#EndSARS: Nigerian sports stars as social justice champions

OVER the years, sportsmen and women have used their voices and influence to join in the struggle for social change, although they have often been met with derision or even more injustice.

The powers that be know that stars in the world of sports and entertainment have powerful influences on youth culture and can therefore shape the thought of young people.

A lot of the time, to discredit these sports stars and minimise their impact on the young, they are dismissed as all muscle and little intellect, and told to ‘stick to sports’. Leave the politics and serious stuff to people with the intellectual capacity is the message. Shut up and dribble, like Laura Ingham, a right-wing television show host, told LeBron James when the basketball superstar had the gall to talk about race relations in the United States of America.

James has ignored Ingham and refused to back down. And Nigerian athletes have also been raising their voices these past few days as the protests against police brutality in their country escalated. They have refused to ‘stick to sports’ or ‘shut up and dribble’. They are making their voices heard, lining up emphatically on the side of the people.

The #EndSARS movement has brought the inner rebel out of Nigerian sportsmen and women, and it is a great sight to behold. The struggle against police harassment, extortion and murder is one we must all be involved in, because every single Nigerian who is not in government is affected directly or indirectly.

Every Nigerian has one sad tale or the other about mistreatment from the Nigerian police. If you are not directly affected, it could be your siblings, your children, your relatives, your neighbours, your friends or your colleagues at work. There is no escaping it.

And sportsmen and women, being young people, are a part of the target demographic of these notorious SARS operatives who target youths for harassment and extortion.

Young people all over the world are flashy and ostentatious when they have money. They just show it off; it is natural. They buy big cars, wear expensive clothes and ‘bling’, and flaunt the latest devices. It is not a crime anywhere else except in Nigeria. 

It was the relentless and unrepentant acts of brutality against the youth that sparked the #EndSARS movement and young Nigerians displayed a spirit of resistance that had not been witnessed in decades.

And Nigerian sports stars played a big role in sustaining the struggle for the record 12 days it went on before an act of cruelty put a temporary halt to it.

The Super Eagles, who were in Austria for friendly matches against Algeria and Tunisia in the thick of the protests, sent messages back home that they were behind their compatriots.

Captain Ahmed Musa, William Troost-Ekong, Leon Balogun, Alex Iwobi, Kevin Akpoguma  and others all used social media to relay powerful messages of solidarity.

Although there were calls that the matches should be abandoned, the players went on with their jobs, using the games to their advantage. When Kelechi Iheanacho scored in the second game against Tunisia, he and the other players took the knee and raised clenched fists in the universal gesture of resistance.

John Ogu, who was not in the team to Austria, was so outraged by the happenings back home that he suggested that future national team matches should be boycotted if the killings of young Nigerians would not stop. The politicians and their children might as well take to the field and represent the country, he said.

Ogu also marched with his peers in Lekki during the protests.

Asisat Oshoala, the outspoken African football queen, referred to Nigeria as a ‘jungle’ in a tweet as more and more young people were killed while protesting. The Spain-based Super Falcons star, probably the most recognisable women’s football player in Africa, fired off several tweets in support of the struggle and defiantly showed off her flaming red hair, the type that gets young people in trouble with men of SARS.

Odion Ighalo, playing for the highest-profile club among the Nigerian players at present, made an impassioned video on Tuesday night that got the world talking. The usually easygoing and taciturn striker, fresh from his club’s 2-1 win over Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Champions League, spoke with obvious pain at the wanton murder of unarmed protesters by the security forces.

He condemned the actions of the government and their armed forces, and called out the authorities for bringing shame and sorrow to Nigerians.

 All the big outlets like Sky News and BBC ran parts of the two-minute video and it caught the world’s attention, making headlines globally.

Every Nigerian sportsman and woman showed concern and spoke out passionately, even those who have spent most of their lives abroad. 

Ultimate Fighting Championship stars Kamaru Usman, based in the United States of America, and New Zealand-based Israel Adesanya were also outraged by the events back home. Usman made a lengthy video condemning the police and declaring the government a failure for their handling of the protests. Adesanya simply agreed with his friend, adding ‘they don’t really care about us’ in reference to Michael Jackson’s 1990s hit song which highlighted the world’s injustices.

Nigerian-born world boxing champion Anthony Joshua initially made a video pleading for peace but raged with indignation after news broke that more unarmed protesters had been killed by the security forces.

History is replete with athletes displaying acts of defiance in the fight for social justice.

Two black American athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, both brought the fight against racial injustice to the Olympics in 1968, raising black-gloved wrists at the podium as they received their medals in the men’s 200 metres.

One of the most famous sportsmen of all time Muhammad Ali refused to be drafted into the US Army for the war against Vietnam in the 1960s, insisting that he had no problem with the Viet Cong. There was a huge movement against the war and Ali spearheaded it, getting blacklisted, losing his world heavyweight boxing title and facing jail time.

More recently, American football star Colin Kaepernick threw everything on the line in his support for the Black Lives Matter movement. The quarterback took the knee during the national anthem at every game and highlighted the extra-judicial killings of young black men by the American police. He has paid a big price for his resistance. Despite being one of the top quarterbacks in the National Football League, he has not had a contract since 2017.

Kaepernick has been attacked by white supremacists and condemned by US President Donald Trump, but he has continued his fight against systemic racism and police brutality.

In England, former national team striker Gary Lineker has been very vocal about immigrants’ rights, ignoring the vile personal abuse his activism has elicited.

Young Manchester United and England forward Marcus Rashford has defied the British government in his fight to ensure that schoolchildren from poor homes do not go hungry. The 22-year-old has taken on the Prime Minister and members of parliament, and has raised millions of pounds in his activism against child poverty.

Now, it is a welcome sight that Nigerian sportsmen and women are fighting a cause that is not just about them.

This is not about unpaid entitlements, substandard camping facilities or any of the injustices that Nigerian athletes have had to battle for decades. This is about the wider society and Nigerian athletes have stood up to be counted.

They could easily have stayed in their comfort zones, not ruffled any feathers and enjoyed their millions in peace.

But they have realised that what affects one, affects all eventually. Even sportsmen and women are not immune to police brutality.