Maybe we should return the street police to their colonial designations -- Ọlọ́pàá -- where their most dangerous weapon is a baton.
It's insane enough that we let them carry AK-47s on the road, when we don't live in a war zone. #SARSMUSTEND
When I see someone on the road, usually in bathroom slippers and in mufti, carrying a weapon used in war zones, my first impression is not that "this is an agent of state here to protect me." And they usually don't.
The answer to why Nigeria is not developing, why progress is not sustained, has been answered in the last few days by how the government, elected officials, and officeholders have responded to a simple demand by its youths to do their jobs and keep them alive.
The ruling class will rather destroy the spirit of the coming generation than give an inch, and accept that things can and should change for the better. It's not rocket science; it's an addiction to their own venal incompetence.
Rather than acknowledge that young people have found a way to thrive in spite of the country's failures, they send SARS to harass them and wonder why a 30-year-old can afford a 5M ($11k) naira car.
Rather than embrace the change the youth represent, they move to suppress it.
Hey sir @jidesanwoolu, this is a good day to tell the police in Lagos to not harass protesters as they go about their constitutionally-protected right to free speech and assembly.
Has any sitting senator (from the majority or minority party) said anything?
So how is this a democracy then, when the legislative arm of government that can solve this problem with law and/or public hearing has refused to say a word? What's the fucking point?
Not one pro-people legislator. Not ONE -- in either party -- has been brave enough to speak out, much less force a vote on the floor. Imagine that. No wonder the president gets to sit like a king over a corrupt empire.
People seem genuinely surprised that the word “Yorùbá” could have its etymology in Hausa. But why? “France” is not a French word. “German" is not a German word etc. The “Chinese” people never call themselves that. These are called ‘exonyms’: names given by outsiders.
The Yorùbá themselves call themselves “Ọmọ káàárọ̀ oòjíire” (People who ask ‘Good morning, did you wake up well?’) or Ọmọ Oòduà (Odùduwà’s children). This is what you’ll usually find in Yorùbá translations and speeches and literature.
The most convincing breakdown of the name I’ve found is “Yaro Ọba” (Children of the Ọba) which the Hausa/Fulani likely used to refer to the Ọ̀yọ́ people they first had contact with.
There’s nothing wrong with a name coined by what outsiders likely called us.