from the society is asking for the moon.  Men and officers of the Force provide themselves basic operational needs despite budgetary provisions. They are too weak to confront their bosses that allegedly fret away the funds government provided. They instead transfer their anger to the public. And the public has to fight back.

We need not be sanctimonious about the perception of the police by Nigerians. Nigerians do not like them. It is not because we chose not to love them. They made themselves unlovable.  Nigerians, nay, youths manifested the hatred through the Endsars protest in 2020. That Seun had the temerity to slap one of them is because he feels he could stand the fallout. Many youths in a dark alley will do what the Afrobeat musician did.

For a better Nigeria, we need a Police Force that is truly clean. There should be a  purge. Only after this can the citizens  take the next step of appreciating them as a people with special responsibility in the quest for a better society.

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