#EndSARS: A Triangle Analysis -By Muhammad Abdulrazak

Nigeria, the most populous black nation on the planet- earth is witnessing what I termed ‘the beginning of the end.’ With battling economic woes battered by the effects of the coronavirus (covid19) pandemic and insecurity, the government seems to be on the verge of losing its support from youths who amount to over 50% of the country’s population. In recent weeks, the country’s publicity grew through social media via a hashtag ‘EndSARS’ which was a slogan that sought the government’s attention to abolish, ban and end activities of a ‘notorious’ police unit that has earned publicity and reputation through the brutality of innocent civilians.

Going down memory lane, vandalization of oil facilities, kidnapping, and armed robbery were the major security concerns of the country in the 90s. In response to the security challenges as at then, the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) was created in late 1992 by the then Lagos State Commissioner of Police -Simeon Danladi Midenda during the service tenure of Inspector General of Police Aliyu Attah who served between 1990 to 1993. History has it that before the birth of SARS in Lagos State, Nigeria, the commissioner Simeon Danladi Midenda responded to illicit deviant activities such as vehicle theft, kidnapping, armed robbery, cattle rustling, and unlawful use of firearms which was as a result of a conflict between the Lagos police force and the military over the killing of a military colonel by police officers. The conflict however left the state to the lawless hands of deviant civilians who took advantage of the absence of police on the streets.

The activities of SARS as at the time of its inception gave people hope that they were in safe hands. Looking at what SARS had achieved in Lagos, the need to move at the national level became eminent. With time, officers of the SARS who were underpaid and denied welfare packages allegedly decided to re-create the problems which they were made to fight against. They were alleged to have been into the practice of extrajudicial killing, extortion, blackmail, framing, rape, home invasion, invasion of properties, and torturing innocent civilians among others.

An alarm was raised in respect of the activities of the officers who were ununiformed, dressed almost indifferent to thugs by the aggrieved people. In 2017, 2018, and 2019 respectively, the government claimed to have suspended the activities of SARS but the unit kept resurfacing until 2020.

The 2020 alarm emanated via social media ( precisely Twitter and Facebook) with a hashtag ‘EndSARS’. The alarm was picked but the government kept mum until the youths took to the streets of Lagos and Abuja respectively. Placards kept waving with messages, musicians, comedians and other celebrities including some politicians in the country waded their support to EndSARS. The massage became clear that the government had to suspend the activities of SARS on 11th October 2020. The presidency made the announcement abolishing SARS and redeploying officers of the defunct unit in a tweet via its Twitter handle @NGRPresident saying ”the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Nigeria police force @PoliceNG has been dissolved WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT. The Inspector-General of Police will communicate further developments in this regard”. At that time, the world thought Nigeria would have peace since SARS had been abolished which means that protesters’ demand had been paid off. The same day SARS was abolished, a new unit was announced to take over as a reformed unit with salary scale review in motion and other welfare packages. The government went further to explain to the public that no member of the disbanded SARS be selected into the new unit -the Special Weapon And Tactics ( SWAT) Unit.

In the turn of events, protesters that were meant to return to their respective homes remained on the streets with other demands. They demanded to end bad governance, end the new tactical unit SWAT among other demands. The protest grew momentum in no time. More youths from other states joined. Despite leaving other members of the public confused and wondering what the EndSARS protest was all about, a lot more people continued to join. At this time, there was support from within and outside Nigeria including a Hacktivist group ‘Anonymous’ who shut down many government websites in solidarity with the protest.

With the protest carrying one of its demands as to end President Muhammad Buhari’s governance among other demands that threatened his position, it began to record set back as youths from the Northern state folded their hands towards the call. Additionally, the North independently felt threatened that ‘one of theirs’ was threatened, hence they viewed the protest as a one-sided protest. In this event, two things were viewed, the issues of the security challenges in the North and the Anti-government group in support of a revolution in Nigeria. It would interest you to know that Northern Nigeria has a long history of insecurity that has spread wide its territory connecting Borno, Adamawa, Taraba, Yobe, Gombe, Bauchi, Kano, Kaduna, Jos, Katsina, and Zamfara states with hundreds of lives lost over the years among which are children, women, adult civilians, and security forces. The north is still trying to survive the long reign and hardship imposed by Bokoharam insurgents, bandits, and cattle rustlers. Attacks are bey carried out on daily basis against innocent civilians in the north and yet, no protest witnessed. Hence the Northern youths seized the opportunity to protest what they felt was their problem but not to EndSARS. The latter which was of the Anti-government group that wanted revolution hijacked the EndSARS protest with their agenda. Despite having quite a number of people in support of the revolution demands, a larger percentage disagreed.

Revolutions are never planned, they happen without the organizers’ knowledge. They mostly start with a peaceful protest and end with a blood bath, destruction of lives, and properties. Countries that witnessed revolution never planned for it. It happened and if they could turn back time, they would. Before 2011, Egypt, Bahrain, and Libya never thought their countries would be covered in Chaos. Look at what they have become now! From a peaceful protest, the countries have parts held by rebel / anti-government forces leaving the populace devasted with deaths recorded on daily basis. Additionally, the Libya civil war that started in 2011 also started as a peaceful protest on social media to a peaceful gathering of protesters at the country’s capital. Now, would you believe the Libya of 2010 is the Libya of today? Ever since the protest had become a violent one with rebel forces killing Muammar Gaddafi, there has been chaos and no calm anticipated anytime soon. Let us take a look at a close neighbour -Sudan, whose conflict in South Kordofan and the Blue Nile as a result of a peaceful protest. People are still dying! The Yemen civil war that started in 2015 to date was a result of a peaceful protest turned violent one.

More so, Nigerians calling for revolution should have studied the trend of protests turned violent in 2020 alone before the EndSARS protest. In 2020 alone, there were four huge protests before the EndSARS. The Belarusian protest, Thai protest, Kyrgyzstan, and the most talked of among them, George Floyd’s. If memory serves me right, on the 25th May 2020, a 46years old father of one, a black American lost his life to police brutality after a police officer allegedly knelt on his neck for 8mins 15seconds. This sparked protest all over the world with a hashtag ‘BlackLivesMatter’. The protest which seemed peaceful became violent in some part of the US and UK. The US president is still struggling with the impact of that protest and his response during the protests in America’s general elections.

Furthermore, let us take a look at the Sharia protest in Kaduna state in the year 2000 which has taken thousands of lives, left properties destroyed, emotions battered, a lot of survivors amputated, psychologically unbalanced, and peaceful ties Shattered. The protests started as a peaceful protest on the morning of 21st February 2000 against the establishment of Sharia law in the state.
The protesters who were predominantly Christians and of which occupy almost half of the state’s population met with Muslims who were in support of the law. The story changed after that meet. Over a thousand lives were lost from what started as a mere peaceful protest and show of displeasure over the government’s decision. More to that, the crisis did not stop there, on 22nd May 2000, there was another break of law and order in respect of the Sharia and left about Five thousand lives lost from both sides. The Kaduna that was once a hub for peace where a Muslim could join a Christian celebrate Christmas and other memorable events mutually, became a separated state where Muslims and Christians have different communities they call theirs. This is all because a peaceful protest turned violent. Kaduna is still battling with the negative effect of that protest.
In the event that the EndSARS protest continued to metamorphose into a violent one, something shocking happened in the LEKKI area of Lagos on the 20th of October 2020 that threatened humanity and freedom of the people. On that fateful night, protesters defied the curfew imposed by the Lagos State governor Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu barricading the Lekki tollgate in the state. Officers of the Nigeria Army were alleged to have opened fire on the protesters. Despite having setbacks in the reportage of the incident where unprofessionalism, sensationalism and the concept of yellow journalism put forward, Nigerians, in the spirit of oneness spoke out to criticize the inhuman act.

The unity of Nigeria is one which had over time been viewed as a broken yet, active system through the phrase ‘ unity in diversity’. The EndSARS has brought different ethnoreligious groups together to act as one Nigeria. Who would ever believe that a Hausa Muslim hijab-wearing woman could someday be at the forefront of a protest? All that mattered to those behind her was that they were all fighting for the same cause and not an ethnic or religious one. Different delicacies were shared freely among protesters without minding the religious or ethnic affiliations. Over the years, religious clerics have caused division among people of different faiths with a pursued personal motive. Nigerian politicians also through the concept of divide and rule have incited violence among different ethnic groups for their gains.

Now that the protests have come to a halt in Nigeria, the end result of the EndSARS protest is still manifesting. With looting as one of the foremost of all, violence and destruction of business offices, carting away with important properties of clients and business owners left people nothing different from the SARS they want to end. However, the notion that states ‘any nation that ignores the welfare and well-being of its youths is banking on its eventual extinction ‘ is one that cannot be refuted. The government ignored its youths through the inadequate provision of the needful for them to go back to their classrooms, lack of job opportunities amongst others. In defense of the government, one may say social investment programs such as the NPower and other financial distribution platforms were put in place for the youth. Have the youths really benefited? More so, the aftermath of the EndSARS protest has revealed that the government at the federal level has kept the end of its bargain. Who then is sabotaging the federal government’s effort? Between the 21st and 26th of October 2020, warehouses that hoarded food items that were meant to cushion the effects of hunger asserted by the covid19 pandemic were sacked by the public in different states. It would be remembered that the minister for humanitarian affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development- Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouk claimed to have distributed all palliatives to respective states. Her statement generated an uproar among the populace seeing her as the wolf in sheep’s clothing. The vindication of the minister came after warehouses were found and people gave themselves free passage to take what was meant for them.

Nigeria has come a long way; different challenges at different times! Nigerians are survivors; they always did. This trying time will also pass and glory songs shall continue to echo. The unity of this country is unshakeable. It didn’t break in 1953, hence, it won’t break in 2020. To put my pad to rest, I would say the #EndSARS protest has cleared the dust in our eyes; to see that Nigeria can prosper better united than divided. Those blowing trumpets of war through revolution and violent protests will be put to shame. Nigeria knows them! The victory that came with the abolishment of SARS is youth-driven. One which was driven by the compassionate love for the country to prosper and not suffer. Indeed, this is the beginning of the end!

MUHAMMAD ABDULRAZAK
talk2abdul009@gmail.com
Gombe State, Nigeria