#EndSARS: No one is safe from police brutality – Musicbysire

Talented Nigerian musician, Olorunsogo Michael Oni, aka Musicbysire, has added his voice to the outrage of angry youths currently protesting against police brutality across Nigeria.

Speaking from his base in America, he avowed that no Nigerian is spared from police brutality as he recounted his brush with rogue cops before his relocation out of the country.

“I had experienced police brutality and harassment since I was a kid when riding with my parents in the car, I witnessed how they were coerced to bribe policemen before we would be allowed passage,” he recalled. “There was even a time someone hired police officers to shoot my dad.”

He continued: “Growing up and using an iPhone, I was stopped on four different occasions by policemen who wanted to know how I was able to buy an iPhone 6 at the time. In the long run, they left me alone since I passed through that road most of the time. We even became familiar to the point that we exchanged pleasantries, but the truce came at a price after I had exercised my right and was slapped by one of the officers who tried to unlawfully arrest me for not unlocking my phone for him.”

Although, America in the past months has been roiling with protests by the Black Lives Matter agitators, Musicbysire, however, avowed that there is no basis for comparison between Nigeria and America.
Said he: “Sometimes, I feel Nigeria is 100 years behind civilization, and it breaks my heart; I just can’t understand why it is convenient for our leaders to come to countries like America, but they find it difficult to imitate the American standards of governance and economy to make our country better.”

As an African in America, he insisted that he hasn’t been a victim of racism, and he is certain Nigeria doesn’t have anything as corrosive as the kind of racism that is inherent in the American society. “Tribalism and religious intolerance, those are the major things dividing our country,” Musicbysire asserted.