Folarin ‘Falz’ Falana, singer, actor and activist, has said President Muhammadu Buhari’s promise to reform the police was infuriating and frustrating as his administration had been making the same promise of reform since 2017.

He said this in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, when a short clip of President Muhammadu Buhari’s Thursday’s speech was played.

In the clip, Buhari said SARS was scrapped in response to the #EndSARS campaigners’ demands and extensive police reforms were underway.

When Amanpour then asked him how much stock he puts in Buhari’s pledges, Falz, who had been shaking his head cynically as the clip played, said: “It’s infuriating, annoying and frustrating. And I think that’s how everyone is feeling right now.

“They have been reforming the police for a long time and we have never seen actual action. They announced that SARS had been disbanded in 2017, 2018, 2019 and now 2020.

“They just think we are stupid. It is insensitive.”

‘I am not afraid of dying’

When Amanpour asked him if he wasn’t scared, as many young people refused to appear on camera, Falz said he was not afraid for his life, as the Nigerian situation has made death a commonplace occurrence.

Falz told Amanpour: “I am not afraid for my life because where we are right now, I feel like I can easily die by anything else anyway.

“We have a non-existent healthcare system, for example. We have a seriously high level of poverty; there is unemployment.

“We are in a critical state because of the level of corruption and mismanagement of funds that we continue to see on a daily basis.

“I can have an accident on my way to work and die because the state of healthcare is nothing to write home about. People have to travel abroad to have proper healthcare.

“We keep on saying that every single Nigerian is one sickness away from passing away.

“So what kind of life am I living any way? Why should I be afraid of dying? I am going to die anyway, so what is the point?” Falz asked Amanpour.

Vanguard