After #EndSARS, community support helps Nigerians heal wounds

Lagos, Nigeria – Greater than two months after she was attacked whereas protesting towards the now-defunct Particular Anti-Theft Squad (SARS) in Lagos, Clara Igwe*, 23, nonetheless finds it troublesome to sleep.

“4 [police] males cocked their weapons and had been going through me [saying] that I ought to lay down,” she recounts to Al Jazeera. “The subsequent factor, the opposite one used the gun to hit me; one other one was utilizing a persist with beat me; one was utilizing koboko (a whip made from animal pores and skin); one in every of them got here down from the van and simply used a bottle to hit my head … The beating was mad.”

That each one occurred on the evening of October 20, at an space often known as Seven-Up – a couple of kilometres from the protest floor in Alausa, a principal district of the state capital, Ikeja, that additionally homes the Lagos State secretariat and the governor’s workplace. Igwe and various others had fled there after safety forces opened hearth on their protest floor, leaving a minimum of two folks lifeless.

On the time, nationwide consideration was on occasions taking place about 30km (18 miles) away, on the Lekki toll gate, the place the Nigerian military had fired on peaceable protesters, killing a minimum of 12.

After the police beat her till she was semi-conscious, they dragged Igwe out of their van and left her on the facet of the highway, she says. She hid underneath a automobile till the subsequent morning when somebody helped her. She spent the subsequent two days in hospital, being handled for accidents to her head and physique. She then moved to a secure home arrange by protest organisers, as she feared the police may very well be on the lookout for her.

“I hardly sleep as a result of I’m too scared,” she says. “I see myself working from folks with weapons after which I see myself kneeling earlier than folks with weapons round me and so they’re threatening to shoot me and one in every of them is thrashing me, one is hitting me. I hear some silly issues like: ‘You this woman, we go kill you end, we go throw your physique, they no go see you.’”

Igwe believes that, compared to the occasions in Lekki, not sufficient consideration has been paid to the acts of brutality that happened in different components of the nation, together with Alausa. Like hundreds of Nigerians throughout the nation who actively participated within the protests, she is traumatised.

A view reveals a highway blockade on the Lekki toll gate in Lagos on October 24, 2020, days after the military opened hearth on protesters there [Afolabi Sotunde/Reuters]

Years of harassment

Though the daughter of a retired SARS officer, Igwe had additionally skilled harassment from the infamous police unit – which motivated her to hitch the protests final October.

SARS, which was formally disbanded on October 11 because of the demonstrations, was infamous for extortion, arbitrary arrests, torture and extrajudicial killings, with folks aged 16 to 35 its primary goal. Younger males would usually be profiled as web fraudsters, whereas ladies had been accused of being prostitutes. Igwe skilled this when she was stopped by SARS whereas in a Taxify taxi in Lagos final yr.

“They stopped the automobile and requested us to return out,” she recounts. “I used to be dressed up and the (officer mentioned) I used to be trying like a prostitute, that I ought to carry my telephone (so they might search it)… After I refused, he was like, if I don’t, he’ll slap me.” After harassing her, they shifted their consideration to the motive force who was extorted earlier than the 2 had been allowed to depart.

Igwe considers herself fortunate. In comparable circumstances, the end result has been bodily abuse and even demise. Earlier than the October protests, Amnesty Worldwide had documented 82 circumstances of torture, unwell therapy and extrajudicial killing over the previous three years. It reached a tipping level on October 5 after SARS operatives allegedly threw Joshua Ambrose out of a shifting automobile in Ughelli, a city in Delta State. Footage of the scene made it to social media and went viral, which reignited #EndSARS, serving to the motion unfold to cities throughout Nigeria and overseas.

Regardless of her household’s misgivings about her demonstrating towards SARS, Igwe went a step additional: From being a protester to a volunteer. She shared meals and drinks to maintain protesters’ spirits up after which acted as safety element, serving to regulate high-spirited protesters’ actions and restore order when hoodlums infiltrated protests at Alausa.

“My dad didn’t prefer it one bit as a result of he mentioned I used to be protesting towards his [former] job. My mother and all people was simply towards it and he stopped speaking to me,” she says.

Protesters on the streets of Calabar in Cross River state on October 14, 2020 [Kathryn Kubiangha]

Triggers and trauma

The protests didn’t solely take a toll on these on the entrance line. Dennis Eguagie, a radio presenter in Enugu, southeast Nigeria, was in shock as he watched the October 20 assault on peaceable protesters in Lekki on Instagram, whereas on a music break. The 26-year-old was so shaken that he breached broadcasting guidelines by leaving his radio present unattended for over 5 minutes, earlier than abandoning it altogether with two hours nonetheless left on air.

“I keep in mind turning off the mic,” he says. “I mentioned [to myself] I don’t understand how I really feel, I’m going to wish some time to course of how I really feel. And I mentioned: ‘That is it for the evening.’”

The lifeless air was adopted by the nationwide anthem and an abrupt finish to his present. However he stayed within the broadcasting sales space for some time to consider what he had simply seen, relating the occasions to previous massacres he had examine or adopted. Later, he known as his father to speak about it.

“[My dad] was quiet. Why? As a result of he skilled the civil conflict as a younger boy … It was unhappy for him as a result of the son who he [brought into the world], years after that have, remains to be experiencing a glimpse of how Nigeria can scar her residents,” Eguagie says.

Dennis Eguagie presenting his night radio present in Enugu on December 23, 2020 [Photo courtesy of Dennis Eguagie]

The presenter says he remembers “simply shutting down” after seeing the bloodbath on his social media feed. “I’m not somebody that will cry. The final time I cried was once I misplaced my brother, possibly greater than 10 years in the past. I struggled since you can’t depart a radio present midway. I realise that (the listeners) had been anticipating to listen to an thrilling voice on the radio, however right here’s what I simply watched, I can’t do that!

“One thing in me was at that Lekki toll that very day,” he continues. “It was like a model of me that was represented, received hit. So it was like I used to be alive however I used to be not.”

He discovered himself again in a well-known darkish gap. His first expertise with despair was in 2016 whereas his mom battled an sickness earlier than her demise. Now it was again, and his request for a week-long depart from work was granted.

The protests towards police brutality have taken a toll on Nigerians’ psychological well being, says Amanda Iheme, lead psychotherapist and founding father of Ndidi, a non-public psychological well being service in Lagos.

“Everybody has the same story, the distinction can be the context of their expertise,” she says. “The way in which they current the impact it had on them: emotions of hysteria, panic assaults, depressive signs, PTSD (Put up Traumatic Stress Dysfunction), they’re human response to trauma and human response to adverse, emotional and troublesome experiences.”

Feeling helpless and afraid

Nigeria, the seventh-largest nation on the earth, ranks 15th on the earth (and seventh in Africa) for the variety of suicides, in response to a World Well being Group (WHO) report. With simply eight federal neuropsychiatric services throughout the nation, and 250 psychiatrists (and 200 underneath coaching) obtainable to a inhabitants of 200 million, gaining access to psychological healthcare is troublesome and costly.

Initiatives like Mentally Conscious Nigeria Initiative (MANI), a psychological well being advocacy group, have emerged to fill the hole, usually bringing remedy to folks’s doorsteps by way of platforms like WhatsApp and Twitter.

“It was fairly exhausting to discover a psychiatrist or therapist in Calabar,” Kathryn Kubiangha, 19, says of her battle to seek out therapy for her nervousness dysfunction within the metropolis the place she lives. “I’ve some underlying psychological well being points and I wanted to see any individual.”

A protester holds an indication crucial of the Nigerian president, at a road rally in Calabar on October 14, 2020 [Kathryn Kubiangha]

The occasion photographer documented the #EndSARS protests in Akpabuyo, a city in Cross River State, within the south-south area of Nigeria. This triggered and heightened her nervousness. “Mainly at each flip the place we see law enforcement officials, I used to be similar to: ‘Ha, is it the time the place they lastly shoot us?’ or ‘what’s going to occur?’” she remembers.

“Each time I left the protest floor it was a battle getting dwelling. I simply saved taking a look at all people, checking if I’m being adopted. Actually, virtually each single one on the road [while] strolling again dwelling [was a suspect] as a result of apart from taking cabs, sooner or later I’ve to stroll to get to my home. So I used to be like ‘am I going to be grabbed?’”

She might solely attend three bodily protests due to this. Helpless, she barely left her home and it worsened after October 20 when she began “listening to gunshots in my head”. She discovered one in every of MANI’s psychological well being calls on Twitter and despatched a message throughout one in every of her panic assaults when she “might barely breathe”.

“They helped out,” she says. “Any individual known as from there, he was attempting to get my thoughts off the entire thing. It was a really lengthy name and it labored higher than I anticipated.”

Ifedola Ward, MANI’s govt director, says they started to concentrate to psychological breakdowns linked to the #EndSARS protests after she witnessed a girl having a panic assault on the web site in Alausa, on October 7. “They didn’t know what was taking place to her and labelled her a [protest] disruptor,” she says.

After calming the lady down, she led MANI efforts to arrange a devoted channel to assist these needing help, and to distribute panic playing cards – a primary assist card with tricks to fight delicate psychological well being issues equivalent to sleep deprivation, panic assaults and nervousness.

Nigerian Police hearth tear gasoline at folks throughout clashes between youths in Apo, Abuja, Nigeria, on October 20, 2020, following demonstrations towards SARS [Kola Sulaimon/AFP]

Counsellors and listeners

On October 17, protest organisers began a helpline so the Finish SARS Response Unit – a web-based platform created to offer social companies together with meals, safety, and medical assist – might higher meet protesters’ wants. Of the six obtainable channels folks might name for assist, three extensions had been devoted solely to psychological well being emergencies.

Eby Akhigbe, a buyer care skilled credited with organising the helplines, led a gaggle of volunteers who answered the calls. MANI and Stand To Finish Rape Initiative (STER), a sexual violence advocacy group, had been on the fore. Misery calls landed on both desks or with Akhigbe’s workforce. All of them present Psychological First Assist (PFA), utilizing task-sharing – a system utilized by MANI to fill the void within the Nigerian psychological well being sector.

With task-sharing, circumstances are dealt with in a triage method, relying on severity: Gentle circumstances like nervousness, trauma and lack of sleep get forwarded to educated psychological well being counsellors who interact in discuss remedy, whereas extra severe circumstances like despair and suicidal ideation are referred to psychotherapists and psychiatrists, who can run a prognosis or administer medication if wanted.

“That’s as a result of we have now a large hole we have to bridge. If we have now to depend on those who studied psychotherapy or psychology, then it will imply that we’ll have lots of people with psychological well being points that will by no means get consideration,” says Ward.

A protester holds an indication calling for an finish to police brutality in Nigeria, on October 21, 2020, in London [Hasan Esen/Anadolu]

Regardless, the calls poured in. Regardless of extra efforts from different outfits, the requests for assist outweighed their manpower, thus highlighting the shortage of capability to take care of psychological well being points within the nation usually.

“I and a number of the members of my workforce took requires psychological well being, particularly at odd hours of the evening and early hours of the day,” says Akhigbe. “We had these sorts of calls; those who couldn’t sleep in any respect or they had been having panic assaults and what-have-you. Then we’ll simply discuss them by way of the method of stress-free and stuff. We simply hearken to them. It was majorly about listening, not majorly about what we had been going to inform them.

“We even had one case the place one man needed to commit suicide,” she continues. “In truth, he even drank one thing after which we needed to ship an ambulance to go and [take] him to the hospital. There have been completely different circumstances like that however the majority of the circumstances, after they name to say, ‘I can’t sleep, my coronary heart is aching’, we simply calm them down.

“We’re not psychological well being professionals and there was plenty of helplessness throughout that interval, however first we simply calm folks down and say: ‘See, we all know what you’re going by way of. We perceive.’

“We’re getting these sorts of calls. Persons are dying and all. Simply take a deep breath. Be calm. Shut down your social media, shut down your telephone. Hearken to calming music to take your thoughts off the entire scenario. I had an ‘Finish Sars’ playlist. I used to be even sharing it on Twitter.”

In line with Akhigbe, the evening of October 20 and the next morning noticed this attain a crescendo, after the killings on the Lekki toll gate. Members of the workforce, together with herself, broke down. “All people too had a share of coping with their psychological well being.”

A protester within the UK holds up a home-made Nigerian flag with the date October 20, 2020, written on it, the day safety forces opened hearth on peaceable demonstrators within the centre of Lagos State [Ben Stansall/AFP]

Schooling hole

One constructive consequence of #EndSARS has been furthering psychological well being consciousness in a rustic the place psychological illnesses are sometimes not handled significantly. The quantity of requests for help throughout the protests – though overwhelming for counsellors – was signal that persons are searching for assist, however the schooling hole stays broad, says Angel Yinkore, STER’s psychological well being unit lead.

Psychological healthcare is stigmatised. Usually, relatively than searching for medical assist, points are both ignored or seen as non secular assaults that may be handled by turning to faith. “That is one thing that wants dialogue,” she says.

In Calabar, photographer Kubiangha was confronted with stigma and advised by a health care provider to “strive Jesus Christ” throughout one in every of her visits to the hospital.

“After I advised my mom I wanted to go to a psychiatric hospital, she simply screamed, like I advised her I need to do medication. She was like ‘God forbid.’ Hers was out of concern for what folks would say, however different peoples’ [reaction] was worse,” Kubiangha says.

That was earlier than she discovered MANI on Twitter. However people who find themselves not on social media may not have entry to the schooling and therapy they want.

A Nigerian lady primarily based in South Africa weeps as others consolation her throughout an #EndSARS rally in Pretoria on October 21, 2020 [Phill Magakoe/AFP]

“Clearly it’s a must to be of a sure literacy degree and social class degree to have the ability to entry initiatives like MANI and STER. People who don’t have entry to that, how do they find out about them?” asks Yinkore, who campaigns for presidency intervention on the grassroots degree.

However societal perceptions round psychological well being, and the general public’s degree of schooling on the subject, is enabled by the law – or the shortage thereof.

In 1916, the Lunacy Ordinance, Nigeria’s first psychological well being laws, was enacted. The legal guidelines had been then amended in 1958, whereas the nation was underneath British management, conferring energy upon medical practitioners and magistrates to detain sufferers with psychological sicknesses.

In 2003, the Nationwide Meeting obtained a Psychological Well being Invoice, which outlined ideas for the supply of care to folks with neurological and psychological situations. However failure to behave on it noticed it withdrawn in 2009 whereas a reintroduction in 2013 was met with the identical languid vitality.

“In major healthcare centres, what the federal government ought to be doing is introducing psychological well being programmes. In order that within the grassroots, folks have entry to it as a result of it’s not simply folks within the center class which might be being affected by police brutality,” says Yinkore.

“Whereas our companies are open to everybody, not all people nonetheless is aware of in regards to the existence of such companies.”

Filling the void

NGOs proceed to attempt to fill the hole. A number of initiatives have sprung up throughout and after the protests to assist fight psychological well being problems. For queer Nigerians – who face extra trauma due to the nation’s homophobic legal guidelines – the Protected Home undertaking offered tailor-made psychological well being steering over the telephone.

On November eight in Lagos, Tiwa, a neighborhood of Nigerian feminine photographers, held a care occasion that they opened to photographers of any gender who lined the protests. Umar Faruq Akinwunmi, who documented the protests, attended. He advised Al Jazeera he was on edge throughout the protests and skilled “a gentle set off [every time] I noticed the police”.

“On the third mainland bridge, earlier than the Adeniji diversion, my automobile stopped and the police had been there. I received actually agitated, I used to be anxious that they might simply do one thing,” he remembers. On November 7, a day earlier than the care occasion, he had one other encounter when he was pulled over by policemen on his means again from a date together with his girlfriend.

Umar Faruq Akinwunmi at his Lagos residence on December 23, 2020 [Tolu Olasoji/Al Jazeera]

Accessible on the care occasion had been therapeutic massage periods, portray and a psychotherapy session led by Iheme, the psychotherapist from Ndidi.

“The spa session was good for his or her physique. It was a strategy to relieve bodily pressure and simply calm down, and the psychotherapy – getting folks to speak,” says Aisha Ife, the group occasion convener. “Most occasions, folks don’t need to discuss. That day, it was a very nice factor for folks to only have the ability to communicate freely about their experiences, how they’ve been coping thus far and in addition how they’ll cope higher with their trauma.”

Iheme noticed the same sample rising, she says. “Lots of people who spoke and shared their emotions had their challenges starting from enhancing photographs, fears about going outdoors, panic assaults every time they noticed a police truck or police automobiles. They’re very comparable, it wasn’t completely different from the opposite particular person.”

She urges each Nigerian to go and see a psychological well being skilled, as a result of peculiarity of traumatic experiences within the nation – together with financial hardship, authorities oppression, violence and heavy-handed policing. However on common a remedy session prices 10,000 naira ($26) – a major quantity contemplating the nation’s minimal wage is 30,000 naira ($79) a month.

The price of care

Psychological healthcare is a luxurious in Nigeria. Nevertheless, “one can persist with NGOs like Mentally Conscious, Anti Suicide and Melancholy”, Iheme says. “I work with an NGO known as Listening Ear Africa, they pay for folks’s remedy periods.”

Obodo, a subsidiary of Ndidi, gives free help group periods for folks needing psychological healthcare in Lagos. Their final session noticed the best turnout for teams in help of hysteria, despair and grief. Digital instruments like Google, wikiHow, Quora and YouTube movies on psychological well being additionally come in useful, providing free and extra accessible streams of recommendation, she says.

She advises: “Deep respiratory workouts for panic assaults, grounding strategies for panic assaults, workouts for whenever you’re coping with despair and nervousness; and [the] significance of permitting their feelings to move relatively than holding them again.”

Portray session on the Tiwa care occasion on November eight, 2020 [Enoabasi Nta for Tiwa]

At Ndidi, she presents a bundle tailor-made for artists, together with writers and sculptors, the place they’ll both get a reduced session or apply for monetary assist to get free periods.

“At the same time as a non-public observe, the aim is to make it inexpensive, despite the fact that we are attempting to be worthwhile. The aim is to create sources the place folks that may’t afford to pay a single dime can simply present up and get assist.”

With assist from different organisations, MANI has continued its advocacy for a mentally wholesome nation. Along with STER – which sponsors 10 medical psychologists – they facilitate personal remedy periods for victims of police brutality. International Shaper sponsors weekly group periods known as Therapeutic Collectively, for folks but to get better from the windfall of the #EndSARS protests – a six-month undertaking aiming to succeed in 5,000 Nigerian youths. And She Writes Lady, an advocacy group giving “psychological well being a voice”, launched its toll-free psychological well being helpline.

The significance of seeing a psychological well being skilled can’t be overemphasised, says Iheme, urging folks to benefit from the present upheaval and curiosity, and guide a session.

Throughout radio host Eguagie’s week-long break from work after the Lekki taking pictures, he was capable of stabilise his feelings with the assistance of a psychological well being restoration coach, whereas within the aftermath of her traumatic encounter at Alausa, younger protester Igwe has thought-about reaching out to MANI for skilled assist.

Regardless of the federal government’s lackadaisical strategy, advocates, practitioners and volunteers proceed to champion the trigger for a mentally steady nation, hoping each Nigerian no matter their social class – particularly in mild of the widespread #EndSARS protests – will get assist.

*Identify has been modified to guard the particular person’s id.