Mrs Dupe is a 35-year-old mother of three whose husband was arrested by the SARS for allegedly buying a stolen phone. He died in police custody where he was allegedly being tortured. The official explanation was that he was shot while trying to escape. But her late husband was a gentleman and a pastor who would never try to run from the police. She cried herself to sleep for most nights, over the past three months. She still has nightmares of his lifeless body.
She has become very fearful and jumpy at the sight of any policeman especially if he carries a gun. It has become so bad that she now dreads going out of the house completely. She only manages to take the children to the neighbourhood school and pick them up. She had lost her soul mate, husband, breadwinner and father of her children over a stolen phone she was sure he had no knowledge about.
Chukwu was a 21-year-old undergraduate who had been at home for several months on account of the ASUU strike and COVID-19 school closures. He was severally stopped by SARS officials because he often carried a backpack with his laptop. They frequently asked him to open the laptop and show them what was inside. They also went through his phone. He had become used to it, but he dislike that it made him feel like a criminal when he was not one. He eventually stopped going out with a phone or laptop, yet he suffers a lot of anxiety whenever he sees a policeman.
Thus, his frustrations ensured that he joined and was very active in the #ENDSARS protests. But he was rudely shocked at the violence and looting that he witnessed and how close he came to being killed on one occasion. He suffered an acute stress reaction in its aftermath.
Mr Audu is a decent policeman who tries his best to be fair and to improve the men and officers under his command as a DPO. His police station was sacked by an irate mob that destroyed everything in sight. He and his men managed to escape by jumping over the fence into the next compound where they were sheltered. He never believed that the community he and his men were committed to securing and protecting could turn so violently against them.
He sent a message to his pregnant wife that he was fine and not harmed. He acknowledges that there are bad eggs in the force that need to be flushed out. But then, which organisation does not have bad eggs? Meanwhile, he and his men were the good guys here. How can they all become targets of angry mobs when all he and his men ever wanted was to simply do their job? He knew his wife was going to be worried sick. He was also fearful and worried, to be honest. But he has to put on a brave face for the sake of his wife as well as the men under his command.
Segun has been actively coordinating the twitter and other social media handles of the #ENDSARS campaign. His phone rings all through the day and night and he has hardly slept for more than four hours a day over the past three weeks. He is physically and emotionally exhausted but there is work to do and he has to be there. He believes it is a worthy cause – even though he is aware that hoodlums are also using it to loot and cause mayhem or even kill law enforcement agents.
Mental Health consequences
Emotional consequences of the protests on everyone are enormous: ranging from the street trader who could not make sales, to the young men and women who genuinely were frustrated and fed up with the frequent police harassment. From the policeman who sincerely wishes for reforms and improved working conditions for himself and other policemen and ensuring a more humane police force; to the families who lost loved ones in the protests and violence that erupted in its aftermath, and so on.
Anxiety, worry, fear, panic, acute stress disorder, sleep problems, depression, and intense grief over the loss of loved ones are common emotional consequences. Others include emotional exhaustion and burnout among the protesters, due to overwhelming stress, as well as a post-traumatic stress disorder.
The emotional wellbeing of all citizens, from angry protesters to those who have suffered injuries and loss of loved ones, to policemen who are scared to put on their uniforms…everyone was negatively impacted. The online survey on the psychosocial impact on citizens by the Asido Foundation supports all the foregoing.
As we mark the one-year anniversary of the protests, we hope the government responds in a positive and timely manner to citizen agitations in a manner that prevents disruptive protests which harm everyone.
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