THE NIGERIAN END SARS MOVEMENT

You have probably seen across all social media platform the trending ENDSARS movement, ever wondered what it is all about, let us take a drive down memory lane.

In 1992 the Special Anti Robbery Squad popularly known as SARS was created to help in combating all activities related to armed robbery, kidnapping and other violent crimes. We can proudly say the introduction of this unit hasn't been the case. They have carried out these activities on the citizens of Nigeria, activities they might have sworn to prevent. At a point it became news that SARS targeted, 'yahoo yahoo' guys (guys involved in internet crime) crimes that out to be handled by the EFCC but our government turned a blind eye to all these happens. Mothers and Fathers wailing and burying their kids at a very young age became the new 'normal'.

A couple of times the people have come out to say no to SARS and everything it ends with the disbandment of the unit SARS, this happened in 2017, 2018, 2019 and also took place during the protest which started on the 8th of October 2020, when Frank Mba (the Public Relations Officer of The Nigerian Police Force) announced that it had been disbanded. The protesters looked at this 'development' and saw it as a means to keep moving backwards with bad leadership, as this protests carried out, videos of SARS officials shooting and killing citizens kept going round and round. This showed the ignorance and evil doings that laid rest in the Nigerian government.

The stories of men and women that have been killed and raped by these officials kept on sweeping the internet; Fathers asked to swim in a river filled with dead bodies to find his son, mothers losing their pregnancy because they were called at odd hours to bail their kids out of prison, women raped and framed for carrying drugs. At this point, it is a crime to look good and smell good in Nigerian; every laptop owner is an internet fraudster, no child is allowed to carrying 'big' phones or drive good cars.

A video circulated where an officer arrested a young boy because the phone in the young man's possession was a quarter of a million and he (the officer) who was going to be fourteen years in service had in his possession a phone worth fifteen thousand naira (15,000).

On the 13th of October 2020, like our demands were shitty, they decided to create a body Special Weapon and Tactics Team, also known as SWAT, to replace SARS. This only aggravated the citizens, felt like our voices weren't heard, felt like we were spat on for standing up for our rights. During this protest, peaceful protestors were harassed and detained, this was a means to use and halt the protests. Before they went down the path of ‘disbanding’ SARS, they told the Nigerian citizens that it was going to be difficult and almost impossible to disband this unit because they needed the unit to fight the terrorist group in Nigeria, Boko Haram.

It is important to note that during this protest, the needs of protestors where handled, donations were made to a non-governmental body known as The Feminist Coven, we also had some Nigerian celebrities, organizations, and Churches donating money to take care of the needs of the people, which includes Olamide, Don Jazzy, Tacha, PiggyVest, Flutterwave, Elevation Church, Daystar to mention a few. They took care of feeding, medication and other things that needed to be handled. This move had a lot of support from the international artist and even from the owner of Twitter, Jack.

A 5 point demand was made for the government, and on this ground was the only way the protestors would have agreed to the protest and they include:

·       Immediate release of all arrested protestors.

·       Justice for all deceased victims of police brutality and appropriate compensation for their families.

·       Setting up an independent body to oversee the investigation and prosecution of all reports of police misconducts (within 10 days).

·       In light with the new Police Act, psychological evaluation and prosecution to be confirmed by an independent body) of all disbanded SARS officers before they can be redeployed.

·       Increase police salary so that they are adequately compensated for protecting lives and property of citizens.

The Nigerian government sent thugs to attack the citizens, citizens that stood under rain and sunshine to elect them into the various offices, some came with charms while others came with cutlass, destroying properties and causing injury to unarmed protestors. During all these, an activist ground Anonymous hacked the Twitter page of the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission and started tweeting #ENDSARS, this was as a result of threats placed by the NBC on broadcasting stations and media houses not to carry any news concerning the ENDSARS movement. This said activist account also hacked into some government agencies to leak details of the financial expenditures.

20.10.20 which stands as a memorable during this protest began with the governor of Lagos state, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, at around noon issuing a 24-hour curfew which was going to start by 4 pm for those resident in Lagos state, coupled with traffic and distance, cries came to the ears of the governor to extend the time for the curfew and it was extended to 9 pm. Despite the extension, the protestors at the Lekki Toll Gate remained on ground, sitting peacefully, holding the Nigerian flag and singing the Nigerian National anthem. The lights at Tollgate were turned off, and the CCTV cameras were disabled; this was going to prevent the peaceful protestors from having their evidence at hand.

7 pm on the 20th of October 2020, the Nigerian army arrived at the scene and began shooting at peaceful protestors, this was caught on a live Instagram video done by Dj Switch, this shooting carried on for a while and about an estimate of 15 persons were killed, and according to stories of persons that were on ground during this shooting, the soldiers took the bodies of the dead victims away. This day is what Nigerians refer to as TheLekkiMassacre.

They carried on with this, videos of officers shooting protestors till they were dead. Few days after this, the protests were stopped while the people restrategized, trying to educate those that need to be on the forthcoming elections. The entire nation is burning, and the youths are tired of being told they can't breathe in their land, coupled with our anger is the fact the President addressed the nation only twice, and on these two occasions, NOTHING MEANINGFUL WAS SAID, his second broadcast had him talking poverty alleviation and made no reference to The Lekki toll gate massacre.

The aftermath of the protests led to hoodlums taking over and looting shoes and destroying properties, burning on buildings. Is it over? No, it is not. The people will never forget, and this has the entire nation ready for 2023 when they get to make their voices heard. It is time for Nigeria to sit up, for the old and evil leaders to leave and enjoy 'retirement'.