Featured, Politics
By Emeka Ugbogu
“…This uprising will bring out the beast in us…”
-Late Afrobeat King, Fela Anikulakpo Kuti; from the Album and title track: Beast of No Nation.
FIRST, the clouds gathered with the deep, ominous and dominant hues of colouration in the skies depicting threat of rain.
It was October 11, 2020 and as the growing crowd of mostly young people gathered for the #EndSarsProtest, no one could tell if it would continue as a period of peaceful protest or slight shower or, as the initial protest match was conceived; a period of great torrents of rain which, as it eventually turned out, brought about a series of sorrow, tears and blood, just as Fela, the proponent of Afrobeat had predicted in the days of yore.
Fast forward to the night of 20 October, 2020, at about 6:50 p.m. Sorrow, tears and blood as well as wanton lootings, arson, carnage; etc became the order of the day in most Nigerian cities.
Lagos, the epi-centre of all that is good, bad and ugliest in Nigeria had a quantum share of it all.
The cause: Officers of the Nigerian Army had opened fire on peaceful EndSARS protesters at the Lekki tollgate in Lagos State. Amnesty International stated that at least 12 protesters were killed during the shooting. There have been complaints about missing persons and a few have been confirmed to be hospitalized and in critical condition.
Beginning from 2017, the EndSARS protest, which takes its name from the slogan is a decentralised social movement, and series of mass protests against police brutality in Nigeria.
The slogan calls for the disbanding of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a notorious unit of the Nigeria Police with a long record of abuses.
After experiencing a revitalisation in October 2020, following more revelations of the abuses of the unit, the demonstrations continued throughout the major cities of Nigeria, accompanied by vociferous outrage on social media platforms.
The protest is notable for its patronage by a demographic that is made of entirely young Nigerians.
These youths continued to assemble and engage in notably, well organised, orchestrated and exciting matches and demonstrations in major cities in Nigeria.
About 28 million tweets bearing the hashtag were accumulated on Twitter alone. Solidarity protests and demonstrations by Nigerians in diaspora and sympathizers occurred in many major cities of the world.
The government had tried in its efforts to dissuade the protesters from continuing their protest march. However, the protesters turned deaf ears to the government’s appeals and assurances that their 5-point agenda have been accepted for implementation.
On 11 October, 2020, the Nigeria Police Force announced that it was dissolving the notorious SARS unit with immediate effect. It was being replaced with another unit with the acronym SWAT. The move was widely received as a triumph of the demonstrations. However, it was noted in many quarters that similar announcements had been made in recent years to pacify the public without the unit actually being disbanded.
The protest marches continued unabated and despite the aftermath effects of the Covid-19 lockdown, there was no indication as to when calm would be restored. As the protesters upped the ante to make additional demand in addition to those against the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, and police brutality across the country, a new twist was added to the protest. Hoodlums joined in the protest marches and even in some cases, outrightly attacked the peacefully gathered and protesting youths.
As incessant cases of pandemonium broke out, many organisations; notably banks, companies and individual businesses in many parts of Lagos, Edo, Rivers, Abuja and so many other states shut down operations as the hoodlums mobilised for more supporters. On Tuesday, October 20, the protests turned bloody with destruction of police stations and government buildings.
Across the nation, the hoodlums unleashed hail of fires. Lagos State; became the epicenter of the actions of the hoodlums as images of burnt buildings, including headquarters of Television Continental, TVC, The Nation Newspapers, other media houses, emergency and safety offices/equipment, the Lekki and Ikoyi toll plazas, shopping malls, banks and hotels littered the media.
Disturbing footages across the country showed anarchy reigning supreme as rampaging armed thugs besieged the country in search of politically exposed persons.
Several Bus Rapid Transport, BRT, buses and stations at Berger and Oyingbo were torched, while the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, head office in Marina was also burnt. Other public places attacked include Lagos City Mall, Igbosere Magistrate Court and Ibeju-lekki Local Government Secretariat, Bella’s place owned by Mike Adenuga, Circle Mall Jakande in Lekki, Shoprite Mall Sangetodo, several shops and plazas across the state as well as some commercial banks.
Also the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, LASEMA, offices, Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, complex at Ojodu Berger and fire trucks were not left out of the destruction.
The protests also impacted trading at the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE. The NSE put losses arising from the protests at about N113 billion.
The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCCI, in quantifying the amount of damage the protests have done on the nation’s economy, placed the figure at about N700 billion to the #EndSARS protests. Toki Mabogunje, president, LCCI, expressed concern over the negative impact of the #EndSARS demonstrations on business activities across the country.
To date, there is a need to render a post script on the #EndSARS protests and the aftermaths. With all the sequence of events; the peaceful protests, the infiltration and attack by hoodlums, government’s responses and actions and, finally the orgy of wanton lootings, arson and destruction of lives and property.
Was the #EndSAR protest an uprising or revolution or a one-stop socio-political event? What lessons have we as a people and government learnt? Are these positive or negative lessons?
Can the #EndSARS protest be seen as a revolution or an uprising?
Moving forward, what further dimensions of civil expression can we expect in the nation’s socio political sphere?
Particularly, for the Nigeria Police Force; whose actions or rather inactions in ensuring the protection of lives and properties of the citizenry, what has been the effect of the #EndSAR protest?
With the government setting up the judicial panel of enquiries after the protests and the mayhem that ensued, it is obvious the Police Force has barely learnt any enduring lessons from the peoples revolt.
The same message and actions of Police brutality, impunity and crass violation of citizen’s rights have continued unabated. It is even most surprising that the legal department of the Nigeria Police Force went to court to challenge the setting up of the judicial panels on the #EndSAR protest.
Daily, there is increasing levels and recorded cases of impunity, harassment and unending Police brutality and assault on Nigerians.
A frontline journalist with the REALnews Magazine on Tuesday, December 8, 2020 had a bitter taste of the often displayed disposition of men of the Nigeria Police Force.
At about 2pm on that day, she was rudely halted close to the Ikeja Roundabout (under bridge) while driving through the Obafemi Awolowo Way. A set of men of the Police and the traffic control agency; notably the LASTMA, accused her of driving “one way” and immediately besieged her car.
It was a mob-like setting as an officer photographed her car. Another forcefully removed the front number plate, whilst she was being forced to surrender the car to them for onward drive to their office.
The scenario was like an unfolding, brutish and nasty nightmare. The lady had to frantically put a call through to Frank Mba, Police PRO, Abuja. It is most instructive to note that even in a case of a breach of traffic laws; the officers were hostile and unprofessional in their conduct.
The lady would have experienced more pains, harassment, extortion and even assault if not for the quick intervention of Mba.
Similar cases abound of crudity in the conduct and operations of the Nigeria Police and it is obvious, the aftermath of the EndSAR protest has registered no significant lessons to cause a remarkably positive attitude and disposition in the conduct and operations of men of the Nigeria vPolice Force.
In a telephone conversation, Onyekachi Ubani, former NBA Chairman, is emphatic that lessons have been learnt. He scores the people positively whilst placing the government at very low ebb on the lessons spectrum.
For Ubani, “the people and mostly our youths have realized they can achieve so much more if the come together to fight a common cause. The youths have the numbers, are well educated and adept in social media communications. When united, they as well as the Nigerian people can really achieve so much in socio-political change.”
On the other hand, the former NBA Chairman said: “the government has disappointingly, not learnt any lessons from the #EndSAR protests. The government does not appreciate the fact that people are suffering so much hardship, injustices and violation of their rights.”
He said: “The government continues to engage in impunity with no regards to the peoples living conditions and rights. The government works at cross purposes and we can witness this in the judicial panels that even the Police had to request the courts to stop the proceedings.”
“We are awaiting the outcome of the judicial panels sitting on the #EndSAR protest. Most unfortunate is the emerging posture and non-reconciliatory actions of the government amongst which included the crackdown on some notable members of the #EndSAR protest.”
While the majority of the country has been united in one voice about #EndSARS protest a section of youths in the northern region of the country was reported to have held “Pro-SARS” rallies where they demanded that the unit should be reformed, rather than scrapped. Even the Northern governors‘ leadership forum gave support to the submissions of this group of youths.
Even some prominent Northern leaders and government officials termed the #EndSARS protest as a Southern Nigerian action meant to disabilise the nation or even cause outright change of government.
On the notion the #EndSARS protest was a “Southern” affair, Alhassan Yahya, VP, NUJ North East Zone E noted: “The experiences of neglect, sufferings and violations of citizens’ rights exist in both Southern and Northern Nigeria. What happened is some prominent religious and cultural leaders; possibly sponsored and engaged in a form of agenda setting to tag the protest, otherwise.”
“In Gombe, hoodlums were recruited and sent to disperse peaceful protesters. Cases of 7 Journalists that were attacked were reported.”
Professor Ayo Olukotun observed that the #EndSAR protest has emerged as a positive social force that would continually gather momentum as it grows. “The #EndSARS protest and similar protests against bad governance and trampling of citizen’s rights. It has become an unending movement because the people have tested the waters.”
He advocates “total vigilance to maintain the freedom we fought for and enjoy.” He reiterated the need to hold values of integrity and decline to support and suppression to freedom of expression and press freedom.
The challenge now is for the government to sit up, embrace integrity via good governance and avoid further violations of the people’s rights.”
To ensure peace and tranquility in the nation, Professor Olukotun called for good exchange of information between rulers and followers.
– Dec. 11, 2020 @ 17:19| GMT |
Tags: The #EndSARS Protest: An “Uprising” to Where…Any Lessons Learnt?
