#ENDSARS, could be the beginning of a new dawn but naivety threatens to keep things the same.
There are perhaps only two strong feelings in this world: the feeling of being left out and the feeling of being involved in something bigger than oneself. Nigerians can say they have felt both to varying degrees, but currently, the feeling of being left out trumps any other feeling. The recent protests against SARS all over, validate that strong feeling of being a part of something: which in this case, is a need to ride that wave of protests, solidarity and the asking for reform that enveloped America and Parts of Europe in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. On the other hand, the anomaly of existence in Nigeria is so deep-rooted that Nigerians are only just realizing that things could be different; better even. Hence the feeling of being left out and deprived of something-which appears to still be intangible-but they want it anyways. Nigerians may want a sudden utopia and It is laughable, but this naivety may be combustion for actual change.
#END SARS has been tweeted around the world an astonishing 2 million times and counting. So, it would be a deliberate act to not notice what is going on. A lot of grievances accompany living in Nigeria, but this issue of police brutality perhaps affects the Nigerian youth more directly than poverty, corruption and other woeful living conditions. Nigerian youth experience a profiling that immediately subjects them to abuse and violence. This is because of age, dreadlocks, tattoos and the crime of owning a laptop and carrying it around. The more than two million tweets for the abolishment of this rogue police unit, is the result of an awakening, perhaps aided by the Black lives matter movement in America, and this has stirred up an unprecedented display of fearlessness, anger and a desire to ask for even more change. The wish for a perfect world where people care and are connected, has prompted many twitter users to call out brands, influencers, the United Nations and even Rihanna for failing to comment on the issue of police brutality in Nigeria. This sustained campaign against a societal ill has not been witnessed for a long time, and it tells of a collective fatigue of the shifting demographic of Nigerians eager to take their future in their hands.
These protests, expose many aspects of the Nigerian society and it especially shines light on the fragile nature of its democracy. When the protests began, Twitter users berated the media houses for failing to cover the protests, despite their extensive coverage of the riots that arose in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. But who is kidding who? Its general knowledge that some members of the ruling class own and control these media houses either by direct ownership, or through coercion, bribery and the sheer awe of them belonging to the ruling class. This lack of independent journalism displays the lack of accountability and impunity prevalent in the country. Scarcely does one hear of the atrocities committed by SARS operatives except one doom-scrolls through twitter and in inter personal discussions on the streets.
Something may be in the air because of the somewhat revolutionary manner of the protests, but the protesters could really define what outcome these protests have. It could be argued that the naivety of the protesters is excusable since protesting on this scale, is a novel activity for the many participants with an average age of 17.5 years. There is a laughable display of teen spirit on twitter and even on the streets. There is a collective excitement that shrouds the severity of what the protests are about. The resorting to jokes, memes, catering, sharing cans of beer and even picking up trash after a day’s protest all indicate the lack of awareness of what is at stake. For a government with authoritarian tendencies, it’s surprising how much room has been allowed the burgeoning protesters to express their grievances. This is a government that only last year, tried to stifle free speech with an egregious social media bill. This government also reared its authoritarian head this year during the Covid lockdown with an equally egregious infectious diseases bill. Also, one doesn’t need to mention the police bill that garnered a lot of bad press just weeks before this series of protests.
The romanticization of the protests by this youthful population has shifted the focus from what could really be the revolution that this sort of mobilization deserves- the opportunity to ask for a total overhaul of rotten systems- to an avenue to take photos and tell unborn children stories. Protesters should look to Hong-Kong for lessons on how to protest and sustain this momentum for as long as possible.
