In October, Nigeria witnessed a historic protest led by youths clamoring for the total disbandment of a special unit of the police force known as SARS (Special Anti-Robbery Squad). SARS was initiated to curb crime particularly robbery in Nigeria in the 90s. However, the unit became known as a terror squad notorious for violating the rights of innocent citizens especially youths and women through extrajudicial killings, rape, extortion, kidnapping, intimidation, and even robbery.
The #EndSARS hashtag which trended worldwide for weeks had the support of international lawmakers, celebrities, and sportspeople including Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Kanye West, Rihanna, Drake, Trey Songs, Janet Jackson, Celine Dion, Tammy Abraham, Antonio Rudiger, and a host of others.
For the first time in Nigerian history, Nigerian celebrities from the entertainment and sports industry all over the world including Falz, Runtown, DJ Switch, Wizkid, Davido, John Boyega, Jude Ighalo, John Ogu, and a host of others, actively participated in the protest to #ENDSARS and end police brutality.
The Nigerian government responded by disbanding SARS and immediately creating SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics). This did not go down well with the protesters who insisted it was just a change of name and not a full reformation of the unit. They backed up their claims with proof that SARS has been disbanded three times in the last 3 years but they only came back worse.
The leaderless protest which went on peacefully for almost three weeks grew to include other issues affecting youths such as bad governance, injustice, and impunity.
As one voice, the youths all over Nigeria implored the Nigerian government to take real action to end police brutality, bad governance, increasing poverty, injustice, and impunity.
Despite the attacks on peaceful protesters by hoodlums alleged to be sponsored by the government to disrupt the protests, protests continued all over Nigeria.
On October 20th, peaceful and unarmed protesters at the Lekki toll gate, Lagos, were allegedly attacked and shot at by security forces leading to the death of some protesters. Many others were injured and some maimed in the process. Hoodlums took advantage of the chaos to unleash violence and looting in the State in subsequent days.
Judicial panels of inquiry have been set up in multiple states in Nigeria to investigate cases of police brutality and possibly compensate families. However, it remains to be seen if the government will keep its word.
Since the protests died down, #EndSARS protesters have been witch-hunted by the government alleging sponsored terrorism. Cases of frozen bank accounts, arrest from homes, and seizure of passports to stop traveling, have been trending on social media. These acts are quite contradictory to the promises made by the Nigerian government to listen to the cry of the youths.
It is a month after the unfortunate incident at Lekki and an investigative report by CNN has confirmed the attack on peaceful protesters at Lekki tollgate. Sadly though, no one has been persecuted yet for this attack.
The question now is what next for Nigeria after the #EndSARS protests?
