By something significant I don't know if the prompt is about a happy or a sad ending, I can only think of this one now so, here we go.
That year was 2020, 12th of October to be precise. There was hardly anyone that didn't complain about the excesses of a particular police sector in Nigeria, Special Antirobbery squad, (SARS). This particular arm of the police source were handpicked for their potentials and given special training on how to be a force against armed robbery in Nigeria.
I want to believe the government had good intentions in setting up this special force, but along the line they lost their way. They became the very evil that they were supposed to fight, and to e make matters worse, they were licensed to bear arms and harass citizens anyhow they could to extort money. Young, good looking men were mostly the direct recepient of their brutality. All you had to do to be labeled a fraudster as a young man was dress well, use an iphone and the killer point? Drive an expensive car. You are done for.
I'm not saying there aren't young people performing nefarious activities, but this particular branch of police didn't draw the line, they obliterated it if ever there was one.
We had had enough, something had to be done. There was a nationwide protest organized by youths around the country to put an end to SARS and it lasted for days. I was still living in Ogbomoso, Oyo State, my hometown back then. I got the inspiration one day to stage a protest too in my area, you know as part of the efforts to join our voices for the right cause.
I did stage the protest and only 12 people came, nothing spoil, we move noni,(regardless). It's not the crowd that counts, it's the intention that does or how do they say it again? All thirteen of us gathered at our agreed location and I gave a motivational speech to my comrades.
We began to move towards the town hall chanting, "end SARS, end SARS" The town hall was on the way to the late king's house and when we passed by, the king stopped us and told us to disperse that protesting was not the way to get what we wanted from the government, peaceful protest or not. Well we disagreed with the king and insisted that we would not stop.
To demonstrate our seriousness, we decided to hold the protest in front of his house. These older people don't they messed with the wrong generation.
He got frustrated with us and left us to continue chanting our mantra. I was almost exhausted and was stylishly looking around to see if I could buy a soft drink around. I could just slip away unnoticed and come back. It was going to be hard to avoid detection, but it's possible. A leader shouldn't eat when the follower's aren't too right? I know but I don't joke with my stomach.
I was still trying to figure out what to do when we saw Amotekun officers approaching, Amotekun was a form of indigenous security outfit with the goal of complementing the police to curb insecurity and protect the people.
There were five of them and when they got to us, they urged us to peacefully disperse on the orders of the king. They had to be kidding we said cause if the king couldn't disperse us how do they think they would? Amotekun of all security outfits, they must be clowns. Amotekun that were no different from night guards.
We started to laugh when we saw them nod towards each other, we watched in amusement wondering what they were up to. They proceeded to bring out charms from multiple pockets in their outfits, some red, some black, some tied, some wrapped, some even facing the wrong direction in different shapes. One of them even took out a horsetail and began wave it in the air.
I was dazed, scratch that, we were dazed. As true sons and daughters of Yoruba land, especially Of Ogbomoso town, we knew the significance of those charms. One could get hit with one of it and never remain the same again.
This is excessive, who brings charms to a word fight? Or is that not how they say it? Guess what we did? We fleed like thieves, Usian Bolt couldn't have had anything on us in that moment.
It was after I get home that I realized I had lost my phone, I almost ran mad, I had important soft copies of some documents on there. I've heard people say stuff like they are only pained by the loss of their sim cards and not particularly the phone. I was pained by the loss of both and take it from me, it's more painful than childbirth, I've been there, trust me.
A good Samaritan picked up my mum's call when we were calling to know if someone had seen it and would be kind of enough to return it. The good Samaritan turned out to be one the Amotekun operatives and he told me to come for it in their office the next day. I didn't go.
I went on the fourth day after fasting and praying for three days, I was that scared.
That incident left an indelible print in my heart especially after I heard about the lekki toll gate incident. What's the way forward in Nigeria? How can we hope to change anything if the people we are up against are more powerful than us? We can't beat them and it's obvious most of us have joined them.
Imagine if I had died for a cause that turned out to be fruitless, what would have happened to my child? The child I left home to go and protest against something that backfired.
I promised myself right there and then that I am never going to be involved in any protest whatsoever again, it's only a crazy person that fights for a town or country as the case may be.
The significance? You could die fighting for a cause and people would move on, look what happened at the toll gate, people have moved on. We'll be fine, I'm just not going to front for any cause ever again.
This is Nigeria after all.
