The Flawed Logic of Targeting Dreadlocks in the Name of Security

BY ANTHONY ADA ABRAHAM

One thing our politicians and their security enforcers fail to grasp is the absurdity of branding people with dreadlocks as criminals. How many terrorists, thieves, or even Boko Haram and Fulani militants have been arrested with dreadlocks? It’s baffling how grown men in power can genuinely believe that young men with dreads are the root of society’s problems.

Ironically, these same officials travel abroad and happily interact with people who wear dreadlocks, grinning like chickens. Take, for instance, the son of one of our FCT minister, he carries dreadlocks. Many children of politicians, business elites, and even security personnel wear them. Should they all be labeled threats to the state? Who even advises these leaders? What kind of reasoning is this?

And what about those born with natural dreadlocks (“dada”)? Should their heads be chopped off simply because one man links their hair to insecurity?

We must seriously reconsider the people we elect to lead us. If a leader can boldly claim that young men with dreadlocks are the primary cause of insecurity, then 99 per cent of innocent Nigerians, including their own childre should prepare for jail. By that logic, those wearing beads (like the leader himself) shouldn’t be spared either, since they’re more likely to be bandits than those with dreads.

What we needed from him was a clear stance against illegal weapons, especially among herders and “Yan daba” thugs, not a ridiculous hairstyle-based profiling system.

In Nigeria, poverty is a death sentence.

Those close to this man should advise him immediately. His reckless statement has already given the police and other authorities a license to harass and extort innocent citizens in and around the state.

©️ Okrote4real