#EndSARS Protest: 6 Months After!

My generation had never protested. Even in the face of constant policies and regulations that seem to have crippled and stifled the progress of generations before us and ours, we never hit the streets to challenge the government or the ruling class. Millennials and Gen Zs have been touted as the “keypad warriors”, “spineless”, “rude” and unprintable names until the #EndSARS protest challenged that narrative. You know, it takes one thing to break the camel’s back and one more killing of a fellow Nigerian was it for us. Looking at the uproar on social media in October 2020 and discovering the root cause, my heart sank as I thought of another mother losing her child. When the protests began in Ughelli, Delta State and rippled into my state of residence, Lagos State, it was only proper that I was not on the sideline. Lending a voice to a movement that was the number 1 trended hashtag on social media with an icon and a movement with traceable impact is very instructive.

For context, F-SARS is the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad that was formed in 1992 as a branch of the Nigerian Police Force to handle robberies, car snatching and other crimes that had started ravaging the country in a masked operation. For this reason, the SARS unit operated without uniforms or tags to properly infiltrate criminal cells and correctly apprehend them. However, the unit had gone rogue and started illegal stop and search, extortion at gunpoint, sexual harassment and rape, extrajudicial killings, human rights violation and abuses. Over the years, they have been allegedly responsible for the brutalization and death of countless young Nigerians in all geopolitical zones of the country.

In 2016, a brave Nigerian and human rights activist, Segun Awosanya (@Segalinks on Twitter) started single-handedly challenging the rogue unit and bailing illegally detained young Nigerians. He quickly rose to fame as he was the go-to person when one had an encounter with SARS. As expected, he did not have a 100% success rate as one person challenging a criminal unit would meet roadblocks. The lucky ones that lived to tell the story recounted the inhumane treatment being meted out on detainees like the absence of basic rights to bail, an attorney and fundamental human rights.

The burning anger 😡 from every Nigerian that hit the street was eminent. Incidentally, every Nigerian in all the over 10 cities and 12 other countries worldwide where protests happened, seemed to have a story to tell. It was either they were victims themselves, had family who was a victim or close friends who had fallen into their trap. It was personal on a level that Nigeria had never experienced before. Since this set of people at the forefront of the protest had never challenged the government, we were met with heavy police opposition. Police and military tanks were deployed all over the country – tear gas was thrown, water cannons were sprayed on peaceful protesters, illegal arrests were made, rubber bullets/pellets were dispersed, live ammunition went off and sadly, Nigerian citizens exercising their constitutional rights under Section 40 of the 1999 Constitution and demanding justice peacefully on Nigerian soil were lost to the same police brutality being protested.

On the 11th of October 2020, the protesters catalogued a list of five demands that were to be met by the Nigerian Federal Government.

1. The immediate release of all arrested during the protests
2. Justice and compensation for all who died through police brutality in Nigeria
3. An independent body be set up within 10 days to investigate and prosecute all reports of police misconduct
4. Psychological evaluation and retraining of SARS operatives before they are deployed to any other police unit
5. Adequate increase in the salaries for officers of the Nigerian police

In response to this and in a bid to calm the rising tension, the Inspector-General of Police announced the disbandment of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad. Of course, this was no victory as it was the 4th time in 4 successive years that the unit had been disbanded. This did not deter the continuation of protests. Another milestone day occurred on 20th October 2020, where protests continued to happen all over the country and a statement needed to be made. The #LekkiMassacre happened! There has been a lot of debate about the occurrences surrounding it and the alleged deaths from the Nigerian military.

This movement created leaders in all ramifications – male and female alike. As a woman and a month after women’s months, March, I choose to celebrate some of the women that arose to challenge the status quo.

• Rinu Oduala – 22-year-old 300 level student in Lagos State University who was part of the first set of people who camped outside the Lagos State government house, Alausa, in a sit-in protest till they were addressed by the Deputy Governor. She sat on the judicial panel set up by the state and chose to step down when she perceived justice was not being served.
• Aisha Yesufu – Human rights activist and co-convener of the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) movement was at the forefront with protesters at the Federal Capital, Abuja even when tear gas and water cannons were sprayed on them.
• Feminist Coalition – Comprising of Feyikemi "FK" Abudu, Odun Eweniyi, Ire Aderinokun, Kiki Mordi and ten other amazing women who created an ecosystem of legal aid, medical aid, food supply and the rest for protesters all over the country. They were recently recognized by The New York Times as influential women changing the narrative.

6 months later, #EndSARS has awakened us to look a little closer and understand politicking more. For starters, we asked for INEC to make voting an all year occurrence and not just "a week" before elections where we all scramble to get a Permanent Voters Card. Interestingly, that would be opened up on June 28th, 2021 and we would go to those polling units and have our votes count. We would be part of the process and not sit on the sideline anymore.

As a people (young and old), we would not be complacent. We would challenge institutional anomalies whichever way we can within the ambit of the law and hope that in generations to come, posterity would remember that we stood for justice and good governance!